Comparative Literature & Translation Studies : Unit 4
Introduction : This blog is written as a response to the Thinking Activity assigned by Dr Dilip Barad concerning the second unit of the topic Comparative Literature & Translation Studies.
In this blog, I will be referring to two articles in context of the topic and will give the key highlights from the articles following the structure arranged as abstract, key points, and concluding remarks.
Article 8 : 'Introduction : History in Translation' by Tejaswini Niranjana :
The eighth presentation on the topic 'Introduction : History in Translation' was presented on 19th December, 2022 wherein Bhavna Sosa, Dhvani Rajyaguru, and Hina Sarvaiya cooperatively presented the article.
The article in fact is the first chapter of the book titled as 'Siting Translation' (January 1992) by Tejaswini Niranjana. The article deals with the historical roots of Translation with special reference to the Indian Colonial period. The article also interweaves the Post-Colonial voice and some historical facts related to Translation and its need in India during British Rule.
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The notion of Indians being inferior prevalent in the British Rule in India is also reflected in the field of Translation Studies. For instance, when sir William Jones was serving as a judge from British Law in Bengal during 1783 to 1794, he - as argued in the article - lost faith on "Pundit" (Indian Learned Man) because Pundits were the ancillaries to the judges when judges wanted to pass any law or judgement on the Indian, they required Pundits for translating the Sanskrit writings particular to the Hindu community while forming the laws for them, but Jones thought that Pundits might be cheating over fulfilling their personal and communal needs over cost of the other communities, that is how he learnt Sanskrit out of need but not reverence. This can be looked as the gross-generalization of Jones as all might not have been cheaters but as he believed, this gave new way to the Translation studies and scholarship in Indo-Aryan languages which later cane to be known as Indo-European language studies as well. His thinking in this way might be the result of his unconscious Eurocentricism and Colonial Superiority, with this the author introduces the voice of Post-Colonialism.
The earlier times were such when those were considered learned and scholars who have mastered the religious scriptures to which they belonged and thence in Hindu community, such peopla are cane to be known as 'Pundits' and in Muslim community, 'Maulavis.' This totally goes in against of today-measurement of Scholarship. These days the ones who have acquired university education which involves personal skills rather than communal support in acquiring scholarship as it was there on ancient days. University education is not limited to the people belonging to any single or particular community but opens up the gates for everyone who are eligible, by temperament, but not by birth.
Further the historical aspect was also given light upon. The history of Indian or any other nations formerly ruled by any colonial powers can be seen as the colonial past. Colonialism is the subject rooted in Post-Colonial Space.
In order to illustrate the fact that History may or may not be authentic evidence to study the past especially one written by the people wielding power, we can take example of the speech given at death ceremony or death anniversary for any deceased person or people, there in the speech we find the praise but not a just criticism and that is why paeans - especially in Literary Writings - can never be the authentic and objective source of historical scenarios. The question of 'What, Why, and Where the Speech is Given' should be the first condition in analyzing history. When the dialogue or word is situated into context, meanings are clear.
Another historical aspect in Translation Studies focuses on its own self as the need to study 'What, Why, and How Translation is done?' History present in Translation is also to be observed in meticulous manner in order to know the dynamics of society, politics, and culture lived by around it. Switching over to past is not completely possible, sometimes hybridity is solution. This demarcates the purpose and requirement of Translation Studies in the chapters of Time's Chronology.
For instance, the translation of Valmiki's 'Ranayana' into the other languages have happened many a times down the line, then here it becomes the important question to see and analyze the translated texts with juxtaposition of the original Sanskrit 'Ramayana' written by Rishi Valmiki in order to identify the changes and interpolation made, invented, or we can say improvised by the translator keeping the needs and zeitgeist of their respective times when in the translation is happened.
For example, in Tulsidasa's translated version of original 'Ramayana' into Awadhi language known as 'Ramcharitmanas,' there we find that after considering Rama as a divine incarnation as against of the fact that tells that he was a human, 'Baalkand' and 'Uttarkand' were added to legitimize his existence as a divine incarnation other than common human who once lived and then died on the same planet earth.
In Baldev Raj Chopra's 'Mahabharat' which is television show series, there we find the time (Kaalchakra) as narrator rather than Ved Vyasa.
What is in and around the concern of Translation we can reach through Post-Structuralism.
