Translation Is The Language Of Democracy: Arunava Sinha?

The marginalised and relatively softer voices need more attention. I hope we see a lot of translations between Indian languages and not only in English, says noted Indian translator Arunava Sinha.

Tabeenah Anjum

Updated on: 17 March 2022 6:14 am

Arunava and Anita Agnihotri in conversation at the Jaipur Literature Festival

Talking about the relevance of translation and why it has become more important than ever, noted Indian translator Arunava Sinha said, "Translation is the language of democracy. Everyone is equally important and everyone must be heard. At the time when we are trying to build diversity it is important we understand each other and we stop othering and this is where the translation has a role to play ".

Speaking to Outlook on the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Sinha who translates classic, modern, and contemporary Bengali fiction and nonfiction into English added, "India is a unique country in the world where actually around two dozen unique languages are used to speak, write and read. India is not a linguistic monolith at all. So you want to have a sense of India culturally then you need to know each other's cultures and literature being one of them. And films and music are also important. So here is why there is a need for translation more than ever".

Further describing the role of translation in India, Sinha added, "There are more authors that are becoming visible and all thanks to the work of translators. These translators are looking for them at the margins and they are not looking only at the mainstream publications. They are looking at Dalit, women and tribal writers. Regional imbalance here is corrected by translators by putting them on the equal level"

Commenting on the myth that translation is inferior to writing, he shared "Some people experience this anxiety that translation of literature that is not written in English will be rural or other people, not they are comfortable with. But the idea of the literature is to make you uncomfortable with"

Talking about the issues that need to be addressed, he said "The marginalised and relatively softer voices need more attention. I hope we see a lot of translations between Indian languages and not only in English. We shall be able to read each other literature in our mother tongue not just in English".

"In India, we translate out of our mother tongues into English. Whereas in the west, they translate English into their mother tongues. There is a need to translate oral narratives. A huge number of gazetteers important documents, constituent assembly debates are lying unread", added Sinha, an associate professor of creative writing at the Ashoka University and the co-director of Ashoka Centre of Translation.

Sinha on Sunday received the Distinguished Translator Award 2022 conferred by Vani Foundation at the Jaipur Literature Festival. The award recognises Indian translators and their noteworthy body of literary and linguistic work built over time between at least two Indian languages.

Sinha’s noteworthy translations include fiction titles like Pebblemonkey by Manindra Gupta, The Strange Death of Anindyasundar by Anish Deb, Shameless by Taslima Nasreen and Dozakhnama by Rabisankar Bal. He has also translated non-fiction books like Mamata: Beyond 2021 by Jayanta Ghosal and An Educated Woman in Prostitution by Manada Debi, among others.
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