Introduction

The term post-colonial is perhaps wrong for this lecture because what is intended is not the ideological aspect of the movement called postcolonialism. Here the term is a temporal marker and refers to the period that came after colonization in India. It deals with the translation activity in India from colonization to the present, and this lecture is an entry point into the ideologically nuanced term of postcolonialism. The broad rubric of postcolonialism is applicable to vast areas of land other than India, which were once colonized by non-natives and became free at various stages in the 20th century. But in this lecture we will be looking only at India as a representative case.