Book contents
7 - The Case of Gujarati
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2012
Summary
It would be good economy to set apart a class of students whose business would be to learn the best of what is to be learnt in the different languages of the world and give the translations in the vernaculars.
(M. K. Gandhi, 1938:9)Translation, especially in a multi-lingual country like India, has deep cultural implications. It is even a measure of the growth achieved by a language and also of the dominance of certain languages over others. Even the use of certain languages as filter languages for translation into other languages involves the question of power. When a work in an Indian language is translated into a more powerful national/Indian culture; when made available outside India, it involves representing a national culture, which today unfortunately means Western culture.
(Satchidanandan, 1997:7)The Jnanpeeth award, (the most prestigious award for literature instituted by a private trust, Bharatiya Jnanpith, and not extended to any Indian English writer to date) for the year 2001 was conferred upon Indira Goswami from Assam. Undoubtedly all awards and prizes are controversial, especially literary ones since literary merit is a fuzzy concept. What interests us here are the terms of objections and explanations voiced by the Gujarati literati on the occasion of this year's award. In articles included in the Gujarat Sahitya Parishad's journal Parab (August 2001), and local newspapers, leading writers such as Bholabhai Patel and Chinu Modi referred to the role played by English translation in the jury's decision. According to them, Gujarat's well-known writer Rajendra Shah was also short-listed for the award but the dearth of his work in English translation made him lose out to Indira Goswami whose writings are accessible in English.
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- Translating India , pp. 69 - 91Publisher: Foundation BooksPrint publication year: 2005