Indian Sign Language
Encyclopedia
Indo-Pakistani Sign Language (IPSL) is the predominant sign language
variety in South Asia
, used by at least several hundred thousand deaf
signers (2003). As with many sign languages, it is difficult to estimate numbers with any certainty, as the Census of India does not list sign languages and most studies have focused on the north and on urban areas.
The Indian deaf population of 1.1 million is 98% illiterate. In line with oralist philosophy, deaf schools attempt early intervention with hearing aids etc., but these are largely dysfunctional in an impoverished society. As of 1986, only 2% of deaf children attended school.
Pakistan has a deaf population of 0.24 million, which is approximately 7.4% of the overall disabled population in the country.
Since 2001, a group at the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH) has been working on providing teaching material and training teachers for ISL. The Rehabilitation Council of India and the Ishara Foundation, are also involved in ISL training, English through ISL, and interpreter training. A number of vocational schools, e.g. ITI Secunderabad
, use ISL for teaching. Other institutes such as the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing
remain exclusively focused on oralism.
In 2005, India the National Curricular Framework (NCF) gave some degree of legitimacy to sign language education, by hinting that sign languages may qualify as an optional third language choice for hearing students. NCERT in March 2006 launched a class III text includes a chapter on sign language, emphasizing the fact that it is a language like any other and is “yet another mode of communication." The aim was to create healthy attitudes towards the differently abled.
of sign language in the region, including many pockets of home sign
and informal sign languages. There is no consensus regarding which of these varieties constitute dialects of a language or separate languages, but several researchers have identified relatedness between the sign languages used in urban regions of India, Pakistan and Nepal. It is unknown whether this group is related to other languages of the subcontinent such as sign languages in Bangladesh
or Sri Lanka
.
Ethnologue.com claims that sign languages across urban India appear to share about 75% of their vocabularies, and that the Mumbai
-Delhi
dialect is the most influential. Ethnologue identifies the following regional dialects within India:
While the sign system in ISL appears to be largely indigenous, elements in ISL are derived from British Sign Language
; for example, ISL does not have signs for the Devanāgarī
script, and fingerspelling
is based on the Latin alphabet. In addition, a small number of the Deaf near Bangalore
sign American Sign Language
owing to a longstanding ASL deaf school there.
The Delhi Association for the Deaf is reportedly working with Jawaharlal Nehru University
to identify a standard sign language for India.
s have been employed in religious contexts in Hinduism
, Buddhism
and Zoroastrianism
for many centuries, although these religious traditions have often excluded deaf people from participation in ritual or religious membership. In addition, classical Indian dance
and theatre
often employs stylised hand gestures with particular meanings.
An early reference to gestures used by deaf people for communication appears in a 12th century Islamic legal commentary, the Hidayah
. In the influential text, deaf (or "dumb") people have legal standing in areas such as bequest
s, marriage
, divorce
and financial transactions, if they communicate habitually with intelligble signs.
Early in the 20th century, a high incidence of deafness was observed among communities of the Naga hills
. As has happened elsewhere in such circumstances (see, for example, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
), a sign language had emerged and was used by both deaf and hearing members of the community. Ethnologist and political officer John Henry Hutton wrote:
However, it is unlikely that any of these sign systems are related to modern IPSL, and deaf people were largely treated as social outcasts throughout South Asian history.
s from the 1830s, and "initially worked with locally-devised gestural or signed communication, sometimes with simultaneous speech
." Later in the 19th century, residential deaf schools were established, and they tended (increasingly) to adopt an oralist
approach over the use of sign language in the classroom. These schools included The Bombay Institution for Deaf-Mutes, which was founded by Bishop Leo Meurin in the 1880s, and schools in Madras and Calcutta which opened in the 1890s. Other residential schools soon followed, such as the "School for Deaf and Dumb Boys" at Mysore, founded in 1902, a school in Dehiwala
in what is now Sri Lanka
, founded in 1913, and "The Ida Rieu School for blind, deaf, dumb and other defective children", founded in 1923 in Karachi
, in what is now Pakistan
.