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To overview the concepts behind the earlier educational institutes such as The Sanskrit College at Benares (1791) and The Mohammedan College at Calcutta (1781), we find the documentation of the account of the aforementioned educational institutes from Sir Charles E. Trevelyan's book titled as 'On the Education of the People of India' (1838), he quotes the printed report of the committee, dated in December 1831 :
"The committee has therefore continued to encourage the acquirement of the native literature of both Mohammedans and Hindus, in the institutions which they found established for these purposes, as the Madressa of Calcutta and Sanskrit college of Benares. They have also endeavoured to promote the activity of similar establishments, of which local considerations dictated the formation, as the Sanskrit college of Calcutta and the colleges of Agra and Delhi, as it is to such alone, even in the present day, that the influential and learned classes, those who are by birthright or profession teachers and expounders of literature, law, and religion, maulavis and pundits, willingly resort." ('On the Education of the People of India' (1838), Chapter 1)
"...the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless and the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional."
In the article, we find the Modernist Movement of England especially emerging from the Golden Year of English Literature, i.e., 1922. Through this we can see that there is thin layer of difference between British Modernism and Indian Modernism; the way British has suffered the traumas of wars, social unrest, class difference in the measure which is way bigger than that of an Indian one as India has gone through caste-conflict, colonialism, and many types of discriminatory practices, especially on the grounds of one's birth, social status, background, and gender, which all on one hand marred the progress of it and on the other has enriched the land with various kinds of developmental tools which till the date are living with it, and all this was possible due to various invasions of many dynasties throughout the centuries, so we find that any type of invasion that India faced was not all together invidious for it apart from colonial rule and before that caste-differences.
Another aspect of Modernism in both the countries is its emergence, British Modernism was natural and originally sprouted from the nation whereas Indian one remained just an imported imitation from the Western World, in literary world, through Translation.
Another addition happened by the advent of Modernity in India that through the modernist tools, they were able to escape the traditional way of writings. Rabindranath Tagore has pioneered the art of short stories in Indian setting, T. P. Kailasama wrote plays, and Toru Dutt wrote poetry. Many other writers flowered their writings in modernist way of doing things which ultimately brought Indian Literature to a new light.
Another striking aspect of Post-Modernist literary tools is that is logically breaks down the accepted notions and norms of perceiving things as in 'The Waste Land' we find that despite having been accepted as a month of happiness, April is said to be "cruel" by the poet, and also the fact that water gives life is broken down by the poet in the same poem as in the title of the part 'Death by Water;' all this constructions is built in order to "deconstruct" the notionally accepted views for the change as the tradition has always brought disasters in the world due to lack of scientific temperament into it and misconceptual assumptions of what remained unknown or inaccessible to them.
This is true that whenever any type of crisis came in past, people turned religious and superstitious, leaving all their mind to the table of unknown, from where Mysticism sprouted. For instance we find movies like 'Narnia,' 'The Lord of the Rings,' 'Land of the Little People - Jajantaram Mamantaram,' etc. which all at a superficial glance seem to be of some kind of fantastical child-stories, but in deep analysis we find that they tend to fit into the traditional cube of running to the God in crisis time. All this fantasy literature is coloured by religion.
Another hypotheses tells that the people who constantly feel insecure or are in paranoid mental state are more superstitious and religious. This can be seen in reality as well when the recent FIFA World Cup 2022 was won by Argentina, many people from the country believed that there was a witchcraft exorcised as a counter-attack against the other blackmagic played by the rival teams. This type of incidents are not new as many people are still besotted in religious beliefs which are having lack of scientific temperament and that is what adding to ignorance causing harm to the earth.
In this blog, I will be referring to two articles in context of the topic and will give the key highlights from the articles following the structure arranged as abstract, key points, and concluding remarks.
Article 8 : 'Introduction : History in Translation' by Tejaswini Niranjana :
The eighth presentation on the topic 'Introduction : History in Translation' was presented on 19th December, 2022 wherein Bhavna Sosa, Dhvani Rajyaguru, and Hina Sarvaiya cooperatively presented the article.
The article in fact is the first chapter of the book titled as 'Siting Translation' (January 1992) by Tejaswini Niranjana. The article deals with the historical roots of Translation with special reference to the Indian Colonial period. The article also interweaves the Post-Colonial voice and some historical facts related to Translation and its need in India during British Rule.
.png)
The notion of Indians being inferior prevalent in the British Rule in India is also reflected in the field of Translation Studies. For instance, when sir William Jones was serving as a judge from British Law in Bengal during 1783 to 1794, he - as argued in the article - lost faith on "Pundit" (Indian Learned Man) because Pundits were the ancillaries to the judges when judges wanted to pass any law or judgement on the Indian, they required Pundits for translating the Sanskrit writings particular to the Hindu community while forming the laws for them, but Jones thought that Pundits might be cheating over fulfilling their personal and communal needs over cost of the other communities, that is how he learnt Sanskrit out of need but not reverence. This can be looked as the gross-generalization of Jones as all might not have been cheaters but as he believed, this gave new way to the Translation studies and scholarship in Indo-Aryan languages which later cane to be known as Indo-European language studies as well. His thinking in this way might be the result of his unconscious Eurocentricism and Colonial Superiority, with this the author introduces the voice of Post-Colonialism.
