Promoting Konkani Literature

Promoting Konkani Literature
Better days for Konkani Literature are on the cards
By Alexandre M Barbosa (Goa Today/May 2003)


Literature in Konkani has grown considerably in the last few decades. Volumes of poetry and prose have been written, published and some have received critical acclaim. Every year, the Sahitya Akademi awards a Konkani writer, yet the reach of the literature produced, which is indeed vast, is limited to the Konkan region, more specifically, the State of Goa and a few Konkani speaking pockets in Karnataka. This limitation can now be transcended through translations, which until now were not a reality. Publishers, who hitherto were unwilling to touch regional language works are gradually waking up to the rich literature available in these languages.
Translations are important for a country like India, which has such a large number of languages and writers who pen works in all these. With the untenable concept of English literature being the only thing of quality, regional language works have suffered for a long time, but as this concept is set aside, Konkani has managed to lure publishers.
Of all Indian languages, Konkani is probably right down below in priority where literature is concerned. Languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam have some established writers and publishers prefer to deal with some established faces than risk new writers in other languages.
Konkani, held the status of a stepchild, with few wanting to touch it, until Mini Krishnan came along, picked up a novel written by Pundalik Naik and got it published by Oxford University Press (OUP). Krishnan is currently a consultant with OUP for their translation-projects, and is based in Chennai. Until a couple of years ago she was an editor at Macmillan guiding their text books publication. It was at Macmillan that Krishnan started off with the project of translating into English and publishing works from regional languages. While there she was able to bring out around eleven translations and making contacts that today makes her much sought after by writers in regional languages.
And with the discovery of regional language writing, Konkani has benefited. Released just over a month ago was the English translation of Mahableshwar Sail’s Kalli Ganga. It was published by National Book Trust. This is the second Konkani novel that has been translated and published within a short time. The other novel was Pundalik Naik’s Acchev, (The Upheaval) which was published by OUP. Both the books were translated by Vidhya Pai.
And underlining the importance of translations, ‘Crossing the Borders Trough Translations’ was the theme of a one-day seminar held recently in Goa that debated the issue of translating literature from the regional language to English so as to widen the readership. Present at the seminar were Nebanita Deb Gosh, a Bengali poet, Calcutta-based Vidya Pai who has translated Konkani works into English and Mini Krishnan.
Says Mini Krishnan, “One of the premises of translations is that the Punjabi should be able to read Malayalam, the Oriya should be able to read Tamil, the Tamil should be able to read Marathi. That is not happening. What is happening is that the Tamil who understands Tamil but cannot read Tamil is gobbling up the English translation, Likewise the Oriya, the Malayalee and Punjabi.”
As writers are reaching out to new readers through the translations of their works, the latter are discovering a rich and varied literature that had earlier been ignored.
“The Konkani short stories I have read are excellent,” says Krishnan. Short stories in Konkani have had a rather wide readership. An anthology of short stories Ferry Crossing published by Penguin and edited by Manohar Shetty did include quite a few Konkani stories, besides in 2002 Jaico Publishers released Modern Goan Short Stories edited by Luis S Rita Vas that also brought into English some Konkani stories. Katha too has promoted regional language writing, but there is not much that only they can do. With other publishers stepping in, there is now more scope for regional language literature to go beyond their limited area of influence. Yet, OUP is the only publisher who has somebody working solely on translations.
And with the concept now being to try and make available modern literature to the readers, Konkani literature has promise that it should promote. “Konkani has a great future, because everyone has woken up. Your own people have woken up. With other languages, which are powerful and rich, everyone is complacent. But here most Konkani speakers have a desire to protect the language and not let it go,” says Krishnan who confirms that she has plans to push Konkani literature.
Pushing Konkani and getting it published is one side of the game. Marketing is the major setback the published writers are faced with. Krishnan, however, offers a nugget of advice. Says she, “Industrialists should be told that at festival times, instead of distributing sweets, give a book. It is a side of your culture, the literature of the land, that is going out to the people.” Unless the book is marketed, in a manner of speaking like one would market any other product, literature will not reach the masses.
As far as marketing of literature is concerned, the media plays a crucial role to introduce it to the people. “Don’t you want your own children to know your literature?” asks Krishnan. It is only through such publicity that a book can be sold and read. Today, Universities in the country are recommending English translations of novels as texts. This is how far regional language literature has grown in the country. That’s not all for even abroad there is now a market for such literature.
Given that Konkani is written in the Devanagri as well as Roman script and those that are conversant with one script may find it bothersome even reading the other, English translations should be lapped up by the local people. Literature is the essence of a culture and identity, and it is unfortunate that many Goans have not read their own writers. This broadens the readership for the writer and for the reader is an opportunity to make up for years of neglecting literature.