A peek into Sarvam AI's vocabulary: How well does it understand Indian languages?

"It is (language) the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity." — James Baldwin (If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?) Language goes far beyond being a medium for communication; it shapes a community's culture, attitudes, politics, and lived experiences. As LLMs grow increasingly powerful and central to our digital lives, having your language genuinely represented inside them is critical. For a linguistically diverse country like India, this is indeed a challenge. With hundreds of languages and dialects, each with its own script, grammar, and cultural context, building an AI that can truly understand and generate text in these languages is no small feat. When Sarvam AI launched their models targeting Indian languages, I was excited to have an Indian company building models that prioritize our languages. Unfortunately, the Sarvam AI team did not sha