Sindhi in Cyberspace

Sindhi in Cyberspace  

The dawn of 21st century saw Sindhi as a Computer language. Sindhi now is communicable on the Internet, thanks to the persistent efforts by Sindhi experts of Information Technology (IT) here in Sindh, and abroad.

The evolution and development of Sindhi has a long history. Prior to 1866 when Ernest Trumpp published Shah-Jo-Risalo through Lithography from Liepzig, Germany, Sindhi was only a hand-written language. The Sindhi Type writer was invented in 1926, and for the first time a page of Sindhi words composed on computerized typesetting came out from a laser printer in 1987. By 2002, Sindhi became a language of computer and Internet.

Notes: Language Issue in former East Pakistan One-Unit Anti-One Unit struggle Sindhi Language Bill 1972 – Language riots -Turmoil Bhutto dethroned, executed on April 4, 1979 MRD movement of 1983 Carnage of 1988 (Sept 30, Oct 1) Water War – 1990-99 (drought and famine) Sindhi Language Authority – 1991

By the year 1983, a Line Editor was structured on computer in Sindhi by an IT expert Mr Javed Laghari in MS DOS. Although, it was a pioneering work for Sindhi Computing, yet it had a limited utility. In 1987-88, the Sindhi Word Processor and the Desktop Printing in Sindhi was introduced on Macintosh PC by yet another Sindhi IT expert Mr Majid Bhurgri. As a result of such endeavour, first time a page containing Sindhi words came out of a Laser Printer in 1987.

With it started the Typesetting practice for the benefit of newspapers and magazines in Sindhi. The first such Typeset column appeared in the Sindhi Daily Hilal-e-Pakistan, Karachi in 1987 for the first time. In 1988, the pioneer of Sindhi Typesetting (Bhurgri) announced his achievement in a press conference. Following it, as a second instance, the Sindhi Section of a magazine ‘Naqoosh’ appeared with Computer Typesetting. Later on, some other Sindhi magazines such as ‘Paroor’, ‘Paras’, ‘Sughariun Sath’, ‘Sindh Sujag’, ‘Sha-oor’ and ‘Halchal’ were also published with computerised typesetting. In 1989, the first Sindhi newspaper Daily ‘Awami Awaz’, Karachi was published with Computer Typesetting. The other Sindhi dailies such as ‘Kawish’, ‘Hilal-e-Pakistan’ and ‘Aftab’ followed the suit.

In the second phase, about a dozen Typefaces were prepared in Sindhi (by Majid Bhurgri) which were named as ‘Majidi’, ‘Latifi’, ‘Sarmast’, ‘Khursheed”, ‘Nargisi’, ‘Basit’, ‘Musawwir’, ‘Moomal’, ‘Sarang’ and ‘Makli’ etc. They are still in use on Macintosh Computer.

By now, the Microsoft Windows had attained multi-lingual capability on IBM Compatible Computer. Taking advantage of such a scientific advancement, another Sindhi IT expert Ayaz Shah succeeded in implementing Sindhi Typesetting system on Microsoft Windows. With such a precedent well set, yet another Sindhi expert Abdul Azeem Soomro started working on the software of Sindhi Word Processor. But, in technical terms, it was simply an attempt to restructure the Arabic and Persian system of fonts for writing Sindhi on computer. The invention of independent Sindhi Fonts was a step still far ahead. Except for the Desktop Publishing, no other important work could be done on the computer by that time. The work on Sindhi Database Management, creation of Sindhi Web Page on Internet and sending of Email or Chatting on Internet in Sindhi was still a dream. It was all because there was no real Sindhi Computing system in existence by then. What was being done for the last 14 years was simply to combine, truncate and substitute Arabic and Persian letters, characters and marks in an absolutely nonstandardized way to achieve the objective and create pseudo Sindhi letters and characters; and that’s all. This way, all the 52 letters of the Sindhi Alphabet were unable to be accommodated on the computer. It was all because no formal Code Page of Sindhi was as yet formulated, and recognized by the international computing agencies so that it could be implemented in the Computer Operating System and Software (Bhurgri: 2002).

The world was now moving towards formulating a Universal Code Page or UNICODE to be used by all languages of the world. The computer scientists invented a Standard Unicode accommodating all languages of the world. Such a scientific development opened a new window for the Sindhi Language too. The Microsoft started using UNICODE fully well in Windows 2000 and Windows-XP as against its limited use in Windows 96 and Windows 98. With it, Majid Bhurgri and Ayaz Shah made joint efforts to make Sindhi Fonts as per the specifications of the Unicode, but failed. Later on, Majid Bhurgri assisted by Sagar Latif Shaikh succeeded in restructuring Sindhi Fonts in accordance with the Unicode in early nineties. However, problems surfaced in their application.

By February 2000, Mr. Pal Nelson, head of Multilingual Wing of the Microsoft, prepared a Sindhi Keyboard for use in the Windows. With it, the Sindhi Database Management and Sorting System was finally made possible. “Now the Programming Language can also be prepared in Sindhi”, Dr Gul Agha, Professor of Computer Sciences, University of Albana, USA, opined in an interview. With it, all windows of computer development have been opened for the Sindhi language in the new millennium.

Thus, Sindhi has become the language of Computer and Internet. Now, we can send e-mail in Sindhi, and can chat in Sindhi on Internet.