By Shubhangi Gupta

Transcribed in July 2018 during the author's Modlingua internship, from a conference address by Shri Joginder Singh, former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, at a translation association event in which Ravi Kumar was among the hosts.

Accepting the Invitation

Now moving on to the next speaker, I would like to invite Shri Joginder Singh Ji to come over to the mike.

Chief Guest Madam Anita Bhatnagar Jain Ji, Director of the Institution Dr. Prajot, Mr. Das, Madam Swarn Mitra, Shri Ravi Kumar Ji, Ladies and Gentlemen - I must confess that I was floored when Ravi Kumar Ji sent me an e-mail inviting me to a translation association conference. I sent him a mail saying this is not my cup of tea, but he said, no, you just think over it - what the role of translation is. I said, okay, give me a day. I thought over it and said yes.

It is worthwhile when I looked into my own books. My publishers - at least one of them - have brought them out in Bengali, Tamil, Gujarati, Marathi, apart from Hindi and Punjabi. And while looking at my books, I also found that one of them has been translated into Bahasa Indonesia as well as Malay.

How Languages Unite India

So it set me thinking about how languages can unite India, because those of you coming from single-language countries like the USA, UK, Spain or Italy may not appreciate this. Translation has played a tremendous part in a united India. I went to Iran in 1973 along with my then Minister, Mr. Gundu Rao, and we were speaking in English. An Iranian asked, "Are you both not from India?" I said yes. "Then why are you speaking in English? Why not your mother tongue?" I said, look, my mother tongue is entirely different from his - English is a uniting language in India.

Fascinatingly, though we have not become great translators, we have learned languages as part of the service. From a general report: there are about 6,000-7,000 IAS officers and about 4,000 IPS officers in the country. You do not necessarily serve in your own state; you can be allotted to any state. Madam Anita Bhatnagar Jain Ji is lucky that she is in her own administrative state.

Learning the Local Language in the Police

I happened to represent Punjab University in a youth festival in the then Mysore State. It was so beautiful, but I didn't understand a word of the language in which they were speaking, and I could not even relish the food. When I became eligible for the Indian Police Service, I filled in my form and, as a joke, said: any state whose language I know - not UP, not Punjab. But I was allotted Karnataka - Mysore, as it was then.

There I had to learn the local language, because in the police you have to deal with the local people - it is not like sitting in Income Tax or Railways. It is a difficult job. People from the Hindi-speaking belt may not feel it, but there you couldn't even ask for a glass of water or food. In the police, I once asked a person: tell me the abusive words, so that I know who is abusing me. And there is a tale behind it. There was a Parsi professor in my college with a Punjabi voice. Boys everywhere are a little mischievous, so they would hurl abuses at him. Somebody asked him: why are they saying this and that about your mother and father? He said: they are abusing me. So the next day, when a student hurled abuses in Punjabi, the professor said: "Good morning, thank you, same to you." It is important to know local languages, and translation plays a tremendous role in this.

The Role of Translation in My Own Life

I have read the Granth Sahib, I have read the Gita, and I have read the theory of Marx. I could never understand a word of the Gita - I read the edition published from Gorakhpur, considered the best, and couldn't make head or tail of it - till I went to Calcutta, to the Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, and picked up a small translation of the Gita in English. Since then it has been my constant companion whenever I travel outside, and it opened a new world to me. Whatever translation Swami Ji had done was something tremendous. I said, now let me explore the religions. My mother tongue is Punjabi; I did not study it formally - I joined Hindi and did my B.A. in Hindi. When I got the Granth Sahib, I had to learn it with help, and I could grasp its greatness fully only after reading it in English translation.

Not only for nationalism but for guiding people, translation matters - and it is because of this that the Indian translation industry should be encouraged.

Small Words, Big Hurdles

A few words of a language, wherever you go, are absolutely vital - and unless I share some of the hurdles I faced, you wouldn't appreciate it. I led a delegation to Indonesia. In India we are used to taking tea with milk. In Jakarta they brought black tea. I said I want tea with milk; the waiter didn't understand. An Englishman passing by said he spoke Indonesian, so I asked him to explain. He told the waiter: he wants tea with "susu". Now "susu" in Indian usage means something quite different - urine. What I am saying is that, even in a humorous sense, a culture is tied to a place, and it is better to know something about it.

Why Translators Matter

I was very happy when Madam mentioned text-to-speech translation. I have been using the English version for more than 10 years, but what is spoken in UP, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat or Maharashtra varies. I write for a number of newspapers. Once, after a programme, a lady approached me and said my son is your regular reader and has benefited a lot. When my Punjabi and Haryana friends read the Hindi, they asked me: "Yaar, what kind of Hindi do you write?" I said I don't write it - a translator translates it, because I write everything in English.

A translator may not have much of a prospect as yet, but it can be built. In fact, the United Nations would not exist if it did not have translators - people who can not only write but also read. Even in our own Parliament, we demand and get translators. Communication is vital. There are jobs available in the External Affairs Ministry, in multinationals, in educational institutions and universities - it will go a long way in promoting the career of translators.

I am not a technical man. But the more we are able to understand, the more we are able to communicate. At an editors' conference I attended, I found the English papers 11th in the list - above them were Hindi and local languages like Marathi, Kannada and Telugu. So there is a need to bridge the gap, and there is no better way than to build bridges through communication - through writing, through papers, through media, through TV channels and so on.

Mr. Ravi Kumar, thank you so much. God bless you.