While a few students who were unable to learn via the oralist method were taught with signs, many students preferred to communicate with each other via sign language, sometimes to the frustration of their teachers. The first study of the sign language of these children, which is almost certainly related to modern IPSL, was in 1928 by British teacher H. C. Banerjee. She visited three residential schools for deaf children, at Dacca, Barisal and Calcutta, observing that "in all these schools the teachers have discouraged the growth of the sign language, which in spite of this official disapproval, has grown and flourished." She compared sign vocabularies at the different schools and described the signs in words in an appendix.
A rare case of a public event conducted in sign language was reported by a mission in Palayamkottai
in 1906: "Our services for the Deaf are chiefly in the sign language, in which all can join alike, whether learning Tamil
, as those do who belong to the Madras Presidency
, or English, which is taught to those coming from other parts."
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
variety in South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
, used by at least several hundred thousand deaf
Deaf culture
Deaf culture describes the social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values and shared institutions of communities that are affected by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label, the word deaf is often written with a...
signers (2003). As with many sign languages, it is difficult to estimate numbers with any certainty, as the Census of India does not list sign languages and most studies have focused on the north and on urban areas.
The Indian deaf population of 1.1 million is 98% illiterate. In line with oralist philosophy, deaf schools attempt early intervention with hearing aids etc., but these are largely dysfunctional in an impoverished society. As of 1986, only 2% of deaf children attended school.
Pakistan has a deaf population of 0.24 million, which is approximately 7.4% of the overall disabled population in the country.
Status of sign language
Deaf schools in the region are overwhelmingly oralist in their approach.Since 2001, a group at the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH) has been working on providing teaching material and training teachers for ISL. The Rehabilitation Council of India and the Ishara Foundation, are also involved in ISL training, English through ISL, and interpreter training. A number of vocational schools, e.g. ITI Secunderabad
Secunderabad
Secunderabad popularly known as the twin city of Hyderabad is located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh north of Hyderabad. Named after Sikandar Jah, the third Nizam of the Asaf Jahi dynasty, Secunderabad was founded in 1806 AD as a British cantonment...
, use ISL for teaching. Other institutes such as the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing
All India Institute of Speech and Hearing
The All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, commonly known as AIISH , is located in Manasagangotri , Mysore, India. It is an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare...
remain exclusively focused on oralism.
In 2005, India the National Curricular Framework (NCF) gave some degree of legitimacy to sign language education, by hinting that sign languages may qualify as an optional third language choice for hearing students. NCERT in March 2006 launched a class III text includes a chapter on sign language, emphasizing the fact that it is a language like any other and is “yet another mode of communication." The aim was to create healthy attitudes towards the differently abled.
Dialects and language families
There are many varietiesVariety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
of sign language in the region, including many pockets of home sign
Home sign
Home sign is the gestural communication system developed by a deaf child who lacks input from a language model in the family...
and informal sign languages. There is no consensus regarding which of these varieties constitute dialects of a language or separate languages, but several researchers have identified relatedness between the sign languages used in urban regions of India, Pakistan and Nepal. It is unknown whether this group is related to other languages of the subcontinent such as sign languages in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
or Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
.
Ethnologue.com claims that sign languages across urban India appear to share about 75% of their vocabularies, and that the Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
-Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
dialect is the most influential. Ethnologue identifies the following regional dialects within India:
- Mumbai-Delhi Sign Language (or separately: Delhi Sign Language, Bombay Sign Language)
- Calcutta Sign Language
- Bangalore-Madras Sign Language (or Bangalore-ChennaiChennaiChennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
-Hyderabad Sign Language)
While the sign system in ISL appears to be largely indigenous, elements in ISL are derived from British Sign Language
British Sign Language
British Sign Language is the sign language used in the United Kingdom , and is the first or preferred language of some deaf people in the UK; there are 125,000 deaf adults in the UK who use BSL plus an estimated 20,000 children. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands,...
