Language Politics

This does not mean that the fact that translation of Indian works was largely into English is not controversial. It has been interpreted variously as indication of our servile attitude to English, or the lack of a common language that links India together. Mahasweta Devi's works translated by Gayatri Spivak is a representative case. Devi highlights the condition of the tribals and other subaltern groups of Bengal through her stories which were translated by Spivak. Much more than translate, what Spivak did was to discuss the politics of translation, and theorize postcoloniality in general. Her international reputation as an intellectual also got Devi the world's attention as well. Who is the Mahasweta Devi who is known to the world outside India ? Is she a construct of Gayatri Spivak? Harish Trivedi notes that when Devi won the Jnanpeeth in 1996 and acknowledged the role played by translations in getting her wider acceptance in the country, she expressed gratitude, not to Spivak who had translated into English, but to Arvind Kumar the director of National Book Trust who had facilitated the translation into Hindi and other Indian languages (11).

This issue is very much open to discussion. Which language would you choose in India today to ensure that an author gets the attention s/he deserves? The answer is English. It still is the only ‘Indian' language understood in all corners of India, by readers who constitute a minuscule of the total population. Ironically, the translation activity across Indian languages seems to have declined since the British Raj. Today we do not have an Indian author who is popular in all Indian languages, like Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. Despite Hindi being the official language, English continues to be the language in power because it is the language of power. It is a marker of social and cultural prestige as well. This asymmetry in the relationship between English and Indian languages is reflected in translations also.

Today the translation scene in India looks good as major publishing houses are encouraging the publication of translations. The Macmillan project of translation of Indian novels, the Katha series etc are indicators that translations into English are proliferating and selling well. Asaduddin points out that this should not be a cause for worry because according to him: “As a link language, English has an important role to play and translation into English can certainly foster the growth of a holistic view of Indian literature. It would also help dispel the impression one frequently encounters while travelling abroad that Indian literature is what gets written in English.” There is also the argument that this is the Empire writing back in English (like other Indian writing in English), but the truth is that most of it does not reach the former colonizers. Then for whom are these translations? Shanta Ramakrishna observes that this is perhaps a good time for us to introspect and ask a few questions: “By whom and, especially, for whom are translations done in India ? The average monolingual reader? The academic bilingual reader? The colonial reader? The postcolonial reader? How does a translator create an audience?” (98). Honest answers to these questions would go a long way in helping us to re-situate ourselves with respect to our mother-tongues and cultures.

Assignments

1. What are the changes that you can detect in the Indian translation scene as you move from the pre-colonial days to the present?
2. How did translations help in the building of the nation?
3. What is the politics of language that is behind translation in India today?
   
   

References

Asaduddin, M. “Translation and Indian Literature: Some Reflections”, Translation
            Today.  <http://www.anukriti.net/tt5/article1/page1.asp>

Gopinathan, G. “Translation, Transcreation and Culture: The Evolving Theories of
            Translation in Hindi and Other Modern Indian Languages”.
            <http://www.soas.ac.uk/literatures/satranslations/Gopin.pdf>

Ramakrishna, Shanta. “Cultural Transmission through Translation: An Indian
            Perspective”, Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era.
            Eds. Sherry Simon and Paul St-Pierre. 2000. Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 2002:
            85 – 100

Singh, Avadhesh Kumar. “Translation in/and Hindi Literature”, Translation Today.
           http://www.anukriti.net/tt5/article1/page1.asp>

Trivedi, Harish and Susan Bassnett. Eds. “Introduction”, Post-Colonial Translation:
            Theory and Practice. London: Routledge, 1999: 1- 18