When one examines the beginnings of translation in India, one finds that the first translators of the Indian literature into English were the English people themselves. Shakuntala by Sir William Jones, Bhagavad Gita by Barbara Stoler Miller, Gita Govinda by Lee Seigel and Manu Smriti by Wendy Doniger are some examples. Rikta Kothari, in Translating India: The Cultural Politics of English, examines the phase of British Orientalism in India and says:

“The period from 1772 to 1840 witnessed multiple systems of knowledge constructed by the British and translations were one outcome of this knowledge - creating enterprise. A series of translations of ancient Indian texts undertaken by the British after 1770, has served for generations (among Indians and Europeans) as an ‘authentic’ account of India.”

It was only in the nineteenth century that Indian intellectuals began to interrupt the colonizer’s version of India. The translation of Sankara’s Vedanta by Raja Rammohan Roy in 1816 was the first English translation by an Indian. As we move into post-independence India, we find translation activity at a lower ebb. Translation was not considered an intellectual activity and hardly had any place in the market. The translators' names often never appeared, and if they did, it was not on the cover page. Sujit Mukherjee points out the publishing scenario of the times and says,"...these books were printed on cheap paper, bound in card, and carried cover designs that seldom attracted the eye. What was attractive was the low price, and this factor was expected to be the selling point of translation titles,”

The scenario changed when organizations like Sahitya Akademi, Katha, and the Crossword chain of bookshops started working on English translations of Indian literature. In 1989, Sahitya Akademi started giving annual awards in the field of translation, and other organizations carried on with it.

The importance of translation in a multilingual and multi-cultural country like India was ultimately realized, creating a 'boom' in the market for English translations of Indian literature.

At this juncture, one may ask why English was chosen as the target language amongst the multitude of other languages of the country. To seek an answer to this question, one has to go back to the times when English first arrived in India. English came to us through the British, and it was in their translations that India was created for the world. Kothari points out the phase when Indian intervention in the colonizer’s version of India was first witnessed.

“Given the colonial expropriation of India’s past, retrieval of history became an important aspect of the anti-colonial agenda....Translation became a tool to carry out this agenda and issue correction in the Westerner’s version of India’s past.”

English became a vehicle in our hands to answer the British interpretation of India. It thus acted as the most appropriate target language for the translation of Indian literature to present what India is and not what the British constructed it to be. After the independence, the English gave clear signals to stay in the country. It became the link language and acted as a leveler to the various regional languages of the country. English translations from the regional languages help us understand India as a whole. Through these translations, one gets to know the diversity of India and the cultures hidden behind these languages. As English has developed into a language of globalization, these translations not only help us understand Indian literature but also place it on a larger platform so that the whole world can witness the literary heritage of the country.

 A look into the linguistic register used in translation reveals that translations have created their own English. In fact, several kinds of English are born out of Indian translations. As each regional language of India has its own tradition and cultural baggage behind it, a translation has to create new English every time to carry that baggage. Annie Brisset, in "The Search for a Native Language: Translation and Cultural Identity", talks of how translations create languages. She gives an example of the translation of the Bible by Luther. The translation here employed a target language, which was 'not a single unified language but a number of dialects'. According to her, this translation gave rise to the German language. She quotes Berman in her essay, saying, "Thus we find at the same time a consistent and deliberate use of a very oral language, full of images, expressions, turns of phrase, together with a subtle purification, de dialectilzation of this language.”

Similarly, we find very different English in the translation of an Urdu text, for example, and another in that of a Bengali text. In this way, translation in India has led to the production of various types of English. G.J.V. Prasad discusses this essential visibility of ‘Indian-ness’ in a translated text. He says, “Literary works from U.P. and literary works from Tamil Nadu cannot and should not read the same in English translation...For audiences here in India the U. P. text has to read differently from a Tamizh text... This also calls for different kinds of Englishes, to be used in translation.”

