The first time I saw it was from an Indian colleague in 2009, and I've only ever seen it in emails or instant messages from Indian colleagues since.
An example:
The document is dated 25/06/08/ Is there any updation to the same?
Another:
could u tell me the command for
executing the unit test from command
line or any link or ppt .. for the
same
As a British English speaker from the UK, I found it a bit strange at first, but I've got used to it now. However, I wouldn't advise using "the same" in this way as it might not be understood by people not familiar with it. Instead, when the context is clear, use a simple "it" or "them". If the context isn't clear, state explicitly what you mean.
So I would change your (updated) example:
I need the documents for the meeting. Could you please send me the same as soon as possible.
To:
I need the documents for the meeting. Please could you send them to me as soon as possible?
Also note the second sentence is a question, so ends with a question mark.
TL;DR:
I'd hate for anyone to walk away with the idea that Indians think 'i' is acceptable. You won't find it in any respected Indian publication. You won't find the average Indian writing it down on paper. It's just textspeak and that's why it's common in text and tweets and comments online.
Detailed answer:
I’m from India. I assure you there’s no such thing as the lowercase 'i'. No grammar teacher of mine — and I've had quite a few good ones — ever so much as mentioned it. In fact, this is the first I'm hearing of it.
The tendency of Indians to write in textspeak is unfortunate, but 'i' is as erroneous as 'u'.
I'd like to point out that almost all of these violations occur in the electronic medium. Nobody writes 'i' on paper. They type it. And if there's no autocorrect, most of them can't be bothered to rectify it themselves.
How established is this practice among Indian English speakers?
Based on my experience, this is pretty established, but not so much among Indian English speakers as among Indian netizens.
Is writing i a means of circumventing the perceived limitations of the English language?
If you mean the limitations regarding the tiered system of politeness, then no. The tiered system affects more pronouns than 'I', and affects verbs and modifiers as well.
I might as well mention that Hindi's script Devanagari (or any other Indian script I'm familiar with) does not have the concept of capital and small letters. So, the question of whether this practice is a carry-over is moot in this case (unlike that of some European languages).
Can anyone confirm this practice, and/or provide a link to the aforementioned article?
Don't know about the link, but I can confirm that what you have there is a practice evolved solely for digital media. Admittedly Indians use it a bit more, but it's not exclusive to Indian English and shouldn't be considered a part of it.
I don't know what article Jeega was referring to, but that was just an opinion piece, an opinion he seemed to agree with. But it's definitely NOT a feature of Indian English. I'll eat my words if anyone can provide a shred of evidence to the contrary.
EDIT: Sumelic seems to have unearthed the article link in his answer below.
Best Answer
That's because "meat", just like wine, coffee, flour, etc, is an uncountable noun.
When you use "some", you specify you want just some part of it.
see these examples:
If you refer to part of the whole, use "some".