By Ravi Kumar
Watch the video below, then read the summary.
Watch on YouTube (about 14 minutes)
Summary
This is a talk from a Modlingua translation conference by Dr Anita Bhatnagar Jain, who heads the National Translation Mission and is Joint Secretary for Higher Education and Languages in India's Ministry of Human Resource Development. She was invited to the stage by Ravi Kumar, whom she credits as the inspiration behind the conference. She speaks about India's diversity, why languages matter for society and development, and the work of the Mission.
Main points
- Diversity as a strength. She says she took India's diversity for granted until she visited places that lacked it. India is diverse in language, religion, caste and in many other ways, and she argues that diversity lasts only where a society is open and accommodating.
- Languages in India and abroad. India's schools follow a three-language formula. She mentions a recent request from the Government of Sri Lanka for help with a ten-year plan to move towards a trilingual society (Tamil, Sinhala and English), and demand from many countries for centres teaching English. She also describes a recent address in Brussels on sustaining diversity, where the question is whether diversity unites or divides.
- The National Translation Mission. It aims to translate books in about 69 disciplines into India's 22 scheduled languages. Most higher-education books are in English, while many people, especially in rural areas, know only their regional language. She expects the project to change the socio-economic and cultural picture once students can read books in their own language.
- Challenges. She names globalisation, urbanisation, migration, nuclear families, the pull of languages with economic and political power, and the risk to endangered languages. She also stresses that the quality of translation depends on the translator.
- Keeping languages alive. She says policy alone will not do it, and the responsibility lies with each of us, starting in the family. People should learn English for jobs and also keep a sense of identity and respect for their own language.
She asks the conference to share its recommendations, including on regulating the translation industry and setting norms for good translation, so that the Ministry can think about how to help. She closes with a call for translation to support national and global harmony.
Related reading
Read Modlingua Rubric: error control for writers and translators and Translation in the next 10 years.
