Indian Literature Abroad Project: Popularizing Regional Literature

Via newKerala.com

The culture ministry in association with three national akademis — Lalit Kala Akademi, Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi — is working on a new project, “Indian Literature
Abroad”, Jawhar Sircar, secretary in the ministry of culture, said at a seminar over the weekend on “The Book in the 21st Century” to commemorate the 238th birth anniversary of social reformer Raja Rammohan Roy in the capital.

He said the project will globally promote lesser-known vernacular literary genres that have been pushed to the fringe for want of translation.

A special committee, National Translation Mission, has been set up for the purpose of translating regional literature.

“We will select the books under four broad categories — poems, short stories, novels and plays. We have a target of 24 Indian languages and five foreign languages,” Sircar said.

To begin with, translations of regional Indian literature would be made available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish and English.

“Indian writers in English have gained world renown in recent years. There is much that needs to be done to popularise contemporary writing in other Indian languages, particularly among the younger generation, since many of the writers are young and deal with contemporary themes,” he said.

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