Sukrita Paul Kumar
W
hat happens when a Krishna Sobti, an Amrita Pritam or an author such as Bama or O. V. Vijayan is brought into the classroom of an English Department or that of a Centre for South Asian Literature in India or abroad? Such iconic writers from different Indian languages are often fondly prescribed in ‘Area or Culture Studies’ too. In fact, we need to question what happens when a keen reader – may very well be non-academic – craves for a comprehensive understanding of an Indian writer translated in English? Are such readers left befuddled by what seem like culturally specific nuances imbedded in the text or are they then left to simply read a novel or text like any other? We are aware that in our richly multilingual Indian literature, each language flows over a bedrock of a distinctive tradition of oral and written literature.
Since a keen reader or a student of these texts is not likely to be equipped with the knowledge of the original language, should he or she then not be provided with the knowledge of the likely departures from the original text by way of the invisiblization of the distinctive linguistic features of the original writing and the losses of culture in the translated text? How would the reader get to comprehend the writer’s creative interventions in language? Also, how would a student access the cultural context or the literary tradition from which the original text may have evolved?
We also know that for the sake of smooth ‘readability’ editors and publishers generally tend to standardize English language, thus many a time, sacrificing the cultural rootedness found in the original text. The language of translation should actually be allowed to stretch to accommodate culture. But what inevitably comes under the ken is the insular translated text in “proper” English without an adequate amount of supporting critical tools that would help grasp its import fully. For literary and cultural studies, it is crucial to engage with different ways of accessing the multilayered meanings that are woven into the text by the very context of its creation. For instance, in Krishna Sobti’s epic novel Zindaginama, a whole new dimension opens up with the sheer knowledge that the novel was created primarily out of the pain of Partition and the author’s anguish of having witnessed the violent collapse of the composite culture of the subcontinent. The writer Rahi Masoom Raza’s angst regarding Hindi/Urdu politics is duly apprehended only by getting to know of the historical context of the evolution of these languages.
This may indeed stand out as the most prominent problematics of both accessing as well as teaching a translated text. Even though many works by major Indian authors are found in English translation now, there is not much assurance of their close correspondence with the original writing. The question of the appropriateness of the translation calls for both a close attention of the reader as well as an engagement with the issue of the pedagogy required for the teaching of translated texts. What needs to be confronted squarely is the glaring paucity of suitable material for the interested reader to fully appreciate an Indian author in translation; this is also imperative for the teaching of Indian authors translated into English.
The ‘Writer in Context’ series forthcoming from Routledge, with Sukrita Paul Kumar and Chandana Dutta as the series editors, with nearly a dozen books in the making as of now, aims to address these vital questions. The conceptualization of this Series may be perceived as a significant intervention in the historical evolution of the study of Indian literature in English translation.
Soon after the publication of the book Decolonizing the Mind by the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o in 1986, Indian literature in translation got a boost and began to be generously incorporated in the syllabi of English Departments in India and abroad.
But what got waylaid was the creation of adequate critical tools to examine the translated authors within their context. The works by the eminent activist writer in Bengali, Mahasweta Devi, or the “anchalik” writings by the Hindi writer, Phanishwarnath Renu, have to be located within their socio-literary traditions if only to cognize the power of their pen.
The weight of their defiance of the accepted norms of creative writing in their respective languages can be appreciated only with the knowledge of what they actually flouted. The importance of the Kannada writer Devanuru Mahadeva’s work too can be estimated only after one is familiar with the backdrop of the modernist writing in his language. Indira Goswami as an Assamese writer of eminence stands taller if apprehended in the context of her participation in the political negotiation with ULFA.
It was with such thoughts in mind that the ‘Writer in Context’ series was planned. Each volume of the Series will include amongst some other features, a judicious selection from the writer’s oeuvre, some key critical essays, notes on translation and highlights on the writer’s use of language, memorabilia and a bio-chronology of the author.
The ‘Writer in Context’ series focuses on post-Independence writers from different Indian languages. This generation of ‘modern’ writers, whether it be Vyankatesh Madgulkar from Marathi or Indira Goswami from Assamese or for that matter in any other Indian author, evolved with a heightened consciousness of change and resurgence fanned by modernism, postmodernism, progressivism and other literary trends and fashions, while at the same time being rooted in tradition even when they defied it. The aim is to present the dynamics of creative writing from within the complex self-reflexivity of the Indian writer situated in such culturally resonant times. Reputed scholars from different educational institutions are engaged in researching and editing volumes on writers across many Indian languages.
The first volume in the Series, Krishna Sobti, A Counter Archive, was published in September 2021, followed by the volume on the Urdu writer Joginder Paul in January this year.
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Sukrita Paul Kumar formerly Aruna Asaf Ali Chair at Delhi University, is a poet, critic and translator.
Sukrita Paul Kumar in The Beacon
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