USE OF ROMAN CHARACTERS STYLED INDIA’S ROYAL ROAD TO LEARNING

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6811, 15 January 1929, Page 2

USE OF ROMAN CHARACTERS STYLED INDIA’S ROYAL ROAD TO LEARNING

BOMBAY. A reference to the adoption of the Roman characters in India as a solution to the difficulties experienced in this country with regard to the languages and various characters used in writing or printing them, was made by Sir Leslie Wilson, the Governor of Bombay, when he performed the ceremony of opening a school building at Poona. One of the greatest problems with which the builders of modern India are faced, said the Governor, is that of the numerous languages in use throughout this vast country. These difficulties are' the more acute because the languages are not only different, but they are written in different characters, so that, even w T hcn the words are in some cases the same or very similar, they cannot be recognised in handwriting or in print without learning an entirely new' alphabet. The countries of Europe are gradually moving toward the solution of this problem by adopting the Roman characters for almost all their languages and the recent adoption by. Turkey of the same Roman script will make it easier both for the Turks to learn the languages of the rest of Europe and for the-people :of. other, countries to learn: Turkish* - : Sir Leslie said he had heard tho

view expressed that if India had adopted Roman characters for all her principal languages 50 or 100 years ago, her progress in education would have far outstripped the stage that has been reached to-dav. The Governor expressed tho hope that some great educational reformer w T ill succeed in persuading his fellow countrymen that this is the royal road to learning for India.