APPENDIX M- REPORT OF THE REFERENCE BOARD ON SCIENTIFIC TERMINOLOGY
The Report of the Meeting of the Reference Board of Scientific Terminology held at Bangalore on the 31st May, 1947 is annexed. This report has been forwarded to the Provincial Government and Universities for their views, on receipt of which further action will be taken.
Report of the meeting of the Reference Board of scientific terminology held at Bangalore on the 31st May, 1947
At their 7th meeting held in 1942, the Central Advisory Board of Education in Pursuance of a recommendation of the Scientific terminology Committee, apPointed a Board of Reference to deal with all questions regarding the grouping of Indian Languages according to their natural affinities and issues arising in connection with the adoption of scientific as well as technical terms in those languages. The Reference Board was constituted as follows :-
1. Sir A. Fazl-ur-Rahman, LL.D., B.A. (Oxon) Chairman).
2. Dr. Abdul Haq, B. Litt., Ph.D. (Oxon), Secretary,
Anjuman-e-Tarraqqi-e-Urdu, Delhi.
3. Sir S. S. Bhatnagar, O.B.E., D.Sc., F. Inst. P.,
F.I.C., Director of Scientific and Industrial Research.
4. Prof. Suniti Kumar Chetterjee, M.A., D. Litt., Head of
the Deptt. of Comparative Philology, Calcutta
University.
5. Sir C. V. Raman, M.A., D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S., N.L., Head
of the Deptt. of Physics, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore.
The Board could not meet for some time on acconnt of the illness of the Chairman. Later on he died and the Chairman of the Central Advisory Board, on the authority given to him by that Board, appointed Sir A. Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras, as Chairman of the Reference Board.
2. The Board met at Bangalore on the 31st May, 1947. The following members were present
1. Sir Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar. (Chairman).
2. Dr. Abdul Haq.
3. Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee.
4. Sir C. V. Raman.
Sir Jnan Chandra Ghosh, Director, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore was present by invitation.
Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, Director of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi was unable to be present.
Dr. Akhtar Hussain, D. Litt. (Paris), Assistant Educational Advisor to the Govt. of India, acted as Secretary to the Board.
3. The Board had before them the Report of the Scientific Terminology Committee as well as the subsequent decisions of the Central Advisory Board of Education on the subject. They noted that the Central Advisory Board had given them discretion in the matter of grouping of Indian Languages etc. The agenda is appended. (Vide Sub-Annexure A.).
4. The Board took note of the fact that certain Universities had already given the option to examinees to answer examination papers in the Indian Languages. This, in view of the absence of adequate and accepted scientific terminology in the language concerned, had created a difficult situation., In the first place the examiners had no idea of the correct terminology to be used in question papers
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and various improvised methods of instruction were in vogue. The Board, there fore, considered it urgent to have this problem tackled from a practical point of view, for the benefit of the students as well as the readers of popular literature. At the same time, they considered it necessary not to place our students and scientists at a greater disadvantage than those in other countries in the matter of making world scientific literature easily avilable to them and also in making the work of Indian scientists available to scientists abroad. In this connection, the Board were informed that the bulk of the scientific words used in the major European Languages were, in fact, international in character. Therefore, the Board were of opinion that well known scientific terms already in use in the Indian Languages with specific and unambiguous meanings and forming an intergral part of the language should continue to be used, whereas for other scientific words, the international terminology should be incorporated. Such scientific terminology should deal not only with the names of objects met within the field of science but should also cover scientific processes. This will simplify the problem for the future when new scientific words are bound to be coined in the different parts of the world, including India.
5. Looking at the problem again from the practical point of view, the Board considered it important that adequate literature on scientific matters should be made available urgently in the different Indian Languages, as they were of the opinion that any extension of this transitional stage in the use of secintific terminology was very harmful to the students and the progress of science in the country. The Board considered it necessary to translate important "classical" works in the field of science and modem popular books on scientific subjects into the modern Indian Languages using the International terminology, where the language concerned has no well-established original equivalent. Such work should appropriately be entrusted to paid personnel and the Board recommended that the Govt. of India should take the initiative in the matter and proceed with the work. This was necessary In view of the fact that languages extended beyond Provincial boundaries and also in view of the need for a uniform practice in using selected International Terminology, where necessary, in all the languages. To supervise and approve such work, the Board made recommendations for the appoinment of Regional and Sub- Committees.
