What About Books in Indian Languages?

Home , Indian literature, India Is, Prose

LOGOS 9(3)2nd mb 31/10/06 8:12 pm Page 162

LOGOS The success of Indian writers in English raises a question: What about books in Indian languages?

Jonathan Self Ninety-five percent of all the books written by Indi- ans are in one of the seventeen languages of India. This makes them inaccessible not only to foreign- ers, but to many within India. Many Indians are trilingual – in a widely spoken Indian language like Hindi (the most widely read Indian language) or in Tamil or Bengali, in English and in their own par- ticular regional language. But the cultural traffic As a postgraduate student of between, say, Punjabi and Malayalam, to give one book publishing at Oxford example, is minimal. Brookes University, Jonathan The result is that the world view of Indian literature is based on Indian writing in Self elected to make a study of English. This is inevitable, and in this respect India Indian literary publishing in his is not in a different situation from nations such as final term. He spent eleven Japan or China, which have only one national lan- weeks in India and interviewed a guage. Only books translated into or written in English can attempt a world readership. However, a large number of publishers and furious debate has been engendered by the claim writers. While in India he also that Indian writing in English (hereinafter called worked with a senior editor at IWE) is superior to vernacular (or regional, as some Macmillan India on a project to prefer to call it) Indian writing (hereinafter called VIW). This claim was made by Salman Rushdie, translate fifty-five novels from who wrote, in an introduction to The Vintage Indian languages into English. In Anthology of Indian Writing 1947 to 1997, that the process, he learned “a lot about both Indian literature and “prose writing, both fiction and non-fiction, by Indian publishing, much of which Indian writers working in English is proving to be a stronger and more important body of work both surprised and shocked me”. than most of what has been produced in the sixteen ‘official languages’ of India, the so-called ‘vernacular languages’, during the same time; and, indeed, this new and still burgeoning ‘Indo- Anglian’ literature represents perhaps the most valuable contribution Indian literature has yet made to the world of books.”

This short six-line statement, reprinted in The New Yorker, provoked an immediate and furious response from Indian publishers, writers, academics and general readers of Indian literature. A

The success of Indian writers in English raises a question

majority of this group considers Rushdie’s com- bizarreness: the grotesque conjunctions of its pri- ments an insult on three separate counts. Firstly, it mordial customs with advanced western ways. is, as they see it, an insult to the other official lan- But however exotic the subject, the viewpoint guages of India (of which there are seventeen after remains firmly western. India is seen from out- English, not sixteen, as Rushdie wrote). Secondly, side and from a position of superiority …. their it is an insult to the Indian literary publishing scene ‘westernness’ is a mindset underpinned by the itself, much of which is concerned with publishing stark commercial pressure from western publish- literature written in a language other than English. ers for the main characters in novels about India And thirdly, it is an insult to the vast body of writ- to be westernized.” ers in all of these other languages. I was able to examine the arguments and One of my missions in India was to work counter-arguments during an eleven-week visit to with Mini Krishnan, senior editor at Macmillan India early in 1998. This also enabled me to formu- India, on a literary translation project involving the late a personal point of view. translation of fifty-five novels from Indian languages into English. Ms Krishnan is not an enemy * * * * * of IWE and indeed proved to be quite an advocate for it in many ways, but she did say that IWE Among the questions seeking answers are: “misses the true sense of community and complex interwoven familiar relationships of the rural lower ● Are the more celebrated writers working in classes in India and therefore does not represent 80 English, such as Vikram Seth, Rohinton to 85% of the Indian population”. Many serious Mistry, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Chandra and readers and followers of literature in India also told Rushdie himself, receiving attention from the me that IWE is guilty of a certain snobbery, laugh- West because they write in a certain style and ing at Indian foibles and weaknesses. This is the portray India in a way, that the West likes? thrust of the main criticisms that Indian publishers, ● Why is IWE seen in India by many as not a writers, academics and readers have of IWE. true form of Indian literature, but merely a There can be no doubt that single novels clever sub-genre of fiction that is purely west- such as A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, God of Small ern in outlook? Things by Arundhati Roy, A Fine Balance by Rohin- ● Why has so little VIW been translated into ton Mistry, and practically every novel written by English? Vikram Chandra, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Amitav ● What is the Indian literary publishing scene Ghosh, Shashi Tharoor, Bharati Mukherjee and, of like now? course, Salman Rushdie, have received a consider- ● How do Indian publishers view both IWE and able amount of attention in the West. Some, such VIW? as A Suitable Boy and God of Small Things, were ● What is the reaction of the bookbuying public hyped by their UK publishers and, needless to say, in India to this debate? sold very well. And every novel written by Rushdie is an event in its own right and causes much excite- The counter-view to Rushdie was stated ment in both the publishing and literary worlds. in The Times Higher Educational Supplement of All these writers are united by two things: February 6, 1998: they are all Indian nationals by birth and they all write in English. They also share a debatable third “The chief intention of Indo-Anglian writers characteristic: they are all “westernized”. This leads seems to be to provide western readers with one to the heart of the matter, which is “Indian- entertainment based on Indian themes. They set ness” and what it is. “Indianness” is not merely a great store by amusing wordplay based on the question of the material of the novel nor that of peculiarities of Indian English. Western literary sensibility even. It is tied up with the factor called techniques and traditions are often overtly and the audience. Indo-English writers do write for an infelicitously applied …. the main motif is India’s Indian audience, but they also write, inevitably, for