Indo-English Literature

Diversification of Indian English Literature

Coming to Indo-English Literature, it is observed that the classical works of Indian other languages getting translated into English are termed as Indo-English Literature.  The term was first coined by John B. Alphonso Karkala in 1970 to mean translated literature produced by Indian in English.  Rabindranath Tagore, a man with versatile talents wrote primarily in Bengali. He translated many of his poems and plays into English, often changing, telescoping and transforming the originals.  This he attempted as an escape from the exhaustion of Bengali Literature, thus becoming a great pioneer of Indo-English Literature.  Among his works Gitanjali was the first to be translated and achieved the phenomenal success.  Tagore’s ‘Chitra’ a loveliest drama stand apart from his other plays.  Whereas, the imaginative perfection is made manifest in his superb play, ‘The Post Office’.  Words fail to sum up the exquisite beauty of this unequalled play.

His novels have still that freshness and his short stories never become stale.  When he rendered his poems and plays into English, he often made drastic alterations.  It was because; either he felt that the genius of English language asked for greater restraint and comprehension.  Or looking from another way it could be that, the time lag between the original creation and the English translation affected a shift in his angle of vision. Tagore’s own views of his English verse are highly ambivalent.  He writes to his niece, 

“ I did not undertake this task in a spirit of reckless bravado; I simply felt an urge to recapture, through the medium of another language, the feelings and sentiments which had created such a feast of joy within me in past days”.

Another notable pioneer of Indo-English Literature was A.K. Ramanujan. Besides a transnational figure, he was also a trans-disciplinary scholar.  His translation works include basically of Tamil and Kannada literature to English language.  His works reveal that, cultural tradition of India is a conflict between the colonial English identity, post-colonial ethnic identities and historical identities of the country.  His translation work involves 

“ Interior Landscapes: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil anthology” in 1967, “Speaking of Siva”, “Hyms for the Drowning” and “A flowering Tree and other Oral from India”.

      Ramanujan’s language is completely free from defects. Though, the readability he achieves as a result of his masterly control over the language has blinded his Western Critics to another equally serious limitation from which his translations suffer, one caused by the unwarranted liberties he takes with the original. There is no denying the fact that, Ramanujan as a translator has certain advantages over many other Indian translators.  He can handle the English language with nearly the same competence as the native speaker