APPENDIX T- REVISION OF UNIFORM INDIAN BRAILLE
The attached report (Annexure I) of the Expert Braille Committee appointed by the Central Advisory Board of Education, is submitted to the Board for consideration and approval.
2. The report explains the circumstances in which the Uniform Indian Braille has had to be revised in order to bring it in conformity with the recommendations of the International Braille Conference held under the auspices of Unesco earlier this year. This Braille has now been re-named "Braille Bharati" or "Indian Braille". The revised chart is also attached (Annexure II)
ANNEXURE I Report of the Expert Braille Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education on the Revision of Indian Braille in the light of UNESCO's Recommendations.
The Central Advisory Board of Education appointed an Expert Braille Committee to go, into the question of devising a system of Uniform Indian Braille for the whole country. This Committee submitted a report which was accepted by the Central Advisory. Board of Education at its meeting held at Karachi in January, 1945. The matter was further examined by the Board at its meeting in Bombay in 1947 at which it reiterated the earlier decision to, adopt the Uniform Indian Braille drawn up by the Expert Committee. How. ever, following discussions with experts in this country and abroad, the Government of India in April 1949 requested UNESCO to investigate the possibility of a single code for the whole world. The Director-General accepted the Indian suggestion and placed it on the agenda of the fourth session of the UNESCO General Conference.
The Expert Committee on Uniform Indian Braille at its meeting held in July 1949 welcomed the Government of India's reference of the Braille question to UNESCO and made recommendations in that connection as given in Annexure III.
The fourth session of the UNESCO General Conference held in Paris in September 1949 considered the Government of India's suggestion and adopted the following resolution:-
"The Director-General is instructed to study the world Braille situation and with the advice of a competent committee, to organize an
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international conference with a view to agreeing on certain international principles which would allow the greatest degree of uniformity in Braille and improve its rationalization and develop its extension. Such regional discussions as may later prove necessary Should subsequently be organized by the Secretariat."
In accordance with this resolution the Director-General appointed as Advisory Committee on Braille Problems which met in Paris in December, 1949. India was represented on this Committee by Dr. S. K. Chatterji. The Committee after studying the world Braille situation came to the unanimous conclusion that it was possible to evolve a World Braille and adopted a series of recommendations, for consideration by the International Conference -which was proposed to be held in 1950. (See Annexure IV).
The recommendations of the Advisory Committee were considered at the meeting of the Expert Braille Committee held in February, 1950. The Committee expressed the view that the Indian delegation to the International Braille Conference to be held in Paris in March 1950 should go into the matter with an open mind and their approach to the problem should be objective and unbiassed". Further, the Committee felt that some of the recommendations of the Advisory Committee required further investigation before a final decision could be taken. (Annexure V).
The International Braille Conference was held in Paris from the 20th to the 29th March 1950. it was attended by linguists, Braillists and workers for the blind from thirteen countries including China, Japan, Malaya, Ceylon, Pakistan and India. Dr. S. K. Chatterji, Mr. P. M. Advani and Mr. Lal Advani were. invited by the UNESCO to attend the Conference. The Government of India nominated Mr. K. B. Padamanabhan, first Secretary to the Indian Embassy, Paris to attend the conference as an observer.
The Conference resolved unanimously that it was both,desirable and practicable to have a world Braille system. The recommendations of the Conference and the joint report of the Indian Delegation are given in Annexure VI.
The Expert Committee met again in June, 1950, to consider the recommendations of the International Braille Conference. The Committee expressed general agreement with these recommendations and requested the Government of India to ascertain the views of all institutions for the blind in the country before undertaking the revision of Uniform- Indian Braille in the light, of UNESCO's recommendations. An over- whelming majority of institutions for the Blind in the, country have since expressed. themselves, in favour of revising Indian Braille in the light of UNESCO's recommendations.
The Expert Braille Committee had in its meeting of June 1950 also asked its individual members to prepare provisional charts (Annexure VII). A Sub-Committee consisting of Dr. S. K. Chatterji, Messrs R. M. Alpaiwala and P. M. Advani met in New Delhi from the 2nd to the 5th October, 1950, and prepared a draft chart in the light of the recommendations of the UNESCO Conference, UNESCO's Comparative Table of International Phonetic Association's symbols and World Braille signs and a Tentative Chart for India and South East Asia prepared by UNESCO. All these charts were considered by the Committee at its meeting held on the 6th and 7th October, 1950 and after
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due consideration, a chart of Indian Braille was prepared -which, according to the Committee, meets the requirements of Indian Languages and at the same time conforms to the principles which were laid down by the International Braille Conference held under the auspices of the UNESCO.
The Expert Committee, therefore, recommends that the Central Advisory Board may approve of the Chart prepared by them and recommend to the Government of India that necessary steps may be taken for setting up the Press to prepare books in this Code.
