Category: Language

મારી માની ભાષા / My Mother’s Language

Dr Pratishtha Pandya is a poet and translator working across Gujarati and English, whose first collection “Lalala…” (ળળળ…) has been published by Navjivan Samprat. She works with the People’s Archive of Rural India as a writer, editor, and translator. From translating nirguna poetry into Gujarati to foregrounding women’s writing from Gujarat, Dr Pandya is involved in various […]

Dalit writers – Savarna translators

Yogesh Maitreya opens up questions of caste, representation, and translation in the publishing sphere. In 1936, Babasaheb Ambedkar was invited by Jat-Pat Todak Mandal from Lahore to deliver a speech. A draft of the speech was sent to the secretary of the Mandal. The secretary, after reading it, felt uncomfortable and requested Ambedkar to make […]

The ant swallowed the sun

Shruthi Vishwanath reflects on Bhakti and the self through songs in translation. Mungi udali aakashi tine gilile suryashi thor navlav zahala vanzhe putra prasavla vinchu patalashi zay shesh matha vandi pay mashi vyali ghar zhali dekhon muktai hasali An ant flew into the sky, she swallowed the sun Surprise! Surprise! A barren woman gave birth […]

When We Are ‘Multilingual’, Do We Translate?

A riveting introduction to A Multilingual Nation: Translation and Language Dynamic in India , edited by Rita Kothari and published by Oxford University Press in 2018. When I said the only language I speak is not mine, I did not say it was foreign to me. There is a difference. Derrida A panel discussion on […]

Secular, Secularism and Non-translations

Rita Kothari traces the conceptual-linguistic journey of the term “secular” in India, in a special article published by the Economic and Political Weekly. This paper is a set of reflections rather than a unified grand argument on what is one of India’s most used, abused and complex terms. The realm of this subject is too […]

More or Less Translation

An excerpt from More or Less “translation” by Rita Kothari and Krupa Shah, published in A World Atlas of Translation in 2019. A classic question about India and its over 1000 recorded languages is how did and does India manage communication amidst such linguistic diversity? Surely translation must be the only way. And yet formal […]

Language and its shadow dwellings

Angana Sinha Ray complicates the idea of Linguistic Hospitality, as theorized by Emmanuel Levinas. One of my relatives has been calling my mother to say they will come to Delhi and stay a few days, my mother welcomes the idea but dreads having to make tea differently – with milk and sugar, so the guest […]

The River called Language

Aditya Vikram follows ideas of religiosity and secularism to trace the flow of language, through a reading of Francesca Orsini and Rita Kothari. “Kahay Kabir ek ram japahu re, Hindu Turuk na koi. Kabir says, plunge into Ram! There: No Hindu No Turk.” Hess 67 For Kabir, dwelling and unraveling in the name of ‘Ram’ […]