Selection of works for translation

All of the translation ventures mentioned above are from Indian languages into English which ensures them a national, if not international, readership. Naturally the Indian language writers are eager to get their works translated into English. But very often the reality does not match up to their desires. Texts of certain languages get translated more while some others hardly get any representation. Rita Kothari's interviews with the major publishing house representatives show that very often the choice of text for translation depends on a variety of factors, of which the least important is the literary quality of that particular text. Availability of good translators who are equally proficient in English and the regional language is a major problem. The publishing house needs to have editors who can evaluate the quality of the translation against the original, which is also difficult. Some languages, like Bengali and Marathi, are known for their rich literary tradition and translations from these languages have better visibility, while languages like Konkani or Sindhi cannot compete with languages like Marathi or Bengali. Kothari observes that Penguin India, Rupa-Harper Collins and Ravi Dayal “restrict themselves to only well-known authors from widely accepted languages” (64). Oxford University Press has translations from Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, while very little from Kashmiri or Manipuri.

This is not true of publishing houses like Katha or Sahitya Akademi which are not governed by the profit motive. Kothari points out that Katha can afford to publish relatively obscure languages as they specialize in short fiction; one or two pieces in an anthology is not going to impact the sales of the book like an entire novel. Sahitya Akademi has specifically taken up publishing from relatively unknown literatures, with a view to encouraging marginalized literatures. They now have anthologies of short stories from Dogri, Assamese, Nicobarese and other tribal languages. However, the major drawback of these translations is their quality, a factor on which the private firms are unwilling to compromise.

Ideology is another aspect that plays a role in the choice of texts for publication. Navayana Publishing House established by S. Anand and Ravikumar in 2003 focuses on caste issues. They use English translations to “take forward debates on issues related to society, culture, literature, history and politics that the mainstream does not wish to address” (qtd in Kothari 65). Navayana has given importance to dalit literature and non-fiction in translation. It is not as if other publishing houses have not brought out dalit literature. Bama's Karukku was translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmstrom and first published by Macmillan. Sharankumar Limbale's Akkarmashi , translated from Marathi by Santhosh Bhoomkar was published by Oxford University Press.