By Drishti Jain
Video Link: https://youtu.be/pGrxnciauDc
The webinar on the role of "Translation Studies" was held under the skillful guidance of Dr. Jagdish Sharma, where the founder of Modlingua Dr. Ravi Kumar commenced the deliberation by enlightening the history of translation studies in India. Language is not static and therefore, translation has always been an evolving discipline in India. This discipline examines translation both as an interlingual transfer and as intercultural communication. Furthermore, Dr. Kumar elucidated his perspective through an example of "Study of Anthropology" which he delineated as itself a translation process, as it necessitates an anthropologist to observe one's culture, society, its people, its language, its habits, etc to translate and register and impart the same. Indubitably, translators are also called manipulators as they do not translate mere words but they translate the entire culture and the related traditions which are being rehearsed for ages. To boot Dr. J. Sharma, continued the dialogue by highlighting the importance and the need for translation in Indian culture. In the mid-nineteenth century when the question of "imagining a nation" became problematic with the multilingual and multiethnic nature of the Indian society, "translation" became a pronounced intellectual issue in India. Translation started to appear as an urgent cultural necessity for orientalist, nationalistic and ideological projects while the idea of the nation as a linguistic and cultural unit based on the Eurocentric model started appearing clearly amateurish. The late nineteen eighties and nineties were an exciting period for the discipline of translation studies in India. While the source language was largely Sanskrit, the target language was English very often.
India has given some historical and celebrity translators to the world namely "Kumar Jìva" who used to translate Indian Mythological texts into Tibetan and Chinese languages. Hence, the world literature will always be obliged to the translation of the Indian epics such as "Ramayana", "Mahabharata", "Manusmriti" etc. In 1973, for the first time "James S Holmes" gave the legit concept of "Translation Studies" in his elongated essay "Name and Nature of Translation Studies" where he called it "Discipline". Translation Studies is a diverse discipline in itself as it touches other diverse fields of knowledge, including comparative literature, cultural studies, gender studies, computer science, history, linguistics, philosophy, rhetoric, and semiotics.
The other aspects of translation studies in current times which were covered in the webinar are:
1. Translation Studies have enabled a greater sense of "GILT"- Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, and Translation which bridges the gap between the various facets of the world.
2. We are only confined pertaining to the boundaries, but never with regards to the knowledge. Through translation, we are exposed to a wider scenario of possibilities and consciousness.
3. Cultural Interchange: As people tend to scrutinize new things, they also tend to adopt the changes around them which will help them to understand and perceive other's cultures and civilizations. It also gives a platform to the local languages by synchronizing and retaining the beauty of their respective languages.
4. Boosts Tourism: Translation is not only for the welfare of an individual or for a specific purpose but it is for the righteousness of all. As people will read about your culture and country, they will develop a keen interest to experience the same and it would also lead to the betterment of the financial conditions of the country.
Thus, the webinar concludes with the notion that "One needs to translate, to become a translator". The translation is not only a process but a discipline that is more descriptive, product-based, ideological, subversive, and reflective in nature.