6. The formal resolution adopted by the Board is given below:-
(1) The Board are of opinion that while due note should be taken of such scientific terms as have been used and are well known in the different languages and also have a specific and unambiguous connotation, so far as new terms are concerned, it is desirable to adopt international scientific terminology with such suffixes and prefixes as may be needed by particular languages. It may be that in some languages, there is a greater abundance of well established scientific terms than in others. In these cases such terms may be retained.
The Board are of opinion that immediate steps should be taken to appoin qualified persons, on a paid basis, to undertake the translation of standard scientific publications, including modem popular books on scientific subjects, incorporating international scientific terms, so that they may serve as models for similar Publications in the Indian languages. In the selection of personnel for such work. it is necessary to have the assistance of both scientists and linguists and they should be given a directive to follow the general principles laid down above. It is also desirable that a list of international scientific terms should be prepared with the cooperation of scientists and, should be forwarded to the various regional committes proposed below. The mere preparation of a glossery of scientific term will not, in the opinion of the Board to be useful to the extent to which publications using the term would, in the acceleration of the production of scientific literature in the languages, conncerned. The classical and modern popular books in science to be translated should be selected on the recommendation of minent scientists in the field. It is desirable that the set of books selected should roadly over the whole field of each of the major sciences.
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(2) For the purpose stated above, it is suggested that there should be constituted five Regional Committees as follows:-
1. Southern Group: To deal with Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.
2. Western Group: To deal with Gujrati and Maharati.
3. Eastern Group: To deal with Bengali, Assamese and Oriya.
4. Central Group: To deal with Urdu, Hindi, Hindustani and Punjabi.
5. North Western Group: To deal with Sindhi, Pushto and Kashmiri.
These Regional Committees should be empowered to appoint sub- committees to deal with each of the constituent languages. The areas outside the particular groups which are, interested in a language to be dealt with by the Regional Committee for that group may sent a representative or representatives to the sub-committee concerned. The Regional Committees should consist of scientists and linguists who are representatives of the universities, provinces and states in the region concerned. Representation should also be given on these committees to the leading learned and literary organisations in the regions. The Chairman of each sub-committee will be a member of the parent regional committee. The sub-committees should proceed to work on the lines laid down by the regional committees and should submit their reports to the regional committees.
(3) The Board endorses the suggestions made by Mr. B. N. Seal, regarding symbolic systems in Paragraph 4 (vi) and 4 (vii) of his note on page 13 of the Report of the Scientific Terminology Committee, 1941.
(4) The Board are of opinion that the setting up of Regional Committees and the appointment of personnel for translation work should be referred by the Govt. of India to this Reference Board for their final decision.
7. A letter of dissent received from Dr. Abdul Haq, regarding the above resolution is appended below Sub-Annexure B.
SUB ANNEXURE A
AGENDA. 1. To consider the grouping of modem Indian Languages in connection with the question of the development of uniform scientific terminology in the country.
2. To consider the functions and personnel of the expert sub- committees to be appointed for -each group under item 1 above.
3. To consider any other matter that may be relevant to the terms of reference to the Central Board of Reference on Scientific Terminology in India.
SUB ANNEXURE B Letter dated the 9th June, 1947, from Anjuman-e-Tarraqqi-e-Urdu (Hind), 1, Daryagunj, Delhi, to the Secretary, Central Advisory Board of Education, Govt. of India, New Delhi.
With reference to the draft resolution of the meeting of the Central Board of Reference on Scientific Terminology, held at Bangalore on the 31st May, last a copy of which has been kindly sent to me, I beg to say that I do not agree with the regional distribution as given in para 2 of the resolution and I suggest that the fourth and fifth groups of regions should be renamed and redistributed as follows :-
4. Central and North-Eastern Group : To deal with Hindi and Hindustani.
5. North-Western Group: To deal with Punjabi, Urdu, Sindhi, Pushto and Kashmiri.
I beg to say in this connection that by linking together Sindhi, Pushto and Kashmiri the only common factor can be Urdu and nothing else. Urdu is commonly used in Kashmir, both in educational institutions and Offices. It is the official language of the N.W.F.P. and is taught in schools and also of Sind, whose proposed
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University will have Urdu as its medium of instruction. Thus, a regional committee for Punjabi, Urdu, Sindhi, Pushto and Kashmiri will serve the porpose while a sub-division of this group will create complications and hamper work, besides being uncalled for. If this is not done, I do not understand how languages like Pushto, Sindhi and Kashmiri will be linked up in their common terminology.
I hope you will please put up this note with the resolution for consideration