Translation in India

The history of translation in India – more in terms of the trends in translation than what was translated – can be seen to fall into three broad areas, which are pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial translation. This is a periodization that most theorists in the area agree upon, though the names given to each of these periods might vary. As the names indicate, these periods span an uneven distribution of centuries. The pre-colonial period would encompass the years from antiquity to the 18th century, the colonial period from 18th century to the 20th century (1947 to be exact) and post-colonial from 1947 onwards. The cut-off date for pre-colonial period is fixed as 1757, because that is the year of the Battle of Plassey which helped the British to consolidate their power in India and become an imperialist force with its policies of expansion. Avadhesh Kumar Singh sub-divides this period into two – from antiquity to 1100 and from 1100 to 1757. Of these, the first marks a period in which Sanskrit was the major language, and the second the time in which foreign languages like Persian and other Indian languages grew and flourished. A brief overview of translation in the pre-colonial period will help us to better situate the translation done during the colonial and post-colonial periods.