The India Centre
Webinars
SANSKRIT, LINGUISTICS AND AI By GIRISH NATH JHA
The talk, while presenting the nuances of Indian multilingual situations, will focus on similarity of methods used in Sanskrit grammar, Linguistics and AI. In this context, there will be a presentation of the contributions of Panini, Saussure and Chomsky leading to the emergence of computational linguistics and AI. The National Education Policy of India launched in 2020 lays special emphasis on Mother Tongue education which poses real implementation challenges considering the multitude of languages and speech communities in India. While discussing the challenges posed by educating the millions in India, requirements of a flexible, scalable and cost-effective AI will be presented. The talk will survey the work being done in this area and will present implementation challenges and suggest solutions for designing, developing and deploying smart systems for delivering multilingual content.
The Nature of Endangerment in India: Tigers, 'Tribes', Extermination & Conservation, 1818-2020
Perhaps no category of people on earth has been perceived as more endangered, nor subjected to more preservation efforts, than indigenous peoples. And in India, calls for the conservation of Adivasi culture have often reached a fever pitch, especially amongst urban middle-class activists and global civil society groups. But are India’s ‘tribes’ really endangered? Do they face extinction? And is this threat somehow comparable to the threat of extinction facing tigers and other wildlife? The talk combines years of fieldwork and archival research with intensive theoretical interrogations-about what is perceived to be the fundamental question for nearly all indigenous peoples in the modern world: the question of survival.