Further the historical aspect was also given light upon. The history of Indian or any other nations formerly ruled by any colonial powers can be seen as the colonial past. Colonialism is the subject rooted in Post-Colonial Space.
Time
In order to illustrate the fact that History may or may not be authentic evidence to study the past especially one written by the people wielding power, we can take example of the speech given at death ceremony or death anniversary for any deceased person or people, there in the speech we find the praise but not a just criticism and that is why paeans - especially in Literary Writings - can never be the authentic and objective source of historical scenarios. The question of 'What, Why, and Where the Speech is Given' should be the first condition in analyzing history. When the dialogue or word is situated into context, meanings are clear.
Another historical aspect in Translation Studies focuses on its own self as the need to study 'What, Why, and How Translation is done?' History present in Translation is also to be observed in meticulous manner in order to know the dynamics of society, politics, and culture lived by around it. Switching over to past is not completely possible, sometimes hybridity is solution. This demarcates the purpose and requirement of Translation Studies in the chapters of Time's Chronology.
For instance, the translation of Valmiki's 'Ranayana' into the other languages have happened many a times down the line, then here it becomes the important question to see and analyze the translated texts with juxtaposition of the original Sanskrit 'Ramayana' written by Rishi Valmiki in order to identify the changes and interpolation made, invented, or we can say improvised by the translator keeping the needs and zeitgeist of their respective times when in the translation is happened.
For example, in Tulsidasa's translated version of original 'Ramayana' into Awadhi language known as 'Ramcharitmanas,' there we find that after considering Rama as a divine incarnation as against of the fact that tells that he was a human, 'Baalkand' and 'Uttarkand' were added to legitimize his existence as a divine incarnation other than common human who once lived and then died on the same planet earth.
In Baldev Raj Chopra's 'Mahabharat' which is television show series, there we find the time (Kaalchakra) as narrator rather than Ved Vyasa.
The shift of narrative techniques as well as narrators is also the obvious part in Translation Studies as well as in Post-Structuralist narratives.
Further the Post-Structuralist Critique, lodestar philosopher, propounder of 'Deconstruction' - sir Jacques Derrida's seminal work in field of Post-Structuralist Criticism titled as 'Of Grammatology' (1967) was referred to.
What is in and around the concern of Translation we can reach through Post-Structuralism.
This can be read from the critical point of view at the Education System prevalent during British Rule and Post-Independence India to the present improvisation of it as National Education Policy - 2020.
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"The committee has therefore continued to encourage the acquirement of the native literature of both Mohammedans and Hindus, in the institutions which they found established for these purposes, as the Madressa of Calcutta and Sanskrit college of Benares. They have also endeavoured to promote the activity of similar establishments, of which local considerations dictated the formation, as the Sanskrit college of Calcutta and the colleges of Agra and Delhi, as it is to such alone, even in the present day, that the influential and learned classes, those who are by birthright or profession teachers and expounders of literature, law, and religion, maulavis and pundits, willingly resort." ('On the Education of the People of India' (1838), Chapter 1)
Further the importance of Translation and its requirement is also taken into account :
"A teacher of the vernacular language of the province is already attached to several of our institutions, and we look to this plan soon becoming general. We have also endeavoured to secure the means of judging for ourselves of the degree of attention which is paid to this important branch of instruction, by requiring that the best translations from English into the vernacular language, and vice versa, should be sent to us after each annual examination, and if they seem to deserve it, a pecuniary prize is awarded by us to the authors of them." ('On the Education of the People of India' (1838), Chapter 1)
Now looking at the National Education Policy - 2020 of India, we find that there is an omittance of one year from the Bachelor's Degree and Master's Degree programme; this may harm the moulding of the students resulted by the deduction of one formative year which is most important and significant in their professional as well as personal life.
British Education is considered to have the utilitarian purpose after educating Indians who can be taken as the assistant-type workers to their British masters, the three skills were at the base of British Education Policy, namely, 'Reading,' 'Writing,' and 'Arithmetic'; for making sure the ease of British officer.
Along with all the perspectives, the idea of 'Material Condition' of the people was also pointed out as it has direct connection to the socio-economic aspect of nation.
This Eurocentricism can also be seen through the lens of Cultural Studies. British narrated Mughals as bad for their demolition of Hindu temples, this is how they wanted themselves to be considered as good for the Hindus by demonizing Mughals. But nowadays we can see that more number of temples are demolished in the name of development for business purposes by multi-national companies and government tourism ministries, this can be the startling example of what Ania Loomba calls as the rise of "New Empire" where "New Masters" rule. Ecocriticism is also there.