; for example, ISL does not have signs for the Devanāgarī
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
script, and fingerspelling
Fingerspelling
Fingerspelling is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets , have often been used in deaf education, and have subsequently been adopted as a distinct part of a number of sign languages around the world...
is based on the Latin alphabet. In addition, a small number of the Deaf near Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
sign American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
owing to a longstanding ASL deaf school there.
The Delhi Association for the Deaf is reportedly working with Jawaharlal Nehru University
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Jawaharlal Nehru University, also known as JNU, is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. It is mainly a research oriented postgraduate University with approximately 5,500 students and a faculty strength of around 550.-History:...
to identify a standard sign language for India.
Early history
Although discussion of sign languages and the lives of deaf people is extremely rare in the history of South Asian literature, there are a few references to deaf people and gestural communication in texts dating from antiquity. Symbolic hand gestures known as mudraMudra
A mudrā is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. While some mudrās involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers...
s have been employed in religious contexts in Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
for many centuries, although these religious traditions have often excluded deaf people from participation in ritual or religious membership. In addition, classical Indian dance
Classical Indian dance
Indian classical dance is a relatively new umbrella term for various codified art forms rooted in Natya, the sacred Hindu musical theatre styles, whose theory can be traced back to the Natya Shastra of Bharata Muni .- Definitions :...
and theatre
Classical Indian musical theatre
Classical Indian musical theatre is a sacred art of the Hindu temple culture. It is performed in different styles.-Overview:Classical Indian musical theatre theory can be traced back to the Natya Shastra of Bharata Muni...
often employs stylised hand gestures with particular meanings.
An early reference to gestures used by deaf people for communication appears in a 12th century Islamic legal commentary, the Hidayah
Hidayah
Hidāyah is an Arabic word meaning 'guidance' . It can also refer to guidance from the Qur'an and according to the Sunnah.Al-Hidāyah is the title of a famous Hanafi juridical work by Burhān al-Dīn ‘Alī ibn Abī Bakr al-Marghīnānī which is considered widely authoritative as a guide to fiqh amongst...
. In the influential text, deaf (or "dumb") people have legal standing in areas such as bequest
Bequest
A bequest is the act of giving property by will. Strictly, "bequest" is used of personal property, and "devise" of real property. In legal terminology, "bequeath" is a verb form meaning "to make a bequest."...
s, marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
and financial transactions, if they communicate habitually with intelligble signs.
Early in the 20th century, a high incidence of deafness was observed among communities of the Naga hills
Naga hills
Naga hills, reaching a height of around 3825 metres, lie on the border of India and Burma . These hills are part of a complex mountain system, and the parts of the mountain ranges inside the Indian state of Nagaland and the Burmese region of Sagaing are called the Naga Hills.In British India, the...
. As has happened elsewhere in such circumstances (see, for example, Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language
The Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language is a sign language used by about 150 deaf and many hearing members of the al-Sayyid Bedouin tribe in the Negev desert of southern Israel...
), a sign language had emerged and was used by both deaf and hearing members of the community. Ethnologist and political officer John Henry Hutton wrote:
However, it is unlikely that any of these sign systems are related to modern IPSL, and deaf people were largely treated as social outcasts throughout South Asian history.
Residential deaf schools
Documented deaf education began with welfare services, mission schools and orphanageOrphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
s from the 1830s, and "initially worked with locally-devised gestural or signed communication, sometimes with simultaneous speech
Simultaneous Communication
Simultaneous Communication, SimCom or Sign Supported Speech is a technique sometimes used by deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing sign language persons in which both a spoken language and a manual variant of that language are used simultaneously...
