Ideas That Borrow from Culture Are Rich, Ideas That Also Add Back to Culture Are Rare

Barabari ki Bhasha is one such idea Hemant Shringy of FCB Ulka feels proud to be a part of.

This movement is not just about changing language — it’s about changing mindsets. It’s about inclusion, equality, and ensuring representation is reflected in every word we choose.

As the aspirations of a culture change, our languages must evolve too, not merely to accommodate but to celebrate these shifting aspirations. In certain patriarchal cultures, however, words that honoured women in specific significant roles, positions, and achievements have historically been absent from languages. Now that we are progressing towards a society where women set new benchmarks and make their mark across various fields, our vocabulary must expand to acknowledge these remarkable achievements and positions. Therefore, it is perhaps not enough to have gender-neutral words; we need terms that go a step further to celebrate and encourage the accomplishments of women.

The movement began through thoughtful collaboration with India’s leading Hindi daily, Navbharat Times, and linguists and Hindi language experts. It started with creating new, inclusive terms for professions where women were making their mark — but the language still only offered male-gendered words to describe them.

A study by the World Economic Forum indicates that countries with gendered languages, which include masculine and feminine forms in everyday speech, tend to demonstrate the highest levels of gender equality.

In a progressing country like ours, the evolution of our languages doesn’t just borrow from the cultural context but also adds to it.

But what good are new words if they aren’t absorbed into the existing vocabulary? Our study with linguists suggested that language change arises from familiarity. Adding different suffixes to familiar words leads to easier adoption than creating entirely new gender-neutral words, which may struggle to gain traction as they do not easily roll off the tongue. It may be challenging to replace long-established male-gendered words with gender-neutral alternatives.

The impact has been immense and instant. People have contributed newly created female-gendered words in the comments sections, commentators of the Women’s Premier League have used the newly coined terms, accomplished women from various fields have volunteered to be a part of the movement, and Hindi dictionaries are printing new editions to celebrate not just new words but the new strides our women and our call culture are making.