Reviewed by Taras Shmiher, Ivan Franko National University in L’viv, Ukraine
The present volume is the outcome of two conferences: Ingenious Traditions in Translation, held in Ahmedabad; and Asia in the Asian Consciousness: Translation and Cultural Transactions, held in Tejgadh. It consists of a philosophical foreword about Asian consciousness, Buddhism, and translation by Ganesh Devy, the editors’ introduction, and thirteen articles.
In ‘Introduction’ (1–15), Judy Wakabayashi and Rita Kothari narrate about translations, cultural contexts, and theoretical issues in a wide-ranging discussion, contrasting Western European Translation Studies and alternative non-European cultural traditions.
G.J.V. Prasad (17–28) analyzes translations in Tamil in terms of long-term cultural processes aimed at removing Sanskritic influences and building Tamil identity, covering the matters of religion, caste, and political patronage. He examines periods of Tamil hybridization and purification campaigns where linguistic and cultural pride shaped the notion of Tamil identity. Similarly, E.V. Ramakrishnan (29–41) discusses how Malayalam translation was used to define a regional identity distinct from Sanskrit and Tamil. Translation was enlisted as a means of resisting the hegemonic tendencies in these separate traditions.
Texts from Indian literature are rich in multiple renderings and intertextuality. Treating written versions, oral tellings, and non-verbal representations from medieval Karnataka, T.S. Satyanath (43–56) traces the existence of pluralistic epistemologies within the episode of Kirata Shiva and Arjuna from the Mahabharata that significantly contribute to understanding the construction and continuity of texts, tellings, and renderings. Rita Kothari (119–31) discusses how the harmony of different languages and religions within Sufi practice in Sindh reflects elements of hybridity, migrancy, and translation. Farzaneh Farahzad (133–43) continues the topic by examining the misrepresentation of Sufi literature in English translations.
A group of articles is devoted to the issues of power and translation. V.B. Tharakeshwar (57–73) shows how translations of Greek tragedies into Kannada reflected discussions between colonialism and nationalism in the early twentieth century. Keeping the background of British legal search in the Sanskritic tradition for a divine/singular origin like the Christian authority during the late eithteenth century, Christi A. Merrill (75–94) questions the understanding of translational fidelity in the colonial view and nowadays. Researching the reception of Muhammad Ibn Abdul-Wahab’s ‘Kitab At-Tawhid’ in Urdu translation, Masood Ashraf Raja (95–106) argues that translation became a powerful tool of political transformation within the framework of Muslim identity in British India.
Tridip Suhrud (107–17) analyzes Mahatma Gandhi’s own translations and the translations of his works that he supervised and authorized to uncover peculiar difficulties of conveying the originality of his thought to the multilingual world. Sherry Simon (161–74) focuses on the paradoxes of vocabulary used by poet and linguist A. K. Ramanujan in his practice as a translator.
Finally, Theresa Hyun (145–59) reveals the significance for Koreans under Japanese rule of translations from Indian poetry inspired by anti-colonial struggles. Meanwhile, Judy Wakabayashi (175–94) explores the semantic domain of translation, covering terminological discrepancies, potential insights into Japanese views of translation, and divergence from standard English terminology. In the Zulu context of South Africa, Stanley G. M. Ridge (195–212) focuses on a nineteenth-century colonial trial as a nexus of competing practices of translation and interpreting.
The volume is provided with an index of names, titles, places, and notions.