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For instance, when the Operation Blue Star (1st June, 1984 to 8th June, 1984) was successfully carried out under aegis of then prime minister Indira Gandhi in order to send Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his Charampanthi followers to the right about. Indeed the operation caused casualties and considerable damage to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, but given the situation, it was necessary to have happened so. But nowadays people who lack historical sense are thinking that Indira Gandhi was the anti-nationalist who damaged the religious places of sikhs and two of her sikh-bodyguards shot her dead due to religious reason, but the fact tells that there was nothing as such religious reason behind killing Indira Gandhi in the guards, but they were the followers of Bhindranwale and so they carried out killing of the one whom they were assigned the protection of. When people express their sentiments in any form, identities play an important role.
This is the reason why sir Thomas Stearns Eliot has emphasised on "Historical Sense" in his seminal critical work 'Tradition and Individual Talent' (1919) :
"...the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless and the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional."
Article 9 : 'Shifting Centres and Emerging Margins : Translation and the Shaping of the Modernist Poetic Discourse in Indian Poetry' by E. V. Ramakrishnan :
The ningth presentation on the topic 'Shifting Centres and Emerging Margins : Translation and the Shaping of the Modernist Poetic Discourse in Indian Poetry' was presented on 20th December, 2022 wherein Khushbu Makwana and Nehal Gohil cooperatively presented the article.
The reason of why Indians were interested in Translation Writings may be experimentation and individualism in writings. This may seem as Post-Colonial argument, but before Islam and Christianity came in India, there has been several sects which were dividing people on the basis of their birth and places, which may be called as 'pseudo Varna system.'
We find the poem 'Kurukshetra' in Hindi language written by Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' where he puts the imagery which echoes as same as that of the one found in the poem 'The Waste Land' by sir T. S. Eliot, bleak and morbid. This type of imitation may be done consciously or unconsciously by the experimentative writers in India at that time.
Another striking aspect of Post-Modernist literary tools is that is logically breaks down the accepted notions and norms of perceiving things as in 'The Waste Land' we find that despite having been accepted as a month of happiness, April is said to be "cruel" by the poet, and also the fact that water gives life is broken down by the poet in the same poem as in the title of the part 'Death by Water;' all this constructions is built in order to "deconstruct" the notionally accepted views for the change as the tradition has always brought disasters in the world due to lack of scientific temperament into it and misconceptual assumptions of what remained unknown or inaccessible to them.
In Kannada, sir Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy (1932-2014) has also criticised the tradition of 'Shola Samskaras' or the sixteen sacramental rites of Indian tradition in his novel as well as religious fiction 'Samskara : A Rite for a Dead Man' (1965) striking on caste system of ancient as well as modern Indian cultural dynamics.
This is true that whenever any type of crisis came in past, people turned religious and superstitious, leaving all their mind to the table of unknown, from where Mysticism sprouted. For instance we find movies like 'Narnia,' 'The Lord of the Rings,' 'Land of the Little People - Jajantaram Mamantaram,' etc. which all at a superficial glance seem to be of some kind of fantastical child-stories, but in deep analysis we find that they tend to fit into the traditional cube of running to the God in crisis time. All this fantasy literature is coloured by religion.
Another hypotheses tells that the people who constantly feel insecure or are in paranoid mental state are more superstitious and religious. This can be seen in reality as well when the recent FIFA World Cup 2022 was won by Argentina, many people from the country believed that there was a witchcraft exorcised as a counter-attack against the other blackmagic played by the rival teams. This type of incidents are not new as many people are still besotted in religious beliefs which are having lack of scientific temperament and that is what adding to ignorance causing harm to the earth.
Cultural Effect is also the major factor affecting the literary production of time, the way culture is shaped around the author, the way the author writes the writings. Some try to forsee the effects, some subdue to the need of time, some turn sycophants, and few fight and die. Literature thence can be seen as a thermometre for society to check its mental health.
E. V. Ramakrishnan sought to see influence of Western Literary styles on India Literature and A. K. Ramanujan laid bare the difficulties one can face while translating poem from one language into another.
Conclusion : The way Translation Studies proliferated in Indian setting is something strange to see as the conservative ideologies always try to curb the possibilities proposed by the Translation and Comparative Literature due to the insularity of conservative ideologies functioning in major portion in countries like India, but still little efforts by such scholars brings new rays of hope for such studies in future. The dogmatic view towards language and giving it metaphor of mother is one of the major factors which curtails the growth of Translation Studies and Comparative Literature, regressive approach to find solution for modern problems and its reflection in literary realm is also invidious for the development in academic fields which is the naked reality present before each one of us.
Thank you!
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