Recently, I happened to be at the Jaipur Literary Festival at Royal Festival Hall where, amidst others, Divya Mathur, the British Indian novelist, was participating in a debate about the issues related to translations. It was all about the exceptional translation work going on into English from various languages in India. A worldwide market for the Indian English literature (I avoid the word Anglo-Indian as it has a different context) is growing fast. Many publishing houses in the West now have branches in India. The shocking reality is that there was no reference to Gujarati literature anywhere in panel’s discussion. Afterwards, I asked very emphatic Pinto, who has given us some of the superlative translations of critically acclaimed Marathi novels, if there was anything emerging from the impassive Gujarat? He declared in a very sad, concerned and genuine tone that only book of translation that recently came out from Gujarat was Karan Vaghelo. Sadly, that is a very old book showing how Gujaratis are stuck in the past. Has Gujarat nothing new to offer? I am not sure. Gone are the days of the giants like Umashankar Joshi or Suresh Joshi. Gone are the days of very powerful figures of Pandit age. Gone are the days of critics engaging in challenging every comfort zone of literary output as was done by Suresh Joshi to shake the thrones. The present Gujarat is muted in literature.
All Gujaratis are guilty as the only thing they think of is money or religious discourse. There are no sponsorships for the diaspora literature. Regarding the translation of diaspora Gujarati literature, even the Gujarati Literary Academy in the UK seems to be in a great slumber. I can cite a long conversation with my librarian friend Pascal at the Poetry Library. Keen as he was to tell me about the books they hold of Gujarati literature in translation, we both could not find anything of significance in their catalogue! Yet, he was quite keen to have some translations to offer!
Even the government of Gujarat has changed the nature of its Gujarat Sahitya Akademi to put its own puppets there and has removed its autonomy. How can literature thrive when it is throttled? Even with the obvious draconian control it exerts, the Government of Gujarat has no projects on hand about introducing Gujarati literature to the world! It wants money from Gujaratis abroad but fails to do anything in return. Note, the High Commission of India in the UK annually awards only Hindi writers in the UK! My requests for the other languages have been ignored. The rich Gujaratis of Gujarat and Britain only duplicate how disappointing cultural attitudes are at play here. I challenge Gujaratis to come forward and help correct this. For every Gujarati, it seems that chicken thighs, kebabs, bhajia, samosas, or wiggling the bottoms at parties on a dance floor are more important things than the cultural engagement. Compare that to this fact that Gujaratis will have spent hardly anything to support literary books. Let me give you an example. I asked once Prof Jagdish Dave when his book was published by Gujarat Sahitya Akademi in Gandhinagar, what the print run of his very well-researched and important book was. The astonishing answer was about 700 copies! Out of those many would have been given away, free, also like the one which landed in my lap for a review. Put that in a context to how many millions of Gujaratis are there worldwide. One international survey puts India at top of the list with average reading hours per week per person being 10.40 hours. With reference to the above pathetic figure of the print run, they are definitely not Gujaratis. Am I provoking you? Yes. Do something about it. Do something amazing and buy a book today by one of our diaspora poets or writers.
I have one to recommend, if you will. Book a free ticket at the following link for the poetry event where I am reading with major diaspora poets from America and Britain, check it out, meet me and tell me how you will help. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/limehouse-books-yurt-salon-with-south-asian-poets-tickets-25616858714
Yes, DO SOMETHING.
Going back to the disappointing print run discussed above, similar books would have enjoyed the sales of thousands in Marathi, Bengali or any other languages of India. What is it saying about the wealth bragging Gujaratis who cannot support the diaspora literature? Tell me.
Therefore, what Pinto has highlighted is the overall apathy, lack of any cultural sense and the cultural poverty of Gujaratis. A disgrace of the rich Gujarat everywhere.
