The Whole Truth

Why translation is critical, explains Rana Dasgupta, director of India’s newest and richest prize for literature.

What defines the pulse of a country? Often, it’s great literature. The undercurrent of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy is the aftermath of Independence, while Ali Smith’s recent Autumn (2016) is as much a chronicle of post-Brexit Britain as it is an unconventional love story. But if that’s the case, India’s narrative is limited—what we call ‘Indian literature’ doesn’t take into consideration the volume of writing in regional languages. As literary director of the JCB Prize for Literature, author Rana Dasgupta looks to make a difference. The country’s newest—and richest, at ₹25 lakh—prize for literature not only accepts translations but encourages them. Of four entries a publisher is allowed, two are reserved for translated works. “What’s going to happen, I think, in the first year is that many will only have two books to enter. In subsequent years they’ll ensure to have at least two translations. Which means it’ll start to create translations where there weren’t before,” he says. Beyond that, Dasgupta has created a diverse jury of people engaged in contemporary society, from different fields and age groups—filmmaker Deepa Mehta, entrepreneur Rohan Murty, theoretical physicist Priyamvada Natarajan, novelist Vivek Shanbag, and translator Arshia Sattar. Here, Dasgupta talks to Bazaar about widening the scope of Indian literature.