A few weeks ago, the new Government of Odisha, formed by BJP, announced some steps for the promotion of Odia language and culture. Many believe that one important reason BJP came to power in Odisha is its stated commitment to upholding the cause of Odia asmita (identity). Language and culture constitute a vital part of a community’s sense of identity and quite naturally, these are among the priority areas for Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s government. The steps announced include the setting up of a translation academy, supporting research on Odia language and culture, and instituting Odia Language chairs in various universities. The previous government had almost similar plans for the preservation and promotion of the Odia language, and it is heartening that the new government is committed to this effort. The present government’s initiatives are certainly commendable and if properly implemented, the results would be laudable. This note is about the translation project. It is also about writings that are almost completely ignored for translation purposes and shows why these deserve a much wider readership, comprising both the speakers of Odia and other languages.
Since the translation academy will be set up as part of the promotion of the Odia language and culture, one would expect the institution to have works of significance in Odia translated into English and, equally importantly, into other Indian languages. We hope that the works to be translated would not be restricted to just the “imaginative literature.” “Knowledge (based) literature” must also be translated. It is often assumed that knowledge literature is not creative; it is mainly informative. This is not always the case. Interpreted information is not the same thing as information. Is the following from a book written on football merely informative?
“In the global social pyramid, blacks are at the bottom and whites are at the top. In Brazil, where this is called ‘racial democracy’, soccer is one of the very few venues where people of color can compete on equal footing – up to a point” (Soccer in Sunshine and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano).
Similarly, is the immensely popular Odia Puranic composition Lakshmi Purana of Balarama Das, which would generally be categorized as imaginative literature, not informative about some social problems of a given period, such as the denial of space to women in the family and caste-based discrimination in society? Are the stories of Baladhupa or of the king Gangeswara in Madala Panji, which is generally viewed as a kind of chronicle of Sree Jagannath Temple in Puri (set aside questions about its historical value, as this is irrelevant in the present context), merely informative? “Imaginative” and “knowledge-based” literature are certainly useful labels for reference but except for clear cases, the line of demarcation between these is rather hazy.
Some knowledge writings are important from a historical, social, and cultural perspective. Think of the newspapers Utkala Dipika and Sambalpur Hiteishini. Utkala Dipika (1866) is the first newspaper in print in Odia. Odia journalism had its origins in this newspaper, which started as a weekly. With these, a new genre of writing emerged, as the process of the modernization of Odia society started. These newspapers provided information, discussed and even debated social issues and literary matters, and tried to create, in some sense, an informed society. A selection of news stories and articles from these richly deserves to be translated into Indian languages and English. The publication would inform the larger readership, both non-Odia and even Odia, about not just the beginning of the modernization of a society with a rich cultural and literary heritage but also about the construction of Odia identity or asmita and the emergence of a form of writing in Odia.
Similarly, Kali Charana Patnaik’s Kumbhara Chaka, Harekrushna Mahatab’s Gaon Majlis and Gopala Chandra Praharaj’s Bhagabata Tungire Sandhya deserve translation. These deal with the problems of a traditional society in transition from the perspective of an understanding social thinker and as such are important works in the social and cultural history of the community. Then there are local tales, some of which are creative localizations of classical narratives – stories arising out of stories. The story of Suhani in Sarala Mahabharata, the story of Byasa Sarobara (Vyasa sarovara) in Jajpur and of the Bidura (Vidura) temple are just a few of these. These stories are simple and at the same time, inventive attempts to relate to the grand narratives depicting events that happened elsewhere. Many local stories, not all of them associated with the grand narratives, lie scattered throughout Odisha. All of them are not folk tales, in the strict sense of the term. They too form an important part of the cultural heritage of Odisha. These need to be collected and widely disseminated.
Similarly, our “loka sahitya (folk literature)” deserves to reach a wider readership. Make no mistake, these stories and poems are literary compositions. And beautiful at that. And from a non-literary point of view, they are about life lived long ago. They are about the problems people faced as they negotiated with a world not quite friendly or intelligible, the way they dealt with them, their joys and sorrows, their social organization, and the beliefs they lived by, among others. They constitute, in some sense, our cultural past, which is generally looked upon by the modern educated without respect. We no more tell these tales to our children and grandchildren. We no longer sing those songs on appropriate occasions. Let a selection of this treasure trove of knowledge be translated and reach a wider readership, comprising speakers of our languages and English.
Now, since Odisha is a multi-lingual state and Odia is the language of education at the early stages, it is very important that for both pedagogical and cultural reasons, children’s stories and the relevant primarily-informative writing in Odia, say about hygiene, environment, and some cultural practices, be translated from Odia into at least some tribal languages to start with. Similarly, the stories and informative writing from these languages need to be translated into Odia. This will contribute to a better understanding of the composite culture of the State and it will also play a significant role in making the transition from the mother language to Odia for the tribal child smooth in school education.
One hopes that the translation academy would take innovative steps to disseminate Odia language and culture widely. We beg to submit that in our opinion, the translation of the kind of writing mentioned here should constitute such a step.
(The views expressed are the writer’s own)
Prof. B.N.Patnaik
Retd. Professor of Linguistics and English, IIT Kanpur
Email: [email protected]
(Images from the net)