Indian Literatures in Translation: Regional Identities and National Narratives

Abstract

This paper is a critical examination of the radicality of translation in re-arranging local identities, social forms, and histories of a multilingual and cross-cultural place, such as India. The discussion explores the translation of the Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, and Marathi literary works into English by addressing the role of translation as a contributing as well as destabilizing action at the same time. It is a powerful tool of uplifting the marginal voices as well as the vernacular voices on the one hand, and of absorbing or colonizing regional particularities in the mainstream national and international discourses on the other. The case made here is that translation reaches way beyond the strictly linguistic field into the cultural political space of local to national trade off, invisibility to recognition, and protection to redefinition. Translation that is both ethically and context-sensitive will protect lingual differences, cultural identifications, and political overtones, and therefore oppose the obliteration of local authenticity. Meanwhile, translated regional literatures weaken monolithic nation-based identity by giving prominence to variances or contradicting accounts of history, society, and self. Instead of being a mindless reflection of original works, translation turns out to be an actor of cultural mediation and a force of intellectual exchange. It facilitates an inclusive and pluralist picture of Indian literary identity in that it links regional and transnational readerships. Through that, it redefines Indian literatures in translation as active tools of cultural negotiation and identities. The research thus places translation as a strategic field of contestation and collaboration, which has persistently established the shapes and aspects of Indian literature in the national and world literary ecologies.