Aflatoon
A new Punjabi search engine, Aflatoon, launched a few days ago. It clearly aims to tap into a regional market, and, according to interviews given to the papers, particularly that involving cell-phone users seeking quick, locally useful information. Its limited scope and teething pains (it doesn’t seem able to handle more than one word in the search box, and when it finds nothing you simply get… nothing) mean it likely won’t be useful in our work — however it might be something you’d use as a last check to see if you’ve missed some Indian reference you wanted. Still, it’s interesting to see that the search engine building phase is far from over yet, and that like life itself, the urge to index seeks out new forms and niches in which it might flourish despite the prevalence of the big brontosauruses. Oh, and for afficianados of Indian movies, you can call up a whole bunch of clips just by clicking on the “movies” item in the menu bar.
By the way, “aflatoon,” which to my ears sounds like an unfortunate combination of “aflatus” and “cartoon”, turns out to be the Persian for Plato. It also refers to people who have improbably ideas, a Bollywood movie, and a sweet made from ghee and dried fruits.
I’m entering a minefield here, but do remember that Punjabi – like all the other official languages at the State level – is only spoken by a minority of the Indian population. The official languages are listed in the 8th Schedule to the Constitution.
No. Language Place(s)/Community
1. Assamese/Asomiya Assam
2. Bengali/Bangla Tripura, West Bengal, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
3. Bodo Assam
4. Dogri Jammu and Kashmir
5. Gujarati Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat
6. Hindi Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, the national capital territory of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
7. Kannada Karnataka
8. Kashmiri Jammu and Kashmir
9. Konkani Goa
10. Maithili Bihar
11. Malayalam Kerala, Lakshadweep,Andaman and Nicobar Islands
12. Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei) Manipur
13. Marathi Maharashtra,Dadra & Nagar Haveli , Goa
14. Nepali Sikkim
15. Oriya Orissa
16. Punjabi Punjab, Chandigarh, second official language of Delhi, Haryana
17. Sanskrit classical language of learning
18. Santhali Santhal tribals of the Chota Nagpur Plateau (comprising the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Chattisgarh)
19. Sindhi Sindhi community
20. Tamil Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
21. Telugu Andhra Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
22. Urdu Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh
All of the high tech / outsourcing businesses are run from a public perspective in English.
And for Slaw readers, The constitution (Art 348(1)(a) provides that all proceedings in the Supreme Court of India, the country’s highest court, shall be in English. Parliament has the power to alter this by law, but has not done so. So Slaw readers who read Supreme Court judgments are reading them in the language in which they were written and the same texts as Indian lawyers would be reading.
I understand about the limited use of the Punjabi language, but I meant more that Aflatoon seems aimed at the Punjabi region, because of it’s interest in local businesses. It presents itself in English and I searched in English.
Punjabi is the language – the state is Punjab.
Most of the innovation in technology is coming out of Karnataka (Bangalore), Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad), Tamil Nadu (Chennai) and smaller bits in Kerala and Maharashtra.
Because of the dominance of Punjabis and Sikhs in Vancouver and Toronto, Canadians have a tendency to view Punjab’s role in India – important as it is – as larger than the population, or economic figures, would suggest.