Webdunia'- The first Hindi-portal on the Internet
The special section on modern Indian literature in 'Newsletter 21' (February 2000) already mentioned the growth of websites targeted at South Asian communities all over the world. Unsurprisingly, the necessarily incomplete list of websites printed there is outdated already as indeed any such list is bound to be. This article, therefore, will inform the readers of new trends and developments in this fast moving field by singling out an interesting site and, especially, by signalling and commenting on sources of information in South Asian languages available on the net.
* By THOMAS DE BRUIJN
COURTESY
OF WEBDUNIA
Sign reads: 'Campakali Memorial Oxford School'
Text-balloon: 'Hey, on the one hand I cannot afFORD an OX for the
farm ... but we can have our son be educated in Oxford.'
The Internet grows faster than anyone could have predicted and - reaching a varied, global audience - is making it hard for commercial enterprises to address potential customers on the net. To attract users with similar interests the Web-portal was invented. Users register for free e-mail and chat facilities, and are presented with news and information, together with fine-tuned advertisements. The rise of portals had an enormous impact on the structure of the Web and many new users see them as natural and comfortable entries into cyberspace.
Though prominent on the net from its earliest days, South Asian websites were mainly presented in English. South Asian communities, especially outside India and Pakistan, had clearly demarcated interests, which were served by commercial enterprises sponsoring dedicated web-portals. The next step is to include people who like to communicate in other Indian languages, which is now made possible by new portals that feature a multilingual service of news and information and recently also email and chat-facilities in Indian languages such as Hindi, Panjabi, Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu among others.
The rise of these new sites brings an interesting development to the Web: it opens up a global perspective for a group that is not fluent in English and simultaneously uses the community-building qualities of the medium to strengthen a local identity. Webdunia.com claims to be the first portal to offer a full service in Hindi. On their introductory page the owners of the portal state their intention and describe how the zeal for keeping Hindi as an important national language in touch with modern means for communication, combined with commercial interests, led to the creation of this portal (http://www.webdunia.com/about.htm also in English: http://www.webdunia.com/ abouteng.htm). Webdunia features news, sports (cricket!), Bollywood gossip, and lots of business news. Following the outlook of commercial printed magazines and journals from South Asia, they also offer comics, a children's corner, and a prominent literature section.
The section on Hindi literature has a high profile as it contains an on-line version of Hans, the most prestigious literary magazine in Hindi. The magazine is an important platform for both emerging and more established authors and its essays and critical columns give a vivid impression of the intellectual and literary scene in Hindi. The inclusion of this magazine in a major Hindi Web-portal, shows that the new medium positions itself close to the pre-existing printed media. Magazines and journals in South Asian languages had an important function in the creation of an internal, local public sphere. The portals extend this local public sphere to the Internet, which marks a new step in the local integration of this global medium and demonstrates the interactive nature of the process of globalisation that is currently taking place in South Asia. The connection of local discourses and markets with a large, transnational customer base can change the position of Indian languages and open doors for a new, global perception of South Asian culture. *
http://www.webdunia.com/about.htm
also in English:
http://www.webdunia.com/abouteng.htmL NEWS
Dr Thomas de Bruijn is a researcher of modern South Asian literatures as an affiliated fellow at the IIAS.
E-mail: th.de.bruijn@let.leidenuniv.nl or thbruijn@hotmail.com