Hindi: Global Perspectives

Language, Literature and Translation

The study of Hindi language and literature has taken huge leaps forward in the global context. Many universities all over the world are engaging deeply with the changing pedagogies of teaching-learning processes of the language. Post-globalization, due to the presence of a large Hindi speaking population worldwide, the language has gained currency in the pockets of ‘Media and Market’, enhancing its national and international acceptance. As we celebrate the recognition of a language spoken by a large population of the world, the literary and cultural studies is rife with contestations in terms of excavating the literary tradition of a marginalized nation. While the world literature posits itself as the harbinger of ‘diversity’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’ in its challenging of Eurocentric canonical hierarchies, it often fails to sufficiently contextualize ‘new literature’, such that, in the garb of a humanist, secular ideal, the differences that are fundamental to the latter are subjected to blanket homogenization. Thus, instead of a nuanced understanding of literatures that are produced in South Asia, Latin America, Africa etc., what occurs is a convenient kind of academic tokenism that fails to offer the much needed paradigm shift in the category of ‘World Literature’.

In this context the closely associated categories of Hindi literature and likewise Urdu literature become potent grounds to analyze this ‘shift’. On the one hand, literature produced in Hindi enjoys a somewhat canonical status in comparison to regional language literary production in India while on the other hand, the cultural and social elitism of English language and literature produced in the subcontinent obscures that very status. Given the mushrooming of translations from and into Hindi and the increasing focus on its pivotal scholarly and cultural history in the global context, it becomes important to think about its position in the always already fraught category of World Literature.

This conference located in the Translation and Translation Studies Centre of the College, aims to delve into, and understand the facilitation of the global focus on Hindi Language and the changing paradigms of how the literature of this language is viewed, read, and consumed internationally. It also aims to address the role of translation and translation studies in bridging the gaps between World Literature and Hindi Literature. Moreover, since World Literature largely depends on translation and studies in translation in terms of readership and accessibility, this shift then necessitates a reworking or re-visioning of Postcolonial Translation Studies as well. Translation is also emerging as an important platform for social exchange in the areas of global knowledge texts, economic activities and media. Considering this, situating the conference in Delhi is a strategic choice, given its spatial and academic importance in terms of being an epicentre of literary tradition and translation as well as cultural studies.