Rushdie, Arundhati Roy come in for flak at regional lit fest

MUMBAI: Back in the 1500s, a boy from Stratford village worked his way up to become a global writer of classics. Today, those rooted in their local milieu who write in their mother tongues like Shakespeare did, rarely set bestseller charts on fire in India. The villain is not English but the way it is manipulated to be the country's top language by corporate publishers, said writers at a regional language literary festival here.

Not to mention the disparaging remarks about the quality of Indian writing from writers like Salman Rushdie. "It was an overstatement to say English should be banned. But I can understand why (Bhalchandra) Nemade said that," said K Satchidanandan, poet and critic on day one of the Gateway LitFest held at NCPA. Nemade, the Marathi writer who recently won Jnanpith, had called for a ban on teaching English and criticised V S Naipaul and Rushdie for "pandering to the West".

Sachidanandan, who moderated the session on 'Who is guilty of pushing regional writers and writings to the sidewalks?', said Nemade's outburst should be seen in the context of what is happening to regional works and their translations. After globalization, English has been re-imagined as the language of choice by publishers. For them, the market decides who can be translated and turned into a global writer. "I have no problem with English as it is one more language in our country. But when it establishes itself as a master language, there is a problem."

Other writers agreed. "To me, Indian writers like Nemade and Sunil Gangopadhyay are more important than Rushdie. What has he done for Indian literature?" asked Bengali writer Subodh Sarkar. Recently, a Kolkata youngster told him he has read his poems in English translation. "I was shocked as a generation is growing up without learning their mother tongue. It is a violent neo-colonisation," said Sarkar.

The moment you start writing for a global audience, the writing changes. Malayalam writer Benyamin said this is noticeable in Arundhati Roy's 'The God of Small Things', set in Kerala. "I was told there are coconut trees every 20 pages," said Benyamin. The frenzy for capturing the market doesn't stop with exoticising India. "The moment you start writing aiming to get translated, you dilute your language," he said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=Stratford village,Shakespeare,Rushdie,regional lit fest,global writer

Stay updated on the go with Times of India News App. Click here to download it for your device.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Rushdie, Arundhati Roy come in for flak at regional lit fest

Dengan url

http://cegahkeropostulang.blogspot.com/2015/02/rushdie-arundhati-roy-come-in-for-flak.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Rushdie, Arundhati Roy come in for flak at regional lit fest

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Rushdie, Arundhati Roy come in for flak at regional lit fest

sebagai sumbernya