Do we need an Indian term for Free Software?

I support the use of "swatantra". It also gives us "paritantra" as an antonym (i.e. a term for proprietary software).

We not only need an Indian term, but also a better English term. "Free" causes uncountable confusion.

I've written my thoughts about this in detail in a blog post as well (high-five for Codeberg Pages ;) ) - https://contrapunctus.codeberg.page/blog/the-name-free-software.html

I've seen contrapunctus calling it Azad Software many times, maybe that would be a better term for it in Hindi.

In India, we have several major languages - Gujarati, Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Odia etc. We can translate free software into these languages, and some terms might work across multiple languages.

We already call free software as "swecha software" in Telugu and I noticed this being the case in many translation files that were worked on over 1-2 decades ago.

The problem again here is, lack of contributors who are interested in working on translations. We can sure call "Free Software" whatever we want in different Indian languages but it doesn't make much sense when most of the free software out there isn't even available completely in those languages.

Also it does not make a lot of sense to use "Swatantra" as the default Indic term across all languages.

Some languages do not heavily use Sanskrit words. "Swatantra" is a Sanskrit loan word in Telugu but it's mostly used as "Swatantram" which widely refers to "Independence" whereas we have "Swecha" which literally means free in terms of freedom.

I would vote against any Hindi or Sanskrit term because it reinforces the amplifying hegemony of those languages here. Since there isn't a national language here, there cannot be a "nationally recognizable" term. I would use the translated meaning of the term in whatever language I am writing.

However, if I have to choose a term, I'd rather discriminate constructively and offer some resistance to the hegemony, by selecting a word from a language that's most severely oppressed by it in current times, such as Urdu.

Azad, therefore is my reluctant choice, while I'd prefer to have none.

@John Machan A hegemony is of foreign languages and their speakers, over native languages and their speakers. Another one is of people inserting political agendas in social contexts.

@Life is Tetris no, hegemony just means predominance of a social group over others.

My opinion here is a single vote, far from being hegemonic. Moreover, since my identity here is not masked, I'm actually being vulnerable.

Lastly, if being political here was a against the rules, I'd be happy to RTFM.

@John Machan in the age of AI bots, an online identity barely stands for anything on its own (unfortunately).

A single opinion against native words when there are none against any language sounds like infinite hegemony! Bollywood and government parlance bulldoze Urdu into the mainstream too.

And being political would have been different from what I said, which was about inserting a political agenda.

How about realizing how widely understood a native term like "swechcha" is? And trying to see how difficult naming this is in any language?

@Life is Tetris My vote would only be hegemonic if it had veto powers. This poll would conclude with a simple majority right? So get another to vote alongside you and call it a day? Again, happy to be educated better than what I have understood so far.

I will not respond to your other claims and allegations because they're not central to this poll.

@spaciouskarter78 @johnmachan1 Before you suggest alternatives, remember the requirements - we need both a word for "free software" and a word for proprietary software. "Azad" is easy to speak (which is why I've often used it in the past) and I'd myself have preferred an Urdu/Hindustani word for the same reasons as @johnmachan1 , but the possible antonyms are all so clumsy to use that I don't think it's a good choice.

@fugata the title of this poll asks whether we need an Indian term. My answer is no we don't because India has no native language that can be representative of everyone here. This is the reason we don't have a national language officially.

English has been in India long enough to be naturalized. In fact we even have Indian English. Continuing to extend that would be the most neutral way forward. Imposing any Indian language as representative of India would be unconstitutional when we don't have a national language.