Over the summer, JSIS South Asia MA student Karthik Malli worked with the Script Encoding Initiative (SEI) at UC Berkeley on exploring the relationship between script, writing technology, and modernity in India. Karthik’s project looked at how the arrival of the typewriter in India spurred language communities to standardize and reform their writing systems, and the how this project was linked to visions of a modern state.
In a blog post titled Typewriters, Script, and Modernity in India, Karthik describes his experience working with SEI.