Abstract In 2008, Pargman and Palme published an essay titled “ASCII Imperialism,” which discussed how the American text standard, ASCII, was embedded in existing computer protocols and how it marginalized non-English languages. This article hearkens to that concept by calling for the recognition of “ISCII imperialism.” It examines how the little-known Indian Script Standard for Information Interchange (ISCII) has been integrated in global communication protocols since 1991 through the Unicode Standard and has created the potential for an uneven digital landscape for different Indian languages and writing systems. Specifically, ISCII has been controversial for seemingly privileging Devanagari, commonly used to write Hindi, at the expense of other scripts. Public outcry against ISCII imperialism has been transformative, however. As this article demonstrates, advocacy by Indian script communities has pushed the Unicode Consortium to reconsider its implementation of ISCII, demonstrating how even rigid technical structures are influenced by regional language politics.
Anushah Hossain (Thu,) studied this question.