Few readers for Indian language literature today, there's no money in it.

In an interview, Ira Pande (daughter of Hindi writer Shivani), laments the lack of recognition for the good work being done in Indian language literature ("Bhasha Literature"). She claims there are few readers for it today and there's no money in it for the writers. She wants their work to be translated to reach wider audiences and is working on it herself.

“Around the time of Independence, our regional `bhasha’ literature had a richer bank. English writing didn’t even have a status. Mulk Raj Anand had to go abroad for publishing. It’s a reversal now, most people don’t even know the big names who are writing in Marathi. Our strength is in our plurality, why should we destroy what we already have? Some of the most modern, most real work, in terms of the country is being done by the `bhasha’ writers. We owe it to them to translate their work, to make it reach the larger reader audiences. Translations are what I want to do.” Currently working on translating late Manohar Shyam Joshi’s novel and Shivani’s Apradhini, which talks of women in prison in the late 1960s, Ira felt, “some books age well. My own book is in my head. I’ll do it when I find the courage. My sense of dignity is rather fragile, I’m choosing to hide behind translations.”

Matter of concern

The rise of Indian writing in English is a matter of concern for Ira. “We’ve made English writing only for the English speaking people, we’ve cut ourselves away from our roots and there is a kind of sameness in the fiction that’s coming out. There is no connection with ordinary life; this kind of writing is not a part of our fictional landscape. It’s quite literally literature for the `baba log’ and `baby log’. An ordinary reader cannot connect emotionally or academically with people of Indian origin living in ghettos in New York or Birmingham. The great promise lies in our non-fiction. Suketu’s Maximum City, for instance, was very impressive.”

No money in it

Bhasha literature in our country is doing extremely good work but sadly there are no readers and there is no money in it for our writers. “Except for Katha and Sahitya Akademi, no one is really working in this field. We are killing whatever little writing that’s being done in our bhashas by imposing English translations on them. Hindi has to be translated to English and promoted abroad. Kiran Desai doesn’t need to be promoted, everyone will run to translate her work. The lesser known yet substantial and great writers need to be given a push. English Literature in India has acquired the glamour of Bollywood. It has its SRKs and ABs.”

“We still live with the colonial burden, in spite of claims otherwise. You should have seen the hype that was created around William Dalrymple’s new book, the crowds that came but the reality is that only a very thin crust of the urban English speaking population is getting to read these books. Popular writing in Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam is being ignored. My mother’s books were being sold, printed on toilet paper. What will happen if we treat our own with so much contempt? The glitz and commerce of India shining is probably going to scare good writers away, only those who are glib and well connected will get picked up.”

I think the opportunity here is huge. We, at New Horizon Media, will be launching an English imprint shortly to translate the best of Indian language literature into English, starting with translations of noted Tamil writers like Ashokamitran, Indira Parthasarathy, Jayakanthan and others.