The Expert Committee also recommends that the Braille Code as now revised may be called the "Braille Bharati", that is, "Indian Braille".
ANNEXURE II.
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ANNEXURE III Proceedings of the Expert Braille Committee held on the 19th and 20th July, 1949.
A meeting of the Expert Braille Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education was held in the Committee Room `B' North Block, Central Secretariat- New Delhi, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 19th and 20th July, 1949. The following were present :-
1. Dr. Tara Chand, M.A., D.Phil.,
Secretary, Ministry of Education. (Chairman).
2. Prof. Humayun Kabir, M.A. (Oxon), Joint Secretary, Ministry of Education.
3. Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, M.A., D.Lit.
4. Prof. Md. Mujib, B.A. (Oxon), (Substitute for Dr. Abid Hussain, M. A., Ph. D.).
5. Mr. P. M. Advani, M.A., B. Se.
*6. Mr. R. M. Alpaiwalla, Bar-at-Law.
*7. Prof. N. N. Sen Gupta, M.A.
8. Rev. M. C. Langton, M.A.
9. Mr. K. Bhattacharjee, B.A. (Gallaudet, U.S.A.).
*10. Miss MeC Moortri.
*Blind Members.
Dr. R. M. Halder, Assistant Educational Adviser to the Government of India, Ministry of Education, acted as the Secretary to the Committee.
The Chairman welcomed the members and gave a brief outline of the past activities of the Committee and the purpose of the present meeting
After the Chairman's introductory speech, Mr. R. M. Alpaiwalla from Bombay rose to say that he wag-opposed to the principle of Uniform Indian Braille and would therefore dissociate himself from Consideration of constructive suggestions for its improvement. He also wished to register a protest. against the procedure adopted in circulating relevant papers to the members of the Committee. The Chairman agreed to record the fact that Mr. Alpaiwalla was fundamentally opposed to Uniform Indian Braille.
Item I, on the Agenda.-(To review the progress made in implementing the recommendations made by the Expert Committee at its last meeting held in June, 1947.)
The Chairman briefly reviewed the progress made in implementing the recommendations made by the Expert Committee at its last meeting held in July, 1947. He mentioned that a part of the machinery for the proposed Braille Printing Press had already arrived in the country and that the remaining part was expected shortly. He added that the candidate selected by the Federal Public Service Commission for the post of Manager for the Braille Printing Press was expected to process shortly to the United States of America for training in Braille printing He also stated that the Braille Printing Press was expected to start functioning by the middle of 1950.
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At this stage, the Chairman left the meeting and nominated Mr. Humayun Kabir to act is Chairman in his absence.
Item II in the Agenda.-(To consider two reports on Uniform Indian Braille and Standard Indian _Braille prepared by Prof,J. R. Firth and Miss E. M. Evans of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. and Mr. J. R. Jarvis (Blind), Assistant Secretary of the National Institute for the Blind.)
I. The general principle of dropping the inherent short vowel (a) as recommended by Prof. Firth, Miss Evans and Mr. Jarvis was accepted by the Committee, but it was suggested that the various difficulties caused by this change should be borne in mind at the time of framing rules for reading and writing Uniform Indian Braille. The following resolution was passed on the subject :-
"That the proposal to emit inherent vowel `a' with its consequent changes be accepted but that each language area should be free to adopt it in either Grade I or Grade II provided only that it must be introduced to the student before a second-language is taught". (Miss MeC Moortri voted against this resolution).
Miss Moortri suggested that the short vowel `e' and V of the Dravidian group of languages should be removed from the 5th line to somewhere in the first line or the second line. But the Sub-Committee could not agree to this suggestion as, it would have seriously upset the present arrangement of Uniform Indian Braille.
2. It was agreed that the Braille text should as far as possible conform to that used by the sighted.
3. After some formal discussion the Committee felt that further examination of the actual allocation of symbols was necessary. A Sub- Committee consisting of (1) Dr. S. K. Chatterji, (2) Mr. K. Bhattacharjee, (3) Mr. P. M. Advani and (4) Prof. Md. Mujib, was formed for the purpose and directed to present their report to the general Committee when it met in the afternoon on the 20th July, 1949.
4. The Sub-Committee considered the allocation of the-signs of fifth, sixth and seventh lines of Braille and suggested certain modifications. The report, of the Sub-Committee was presented to the Expert Committee at its meeting on the 20th July, 1949 and accepted. The modifications recommended by the Expert Committee would be incorporated in a revised report on Uniform Indian Braille.
5. It was resolved to convey to Prof. J. R. Firth, Miss E. Al. Evans and Mr, J.E. Jarvis, the appreciation of the Expert Committee for their valuable suggestions concerning Uniform Indian Braille.
