Let the word flow
I have a proposal, which at one stroke will enrich Indian literature, improve national integration and at same time leverage market.
The proposal is this almost all the Indian languages boast of rich tradition in literature both classic and modern. Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu. Punjabi and Kannada all have scores of work which are appreciated by large number of people speaking the language. However, since all the languages have a limited influence, it limits both the market as well as the
reach of literary work.
Therefore to introduce the literature to a larger market, the works should be translated in a common language.
I rule out English, first because her reach is limited, second I think idioms and quirks of Indian languages are lost in English. Therefore the works should be translated into Hindi to popularize it all over India.
The one assumption that I make is that people will be sufficiently interested in reading literature, not very easy, but doable.
8 comments:
But I have seen ( in bookstores and libraries ) malayALam translations of novels atleast bengali and kannada. I am pretty sure translations from other languages are available too. I have seen shortstories and novels from various languages published in atleast one malayALam weekly. So I assume literature is already getting translated from all languages to all others.
Frog,
Yes I agree and this is a good thing too.
However translating between 15 plus languages is a difficult thing.
So along with that, if a large enough market could be created, it would be win -win for writers as well as readers.
Imagine every Indian able to read gem like DharamPuri!
Regards
Actually I find it difficult to understand why so many young Indians prefer authors like Sidney Sheldon etc. to translated versions of Indian stories. In my undergraduate hostel library there were some english renditions of general Indian works but I think very few students, if at all, were interested in it. With some shame I have to say I haven't heard of Dharampuri. But then my exposure to literature is rather limited, more so with translations. May be because Indian literature isn't thriller-laden. And may be partly because of the marxist influence - rightly so.
Frog,
They prefer Sidney Sheldon becuase he panders to the masses.
You need not feel ashamed, I touched my first novel in 12th and that was Kane and Abel *Cringe*, and at that time I thought it was naughty stuff *cringe cringe*.
Again reading literature can be done only with surplus money.
My parents could not afford the expensive books.
I, on the other hand, sometime spend even 2000 per month on them.
Regards
Jaffna,
I agree with you.
I wish I knew the answer to your question, it has been long time since I read any significant Hindi (for that is the only Indian language I know) literature.
Frankly speaking the future of Hindi depresses me.
I think that Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada language have best contemprary literature,
I think Sandeep, JK or Frog should be able to help you
Regards
Gaurav
The question is who would be doing the translation and publishing ?
Would it be the Sarkar or private publishers ?
Many language publishing firms are plagued by piracy,copyright issues and poor production values.I think many regional newspaper groups (e.g. the publishers of Dainik Jagran in North India and many others in West Bengal and South Indian newspaper and magazine could diversify into this area .
History,
Heavens forbid that Mai-Baap Sarkaar enters this business.
Ultimately it is upto private players (which include you and me) to do this.
Yes Dainik Jagraan is a big group and it can do this.
Related to this I have observed that English media usually has a mildly (?)contemptous outlook to Indian newspaper.
Regards
Jaffna, atleast with respect to malayALam novels I think the answer to that question is "no". There are lots of discussions as to why writers of the "post modern generation" could not impact the way writers of the "modern generation did".
There are translations to english too. But not many have had as much success as Legends of Khasak or a handful of other previous-generation-books have had. Perhaps the most acclaimed malayalam literary critic, M. Krishnan Nair, used to say that malayALam literature lacks originality.
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