Indian regional literature to find global audience

NEW DELHI - Indian regional literature will soon find an audience abroad with the government preparing a corpus of translations drawn from the cream of vernacular writings for distribution and sale out of the country.

The culture ministry in association with three national akademis — Lalit Kala Akademi, Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi — is working on a new project, “Indian Literature Abroad”, Jawhar Sircar, secretary in the ministry of culture, said at a seminar over the weekend on “The Book in the 21st Century” to commemorate the 238th birth anniversary of social reformer Raja Rammohan Roy in the capital.

He said the project will globally promote lesser-known vernacular literary genres that have been pushed to the fringe for want of translation.

A special committee, National Translation Mission, has been set up for the purpose of translating regional literature.

The panel has met twice under the chairmanship of Ashok Vajpayi, chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi, and litterateur Sunil Gangopadhyay, president of the Sahitya Akademi, respectively, Sircar said.

“We have been at it for the last five months and proposals are being worked out to identify the Indian languages from which literature can be gleaned and the foreign languages in which they can be translated,” Sircar told IANS later.

“We will select the books under four broad categories — poems, short stories, novels and plays. We have a target of 24 Indian languages and five foreign languages,” Sircar said.

To begin with, translations of regional Indian literature would be made available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish and English.

The modalities of funding to “systematically popularise Indian literature abroad” was being worked out, he said.

“We have earmarked some money this year for translation projects and those interested can help the culture ministry identify the right translators for the project. We need two sets of people — one who will translate regional literature and the other who will edit and moderate,” Sircar said.

“It is difficult to find the right translator and moderator. For example, if we want to translate Indian vernacular literature in Russian, we have to ensure that the translators and moderators know Russian and the vernacular language too. The task is mammoth,” he added.

The culture secretary said as a first step “we have discussed the project with Jamia Millia Islamia university and are awaiting a response. The government will pay for the translation. And the publisher will have to take the risk of pulping it out for us.”

An advisory body will take care of the process. “We will not allow any bureaucratic interference in the project,” he said.

The initiative is in consonance with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call to promote regional literature outside the country.

On Jan 16, while laying the foundation stone of the campus of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies in Kolkata, Singh had said: “In recent years, there has been a profusion of writing in various Indian languages.”

“Indian writers in English have gained world renown in recent years. There is much that needs to be done to popularise contemporary writing in other Indian languages, particularly among the younger generation, since many of the writers are young and deal with contemporary themes,” he said.

The prime minister said a National Translation Commission has been set up for the purpose “and it is making progress”.

Putting the project in context, Sircar said: “How much about Indian culture is known outside India? Tagore is widely known because he won the Nobel Prize. Munshi Premchand may be known and a few young Indo-Anglican writers.”

“But the soul of India is its regional languages and Hindi. How many of us are interested in spreading regional languages outside, beyond the ambit of the gyrations of the Bollywood-Hollywood culture?” he said.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)