Item III on the Agenda.-(To consider rules for writing Uniform Indian Braille).
It was decided that the rules for writing in Uniform Indian Braille should be framed by the Ministry of Education as soon as possible in the light of the new principles accepted by the Expert Committee.
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Item IV or the Agenda.-(To consider the principles which should guide the planning of a simple primer for the teaching of Uniform Indian Braille.)
The following resolution was passed on this item
"This Committee recommends that an expert Braillist be commissioned to prepare primers in co-operation with experts of different language groups.
Item V on the Agenda.-(To consider if work for devising suitable contractions for Uniform Indian Braille should be taken up at this stage.)
The following resolution was passed on this item:-
"The Committee resolved that contractions may be worked out in different linguistic areas and forwarded to the Expert Committee for consideration."
Item VI on the Agenda.-(To consider the principles which should guide the drawing up of a Standard Braille Music notation for India.)
It was decided that the Ministry of Education- should examine the Standard Braille Music Notation for Western Music with a view to ascertaining how far it could meet the needs of Indian music. It was also decided that the various institutions for the blind should also be asked to examine the Standard Braille Music Notation for Western music.
Item VII on the Agenda.-(To consider what attitude the Govt. of India should adopt towards the movements for evolving a Uni- fied Braille, Code for the world.)
In a brief statement the acting Chairman traced the circumstances in which the Government of India requested UNESCO to explore the possibility of evolving a unified Braille code for the world. The Committee expressed satisfaction at the Government of India's initiative in this matter and passed the following resolution:-
"This Expert Committee on Uniform Indian Braille, having worked out a Braille Code for all Indian languages belonging to the Dravidian and Indo-European groups, the last written either in Indo-Aryan or in Persi-Arabic scripts, and keeping to the principle that, in order that the blind may feel at home among the sighted of their community, the Braille code should enable them to reproduce as nearly as possible the writing of the sighted using the same language. note with pleasure that the Government of India have referred the wider question of the world uniformity of Braille to the UNESCO.
They hold that, even if all the world languages adopted rational phonetic orthographies, it would not be possible to have, a Uniform World Braille based upon the `one sign/one sound principle'., so long as 63 is the limit of the number of signs available. But the UNESCO could use its influence to bring about such uniformity as is possible in the world use of Braille particularly in mathematical, Scientific. and artistic regions, where uniformity among the sighted
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already exists. They note with regret that even in the matter of punctuations and arithmetical signs, the two leading Braille Systems, the French and the English, differ and make it difficult for those who are evolving new Braille codes to work for uniformity.
The Committee further feel that where new language scripts are being evolved, as in China and some parts of Africa, the alphabets devised should be arranged on a rational basis as obtained in India, to enable such areas to have uniform codes with larger linguistic regions in preparation for such time as the whole world could have a world-script for both the sighted and the blind.
With this end in view, the Committee request the Government of India to forward the Uniform Indian Braille, as finally worked out by them and accepted by the Government for use in school% for the blind in the Indian Union, to the UNESCO to serve as a model in all areas where Braille is in the process of development."
The Committee requested the Chairman to forward the Resolution to UNESCO for its consideration.
Item VIII on the Agenda.-(To consider any other important item, permitted by the Chair.)
Prof. N. N. Sen Gupta had notice of the following resolution which was accepted by the Committee :-
"This Committee recommend to the Government of India to consider the appointment of one or two specially trained inspectors who will regularly inspect different institutions of the blind and report to the Government regarding their activities and improvement."
The meeting terminated with a vote of thanks to the Chair.
The following is the text of Mr. R. M. Alpaiwalla's note of dissent:-
"While in the Expert Committee Report suggestions, criticism, objections etc. were invited for the consideration of the Committee, and while some important suggestions, criticisms, objections etc. relating to the Uniform Indian Braille of the Expert Committee were made by the Blind Men's Association, the First Provincial Conference of the Blind and other institutions and sent to the Ministry of Education, Central Government e.g. soon after the Report was made available to the public, I find from the report in Item No. I of the Agenda that no serious difficulties have been pointed out. Since important suggestions, objections, criticisms, difficulties etc. were in fact presented as stated above and are with-held from the Expert Committee who is to judge the difficulties etc., it appears that some other authority than the Expert Committee is judging as to what difficulties etc. are to be presented to the Expert Committee and what not and that thus only partial facts are presented to the Expert Committee and other withheld. I am further inform- ed only yesterday that the deliberations of the Expert Committee at its forthcoming meeting will be confined to the consideration of constructive suggestions for the improvement of the Uniform Indian Braille. I beg to record my protest against this procedure and dissociate myself from any constructive work relating to the Uniform Indian Braille as I am against the fundamental principles of the Uniform Indian Braille and regard those principles as founded in sand."