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Translation and the Construction of Identity: Abstracts
Date: 12-14 August 2004
Venue: Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea
V. B. Tharakeshwar
Panel 5: Translation and the (De-)construction of National/Cultural Identities
Translation in Translation: Colonialism and Caste in an Indian Princely
State
Kannada University, India
In this paper I will show that translation became the site of (re)formation
of various identities, such as colonial subject, Indian nationalist subject
and Mysore/Kannada national subject, during the colonial period. I will
mainly focus on the formation of a nationalist identity, which cannot be
easily classified as Indian but is yet national in the sense of a
language-based community being imagined a la Anderson. I will also sketch
the politics and nature of the identity that was envisaged as evident in two
moments in the history of translation in Princely Mysore. The two moments
are (1) the debate around Bhashabhimani’s (the one who loves language)
review of a Shakespearean play translated by Srikantesh Gowda in 1895, and
(2) a translator’s preface to a translation from English, written by
Bhashanthara Vairy (enemy of Translation) in 1918.
Tentative remarks on caste differences and the new identity, along with
different ways of scripting modernity that was underway in the Princely
Mysore, will also be made. During the colonial period Princely Mysore state
presented a peculiar situation, which can be pinned as neither colonial nor
nationalist. It was a state ruled by a native King, but a British Resident
was overseeing the activities of the state; there was a representative
assembly and legislative council; there was a backward class movement with
which the King identified himself and heeded its demands. Pro-Congress stand
and Indian nationalism were seen as brahminical and anti-King. But in
literature we find Kannada nationalism being articulated to unite Mysore
with other provinces where Kannada language was spoken but which were under
different rule. Some parts of the Kannada- speaking region were under Madras
Presidency, some parts under Bombay presidency, some under the Nizam of
Hyderabad, and in all there were nearly 18 princely states. The context of
Princely Mysore was quite different from that of British India. A study of
this context would therefore offer insights into the making and remaking of
multiple identities in the context of colonialism.
© IATIS 2003