Editorial: Mainstreaming regional literature

CHENNAI: Last week, Geetanjali Shree became the first Indian recipient of the International Booker Prize. The New Delhi-based author’s Hindi novel titled Ret Samadhi, which was translated into English as Tomb of Sand had won the coveted literary honour, which has once again set the literary circuits ablaze with the epiphany that not all great literature that comes out of India, or arguably, anywhere else in the world, is written originally in the English language. To give credit where it’s due, India boasts of a fine repertoire of authors who have penned exemplary works of literature in English, also referred to as Indian Writing in English or IWE literature. From RK Narayan, whose Malgudi Days is an inextricable part of almost every child’s memories to Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things) and Kiran Desai (The Inheritance of Loss), who were awarded the Booker Prize.

But, amidst the brouhaha around IWE literature, there’s a spectrum that has been marginalised over many decades. That pertains to literary works written in the native or vernacular languages of India, works that are rooted in the milieu of the land. As per a study by Nielsen BookScan, works written in the English language accounted for 55% of trade sales annually. Books written in Hindi made up for 35% of sales in regional languages. However, the larger share of this pie, or 65% of the sales was attributed to books in other languages that sold within the margins of a disorganised and fragmented market. One of the reasons for a dip in readership of vernacular literature is the emphasis on English as a means of communication. The waning relatability of stories written in the vernacular tongue that do not echo cosmopolitan sensibilities of the day is also a pain point. What’s more, works of IWE literature, if met with great success in the Indian or international market, get translated to regional languages, which further squeeze out the restricted playing field occupied by vernacular authors.

Occasionally, a few books in the regional literary space make everyone sit up and take note. Like Tamil novelist Perumal Murugan, whose controversial 2010 novel Madhorubagan (One Part Woman), which detailed subjects such as sex and religious rituals, had caused him to go into a self-imposed literary exile. His return to the literary arena in 2016 with Poonachi or The Story of a Black Goat, an allegory of caste-based discrimination, was hailed by critics as a return to form as well.

Similarly, KR Meera’s Malayalam novel Aarachaar (2012) won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2015. The bestseller was translated into English as Hangwoman: Everyone Loves a Good Hanging, which garnered accolades globally. But the release of a literary work by a vernacular writer should not be a one-off event. Most writers working in regional languages are kept at the periphery of the media blitzkrieg that is afforded to IWE writers. There is barely any buzz on social media, let alone gala evenings populated by glitterati. And that is where the government and private sector needs to intervene.

There is a wealth of stories waiting to be uncorked in the regional literary space. So, both the Central and State governments must set aside budgets to help regional languages flourish, something the TN administration is already doing in a big way. There’s also a need to mainstream regional languages from a literary perspective. The task can be accomplished by revisiting works of yesteryear doyens, commissioning large-scale translations and conducting appreciation classes to allow a new generation of readers to revel in the rich literary heritage of India. What we stand to lose in the absence of timely intervention in the space or vernacular literature, cannot be articulated in any language.

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