Punjabis will create Urdu Wikisource; decision taken in April month’s meeting of Punjabi Wikimedians
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ April 9,2025
While the Punjabi Wikimedians have been contributing to Punjabi Wikisource, now they have decided to channelise their efforts to create Urdu Wikisource as well.
The decision in this regard was taken in the April month’s meeting of Punjabi Wikimedians held at the residence of renowned translator and eminent literary thinker Charan Gill in Professor Colony, Patiala.
The meeting was chaired by Satdeep Gill, who has been associated with the Wikipedia movement since 2009 and is an administrator on Punjabi Wikipedia, Punjabi Wikisource, among other projects. During the meeting, many decisions were taken for the promotion of Punjabi on digital platforms in the current internet era. Along with this, social activist Aman Arora was also given the responsibility of volunteer media in-charge for Punjabi Wikimedians.
Giving information about the meeting, Satdeep Gill said that Wikisource is a free digital library on which digital versions of scanned books are prepared. Punjabi Wikimedians have constantly engaged in enriching it in Punjabi language. It was discussed in the meeting that despite the considerable development of Urdu Wikipedia, the lack of Urdu Wikisource is constantly looming.
Since Punjabi Wikimedians include Charan Gill, Balram Bodhi, Pawan Tibba, Jaswinder Rumi, Satdeep Gill and many other scholars with knowledge of Urdu-Persian, it was decided that Urdu Wikisource will be started by Punjabi Wikimedians. He said that from a historical perspective, this is an important decision and sends a message of unity, because the birthplace of Urdu is also North India. Satdeep said that Wikisource is a project started by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2003.
Currently, there are about 6.4 million books available in 80 languages on Wikisource, which any internet user can read and download for free. About 500 books are available on Punjabi Wikisource, and Punjabi Wikimedians are working day and night to increase this number.
During the meeting, there was also talk of promoting knowledge related to Punjab and Punjabi on English Wikisource. Translator and Head of the Northern Regional Languages Center Dr. Pawan Tibba took the responsibility of this work and said that scans of books by foreign thinkers like Cunningham, Leitner, Horace, Richard Temple and Flora Anne Steele are available on English Wikisource, but a team needs to be formed to bring them in the digital text format.
Aman Arora thanked all Wikimedians and said that they will fulfill the responsibility given by Wikimedians with dedication for the service of mother tongue Punjabi.
During the meeting, it was also decided to connect students, teachers, language and literature lovers, subject experts, scholars willing to perform volunteer services with the Wikipedia campaign. Satdeep Gill solved the technical problems faced by the existing Wikimedians.
Punjabis will create Urdu Wikisource; decision taken in April month’s meeting of Punjabi Wikimedians. On this occasion, music expert Kusum Sharma, intellectual Balram Bodhi, Wikimedian Gurmail Kaur, Kuldeep Burj Bhalaike, Gurdeep Qafir, Jaswinder Rumi, Sonia Atwal, Komal Mirpur, Ram Saroop Dhapai, Gaganeet Kaur, Gaganpreet Kaur and other dignitaries were present.
