PVLF 2025

Bhasha Literature Transcends Borders

Delve into India's cultural richness with the NIF Translation Fellowship. Translate diverse knowledge from 10 languages to English. Apply by Dec 31 for this transformative 6-month experience.
on Dec 26, 2023

The need to communicate complicated ideas and profound knowledge buried in our bhasha to a larger audience is central to the New India Translation Fellowship, which just announced the start of submissions for the second phase, which will be granted in 2024.

When academician and literary historian Professor N.S. Gundur started thinking about Kannada writings that readers outside of the Kannada world should read, he made a list of books. "I ended up deleting most of the titles because they largely spoke to a Kannada audience," says Gundur, one of three beneficiaries of the first edition of the New India Foundation (NIF) Translation Fellowship, which aims to translate knowledge works from diverse Indian languages to English.

However, one book remained on the list: DR Nagaraj's Allamaprabhu Mattu Shaive Pratibhe, which was released posthumously in 1999. "Its reach is cosmopolitan, but it is written in Kannada," he adds of the text, which concentrates on the life and teachings of Allama Prabhu, a significant figure in Karnataka's revolutionary Vachana movement in the 12th century. "The book is a radical reading of the vachanas," he said. The Vachanas were the result of a literary and social movement that defied various literary and social traditions of the time.

"Nagaraj brings in a lot of other premodern Indian religious and intellectual traditions and connects Allama's life with these traditions," says Gundur, who is currently a Professor in the Department of Studies and Research in English at Tumkur University in Tumakuru (Karnataka). "It is a fascinating study of mediaeval Kannada literature."
Venkateswar Ramaswamy (literary translator) and Amlan Biswas (statistician), who are translating Nirmal Kumar Bose's Diaries 1946-47 from Bangla, and Rahul Sarwate (academician and history), who is translating Sharad Patil's Marxvad: Marathi Phule-Ambedkarvaad

Communicating complex concepts

The desire to communicate the complex ideas and deep knowledge buried in our bhasha scriptures to a broader audience is at the heart of the NIF Translation Fellowship, which just announced the start of applications for the second phase, which will be granted in 2024. "In India, we do think a lot about translation, but it tends to be focused on fiction," explains Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at the NIF. According to her, the lack of a translation ecosystem in nonfiction could be attributed to the country's overwhelming complexity. "Even from state to state, there are very different levels of awareness about homegrown thinkers because their work, ideas and theories aren't translated into pan-Indian consciousness," she said.

Furthermore, as Yauvanika points out, many Indian societies are still predominantly oral. "If there is no material text, how does one conserve it?" she wonders, emphasising how difficult it is to translate nonfiction, a sentiment shared by Professor Gundur. He emphasises other difficulties, particularly those linked to communicating the intricacies and intertextuality of regional writing. "Text is more than just words. Many voices, forces, philosophies, and ideas exist. The difficulty is bringing that environment in."

Nonetheless, it is critical. "We were thinking about the lack of Indian knowledge tradition and felt that unless we made a concerted effort, they wouldn't organically come into the mainstream," Yauvanika explains, delving into the translation fellowship's raison d'etre.

"There is a crisis if we are not aware of the intellectual traditions in our own languages." The expectation is lofty...to communicate with one another and comprehend how others think," she says.

Applications for this 6-month fellowship, which provides a stipend of Rs. 6 lakh, mentorship, and support to translators and writers working on texts in 10 Indian languages — Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Odia, Tamil, and Urdu — will close on December 31.

"The fellowships are not just about the monetary aspect, though it is a very generous fellowship," Yauvanika, the recipient, explains. "It's also about how much institutional support we can provide for a career that is so isolated and isolating," she adds, adding that NIF also provides editorial, administrative, and legal help.
A rich linguistic heritage

A jury comprised of NIF Trustees — political scientist Niraja Jayal Gopal, historian Srinath Raghavan, and entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal — as well as NIF's language expert committee, which includes eminent scholars, translators, and writers such as Vivek Shanbhag, AR Venkatachalapathy, K.R. Meera, and Rana Safvi — will select the translation fellowships.

According to Shanbhag, a well-known Kannada writer, India has a long history of knowledge sharing amongst distinct bhashas. "Most Indians know more than two languages; we go out and converse in a language and come home and speak another," he said. "We keep doing this translation without even realising it every day." We have this wonderful chance because so many languages are alive and well," he says, drawing a contrast between the subcontinent and Europe, where multiple languages coexist in a tiny geographic area. "Reading translated texts helps us get to know the literature, culture, and, going a step forward, the knowledge systems created in these languages," he said. "Anyone will enrich their knowledge and experience by knowing the views and other experiences of other people and cultures."

Yes, translating these books into English is crucial because it broadens their reach. "Bringing that into English is important because the discussions that you see today, especially in non-fiction, happen in English," said Shanbhag. He is also concerned that the knowledge systems contained inside Indian languages be shared with the rest of the globe. Consider the 12th-century Vachana movement, which repudiated caste and was possibly the first such movement in India. "There are so many books, non-fiction written about this period in Karnataka," he says, pointing out that one such text is DR Nagaraj's Allamaprabhu Mattu Shaive Pratibhe, which Professor Gundur is translating.

"There is a shift in the social and intellectual life of the English language in India," says Professor Gundur, who believes that translating bhasha literature into English can help us better understand Indian knowledge systems and social discourse. "This is not just a translation fellowship; it is also a research fellowship." "The concept of translation as research is very intriguing," he says.