Translation after Independence

The translation activity that we see in India after independence is also related to the nation and the consciousness of the unity of the nation. The country had so much of diversity that it was necessary to emphasize the unity despite the diversity. The linguistic and cultural divides among the people were downplayed and there were institutional endeavours to promote unity through translations. The Sahitya Akademi and its journal Indian Literature with its slogan of ‘Indian Literature is one though written in many languages', was one such. It had the Adan Pradan scheme under which numerous Indian language works were translated into other Indian languages. There was also the UNESCO project of translation which encouraged translation into English. Some of the works translated were Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhay's Bengali novel Pather Panchali: Song of the Road (1968, trs. T.W. Clark and Tarapada Mukherji), Shridhar Pendse's Marathi novel, Wild Bapu of Garambi (1968, tr. Ian Raeside), Thakhazi Sivasankara Pillai's Malayalam novel, Chemmeen (1962, tr. Narayana Menon) and Premchand's Hindi novel, Godan: The Gift of a Cow (1968, tr. Gordon Roadermal). These were published as UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Today all major publishing houses like Penguin, Macmillan, and Rupa are encouraging translations of Indian works into English.

Translation also became a major factor in the empowerment of the marginalized sections of society, especially the dalits and women. These voices that had till then been confined to their respective regions despite the power of their writing, were brought to national and international attention through translations. It is ironic that we still need the colonizer's language to make them heard, but we should also note that there are no compromises made to pander to the target readership. Laxman Gaikwad's Uchalya , R. R. Borade's Marathi novel Fall (tr. Sudhakar Marathe), Bama's Tamil Karukku (tr. Lakshmi Holmstrom) are examples. The English translations are carefully done, taking care not to tone down the savagely truthful narratives, with its raw and powerful language.