." Later in the 19th century, residential deaf schools were established, and they tended (increasingly) to adopt an oralist
Oralism
Oralism is the education of deaf students through spoken language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech instead of using sign language within the classroom...
approach over the use of sign language in the classroom. These schools included The Bombay Institution for Deaf-Mutes, which was founded by Bishop Leo Meurin in the 1880s, and schools in Madras and Calcutta which opened in the 1890s. Other residential schools soon followed, such as the "School for Deaf and Dumb Boys" at Mysore, founded in 1902, a school in Dehiwala
Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia
Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Is a newly created city lying immediately south of Colombo, one of the largest cities in Sri Lanka. It is the result of certain key urban suburbs and communities combined for administrative purposes. The centres include Dehiwala and the beach resort of Mount Lavinia....
in what is now Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, founded in 1913, and "The Ida Rieu School for blind, deaf, dumb and other defective children", founded in 1923 in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, in what is now Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
While a few students who were unable to learn via the oralist method were taught with signs, many students preferred to communicate with each other via sign language, sometimes to the frustration of their teachers. The first study of the sign language of these children, which is almost certainly related to modern IPSL, was in 1928 by British teacher H. C. Banerjee. She visited three residential schools for deaf children, at Dacca, Barisal and Calcutta, observing that "in all these schools the teachers have discouraged the growth of the sign language, which in spite of this official disapproval, has grown and flourished." She compared sign vocabularies at the different schools and described the signs in words in an appendix.
A rare case of a public event conducted in sign language was reported by a mission in Palayamkottai
Palayamkottai
Palayamkottai , known as the "Oxford of South India", is a town in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. It is part of the Tirunelveli city corporation. It is on the eastern bank of the Thamirabarani river, while its twin city Tirunelveli is on the western bank.-Etymology:The archaic word Palayam...
in 1906: "Our services for the Deaf are chiefly in the sign language, in which all can join alike, whether learning Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
, as those do who belong to the Madras Presidency
Madras Presidency
The Madras Presidency , officially the Presidency of Fort St. George and also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India...
, or English, which is taught to those coming from other parts."
Grammar
IPSL shares grammatical features with many other deaf sign languages, including the use of space and simultaneity and the five meaningful parameters of handshape, location, orientation, movement and non-manual features such as body position, head movement and facial expression. Some specifics are described by sign language linguist Ulrike Zeshan in her study of IPSL grammar:Popular culture
Indian Sign language has appeared in numerous Indian films such as:- KoshishKoshishKoshish is a 1972 Hindi movie directed by Gulzar.Koshish is considered a landmark movie in the history of Indian cinema. It stars Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri, directed by Gulzar. The movie depicts a deaf and mute couple and their conflicts, pain and struggle to carve out a niche for themselves...
, 1972 film about a deaf couple. - MozhiMozhiMozhi is a 2007 Tamil film produced by Prakash Raj and directed by Radha Mohan. The film stars Prithviraj, Jyothika, Prakash Raj and Swarnamalya in pivotal roles. The theme is similar to the Hollywood film Children of a Lesser God...
, 2007 film about the love story of a deaf and mute girl. - Khamoshi: The MusicalKhamoshi: The MusicalKhamoshi: The Musical is a critically acclaimed Indian Hindi film which was released on 9 August 1996. The film starred Nana Patekar, Manisha Koirala, Salman Khan, Seema Biswas and Helen, and marked Sanjay Leela Bhansali's directorial debut...
, a 1996 film about a deaf couple with a daughter who becomes a musician. - Black, a 2005 film about a blind and deaf girl based in part on the life of Helen KellerHelen KellerHelen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....
.
Further reading
- Deshmukh, D (1997), "Sign Language and Bilingualism in Deaf Education". Ichalkaranj, India: Deaf Foundation.
- Sulman, Nasir & Zuberi, Sadaf (2002) "Pakistan Sign Language - A synopsis".
External links
- Higher Secondary School & Multi Purpose Training Institute for Deaf (IndoreIndoreIndore is one of the major city in India, the largest city and commercial center of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Indore is located 190 km west of the state capital Bhopal. According to the 2011 Indian census, Indore city has a population of 1,960,631...
, Madhya Pradesh) — a residential school run by a deaf couple and using Indian Sign Language in the classroom. - Pakistan Sign Language – A Synopsis