The Indian Context
Resistance translation can be found in Indian contexts also, especially in th e colonial context. The widespread translation of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Anandamath into English and various Indian languages is a case of resistance translation where the concept of a splendid Mother India was circulated widely along with the slogan of “Vande Mataram”. Aurobindo’s decision to translate the novel can be linked to his nationalist leanings.
The political motivation behind the widespread translation of Ambedkar’s works into English and other Indian languages was that of popularizing the ideology behind Dalit literature. Dalit writing itself, which was initially vibrant only in Marathi, gradually spread and strengthened itself through translations. This was also largely due to mutual translation between Indian languages, and also into English. It is a fact that much of Dalit literature got noticed abroad and in India through English translations. One such example is the Tamil writer Bama’s Karukku, which was translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom, and published by Macmillan in its translation series. Karukku was noticed by the international reading community for its unvarnished account of an educated Dalit woman’s status in contemporary India. Laxman Gaikwad’s Uchalya translated by P. A. Kolharkar was published by Sahitya Akademi in 1998.
The Navayana, which is “India’s first and only publishing house to exclusively focus on the issue of caste from anticaste perspective” dedicates itself to the cause of the downtrodden especially in the intellectual realm (http://navayana.org/?page_id=2). Its founders S. Anand and Ravikumar have spoken about the selective translations that were made from Dalit literature into mainstream languages. They point out that only those texts that talk about the dalit as victim get published. This is one of the main issues that they discuss in their slim publication Touchable Tales. As they observe: “There has been a surge in publishing dalit writing in translation . . . Dalit writers are being invited to literary festivals abroad. Dalit literature is also being taught in some universities. But who decides what gets published? Who are these interlocutors-the publishers, translators and editors? Why are autobiographies prioritized? While dalits in Tamil Nadu are being forced to consume shit and piss, who are the consumers of dalit literature in English?”( http://navayana.org/?p=148 ) Navayana’s publishing endeavours try to answer these questions.
|
