Writers highlight the challenge of science literature in Kannada

‘It is not that people do not want to read science in the local language, but the market forces do not allow science to be published in the language,’ says Kollegala Sharma.
| Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K

There is a glaring absence of science books, textbooks and resources in Indian languages, with Kannada being no exception. Lack of encouragement for scientific writing in Kannada, language barrier in scientific terminology, and the prevailing educational system play a huge role in this, say Kannada science writers from across the State.  

“We do not have many original science writers in Kannada. It is not that people do not want to read science in the local language, but the market forces do not allow science to be published in the language. There are quite a few senior writers like Palahalli Vishwanath, Nagesh Hegde and Syndey Srinivas who have been writing on science in Kannada, but as someone who has been in the field of science for four decades, I have not come across too many young writers who are keen on writing science literature in Kannada,” says Kollegala Sharma, a popular Kannada science writer and a senior science communicator.

Pointing to a unique problem in Kannada, he says that there is confusion, in fact more a controversy, on whether to use Sanskrit or Kannada words for scientific terms or retain some of them as they exist in English. “So, there is also a lack of authors who write readable science text in Kannada,” Sharma says.

Another issue is the lack of science textbooks in Kannada, says Sharma. “When it comes to textbooks, it is not correct to say that Kannada medium education is not there. Up to 10th standard, we have at least 50% of students passing in Kannada medium. But, for higher studies, that is after pre-university level, we do not have textbooks in Kannada. Even if there are Kannada science textbooks available for the school and college levels, they are mostly NCERT textbooks that are translated to Kannada, which is again not readable. If you look at the total population, about 80% of people do not have access to science information because of this,” he adds. 

Similarly, Vishwa Keerthi, a Kannada science writer who has contributed to many newspapers and magazines, also feels that the higher education system, having English as a medium of instruction, plays a huge role in Kannada Science books not doing well. “Science writers are not very keen on learning scientific terms in Kannada. For many of them, it is hard to write and explain concepts and theories in Kannada. This is because there is a lack of connection with Kannada literature. If you are someone who has grown up reading Kannada literature or has developed an interest in Kannada literature, it makes it much easier to write science literature,” he adds. 

However, Keerthi says that readership for Kannada science literature does exist. “When I started writing I had no idea how many people read my work. I would get calls from remote districts in the state, and teachers from those districts said that their students had read my work. To that extent writing science in Kannada is helping many, but it needs to reach a larger pool of readers,” he explains.