flederfauz, Same problem here: a list of neighborhood names stored in a Gujarati font that I want to store in a geodatabase with unicode. I wish I had a real solution for you within python. I ended up taking my data out of ArcGIS and use a character translator I found for Microsoft Word specifically for Hindi and Gujarati fonts. The translator is built into a Microsoft Word ribbon and installed via a replication of the default Word template. The translation itself is performed by character-by-character replacement. Of course, a Gujarati translator isn't going to help you, but it's an indicator that character-by-character replacement might be required, as you suggested. I too would be interested in a functional python-based solution to this problem.
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