IN my 44 years of publishing experience in Telugu, I have seen continuous devaluation of Telugu when compared to English—from a section of readers (snob value of English), from English language publishers ( high royalty payments in spite of being aware of the cost of translation into Telugu, which doesn’t receive grants as English language books do), from managers of literary events, and from the English language media. Some of the best-loved writers whom Indians read and have grown up with, have written in Indian languages. Despite this, why is writing and publishing in Indian languages so devalued today?
While the number of Indians writing in English has gone up astronomically, contemporary Indian language writers like B Jeyamohan, Hareesh, Perumal Murugan, Indira Goswami, Charu Nivedita, N S Madhavan, K R Meera, Benyamin, Daya Pawar, Manoranjan Byapari, and Imayam, among others, have a huge fan following. However, this is not reflected in the Books sections of newspapers and magazines, and at literary festivals.
Translations into English have been at the mercy of multinational publishing houses. Let us call them what they are—when we don’t hesitate to call Nestle or Coca Cola multinationals, why not call Penguin or HarperCollins the same? Aren’t Oxford University Press and Cambridge colonial presses? All of them are based on capital coming in from the West in search of newer markets and greater profits, trawling the hitherto sacred world of Indian language literature. Their shareholders control them.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 11, 2024-Ausgabe von Outlook.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 11, 2024-Ausgabe von Outlook.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Trump, Up And Charging
'Many countries are nervous about Donald Trump returning to power, but India is not one of them'
Post and Past the Oil in Azerbaijan
As the UN climate conference takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan traces the history of the hydrocarbon industry through the lens of postage stamps
Bhutto's Nehru Story
Nehru's principle of \"compromise and argument\" remains the only workable formula for South Asian leaders
Breathless on Bachchan
Cédric Dupire's documentary The Real Superstar is an irreverent, experimental archive of Amitabh Bachchan's life and his stardom
The Anaphora to Zeugma of the Queen's English
Shashi Tharoor's book is a logophile's candy shop, full of fun, surprises and insights
The Wind Knocked
THE wind knocked on the door. Hesitantly. Wanting to be let in. It had heard the murmuring of the flames. And knew that there was a fire. The wind sought shelter.
The Way Home
“We comfort ourselves by reliving memories of protection. Something closed must retain our memories, while leaving them their original value as images. Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.”—Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
The War Artist
Cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco is in search of the truths distorted by conventional narratives
Mining Adivasi Votes
If the BJP manages to win Jharkhand, it will be the third mineral-rich state after Odisha and Chhattisgarh that will fall into the party's kitty
Unequal Republic
Political parties make promises of equal represention to women, but patriarchy continues to dominate electoral democracy