This development of Indian English in translation is a major hallmark in distinguishing our linguistic cultures. These Englishes can be seen where the translation tries to capture the essence of the original text. An original text is written in the regional language, which incorporates within itself all cultural baggage, but when a translator uses English as a translating medium, he tries to maintain the original freshness and naturalness of the text in a different language. It is in this process that a new language or linguistic register emerges.

The emergence of this new linguistic register has added to the vocabulary of English too. Many of Indian words are now part of English dictionaries. This has provided a broader base to the English language.

A variety of English can be seen in translations. It happens because India is a land of diverse cultures, so the language of a region gets affected by the geographical conditions and by the psyche of the people living there. In this manner, a variety of Indian English emerge which are also present in translations. Every character has a language of his own, and while translating this language, a great deal of care is needed because a character gets defined by the language he speaks; the language reflects his upbringing, his psyche, his habits and his self.

Certain inadequacies arise with English as the target language in translations. Regional Indian languages carry within them the cultural nuances of their region. Translating these nuances into English, a language with definite affinities becomes problematic for the translator. It becomes challenging to create a peculiar atmosphere and generate the particular temper of the original text. K. M. George in “Role of Translation in Indian Literature” discusses how it is easier to translate into a language with similar grammatical structure and lossarial affinities’. He says:

”This is the case when a Malyal Kannada which belongs to the same family. Translation of the same work into Bengali or Hindi is more difficult. Even then, these languages are so common that translation becomes more manageable. But a translation into English which is linguistically and culturally distant, presents more problems. “

Competence in the target language can be the only solution to these problems. Only then can a translator capture the real essence of the original work. Problems also arise while translating Indian relationships into English. English restricts itself to uncles and aunts, while Indian culture has a different name for every relationship. These problems are, however, slowly vanishing from the scene because now translated works keep these relationships as they are. It is done because these relationships help define and emphasize Indian culture and ethos. Further, there are other methods like glossaries and footnotes that help explain these references to unfamiliar audiences.

A translator has to create Indian behaviour and patterns of the regional language into a culturally distant language. To do this, he has to choose between words and then decide on the one that captures the essence of the original. A translator has to negotiate with the standard and grammatically correct English to retain the flavour of the original work.

There is one more drawback to the practice of translation in India. This drawback lies not on the part of the translated text but on the part of the reader. We never question the authenticity of translations from German or French texts, but we always question the genuineness of translations from Indian languages like Oriya, Gujrati, Malayalam or Hindi. When we read Barthes, we hardly think of the original French text. Similarly, many of us never realize that Betrolt Brecht's plays were not in English but originally in German. When one never questions the authenticity of the works of Tolstoy in translation, then why do we stop and stumble over the translations from Indian languages? It is because a translation canon in India has yet to emerge in which language plays a significant role. With the passage of time, one has witnessed a marked change in the Indian minds, both in the readers as well as the promoters. It has led to the 'boom' of this translation industry in India.

1. Annie Brisset, "The Search for a Native Language: Translation and Cultural Identity", Translated by Rosalond Gill and Roger Gannon. The Translation Studies Readers, 2^nd edition edited by Lawrence Venuti, New York: Routledge, 2004, pp. 337-368.
2. K. M. George, "Role of Translation in Indian Literature" in Tutun Mukherjee (ed), Translation: From Periphery to Centrestage, New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1998, pp. 32–33.
3. Sujit Mukherjee, " Publish and Perish" in Anisur Rahman (ed.), Translation: Poetics and Practice, New Delhi: Creative Books, 2002, pp. 13-24.
4. GJ.V. Prasad, "Creative Indian Words in English: R. K. Narayan as a fellow Translator" in Anisur Rahman (ed.), Translation: Poetics and Practice, New Delhi; Creative Books, 2002, pp. 44-54.
5. Anisur Rahman, Delhi : “Preface” in Anisur Rahman (ed.), Translation: Poetics and Practice, New Delhi: Creative Books, 2002, pp. ix-xii.
6. Rita Kothari, Translating India: The Cultural Politics of English Manchester: St. Jerome, 2003, pp. 1–22