Translators get the world hooked on Kannada LITT

HUBBALLI: Ashoka University’s Bhashavaad database lists just 516 Kannada titles translated into English. It is 3,298 for Bengali, 1,801 for Hindi, and 630 for Tamil. For a language that is spoken by around 65 million people, and boasts of a literary tradition that dates back to the 9th century AD, one would expect greater visibility for Kannada works in the global literary firmament. But that wasn’t the case until recently.That picture, however, has begun to change. Last year’s Booker win for Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi for Heart Lamp has thrown spotlight on a language and a literary tradition that had long been overlooked by global literary establishments.Where once there were perhaps only one or two Kannada books translated into English every year, the number has now risen to between five and six. Publishers have also started to take notice of the demand for regional literature.Prominent writers like Vivek Shanbhag, Jayant Kaikini, and Vasudhendra have seen their works get translated, with bookstores witnessing a rise in the demand for translated Kannada fiction.However, it is still a niche area. The recent important releases such as Vanamala Viswanatha’s translation of Kuvempu’s ‘Malegalalli Madumagalu’ (Bride in the Hills), and the English edition of DV Gundappa’s ‘Mankutimmana Kagga’ (A Yokel’s Sheafs, K Natarajan) and BGL Swamy’s ‘Hasuru Honnu’ (Hasuru Honnu: When Green Is Gold, Jyothi Natarajan) are exceptions, and not the norm.The challenge with translations is not only about quantity. It is also about quality — rendering the richness of a cultural and linguistic heritage in another language, which may not have enough vocabulary to capture those experiences.In her 2024 translation of Kuvempu’s ‘Malegalalli Madumagalu’, Vanamala Viswanatha, a bilingual scholar and translator whose repertoire spans modern Kannada writers as well as ancient and medieval classics, observes that the mega-narrative operates through three distinct registers: dialogue, narrative, and philosophical reflection.Given the novel’s deep engagement with the geography, social structures, caste relations, and linguistic particularities of the Malnad region, she had to convey the texture of the Malnad dialect and the emotional and social worlds of its marginalised characters.When asked how she retained the novel’s representation of feudal oppression and patriarchal power structures without subsuming the characters’ distinctive voices into a homogenised literary English, Vanamala says: “‘Malegalalli Madumagalu’ is Mahabharata-like in its breadth of vision and depth of human experience.With over seventy characters drawn from diverse castes, classes, and faiths—Hindu, Muslim, and Christian—it creates a richly layered world in which speech itself marks social identity. This vast narrative resists easy translation, even into the malleable medium of contemporary English.To help readers navigate Kuvempu’s Malnad, I have included a map identifying the characters and their villages. I have sought to capture the characters’ distinctive idiolects by drawing on the linguistic cues embedded in Kuvempu’s characterisation, an effort that also finds expression in the audiobook version I have narrated,” she explains.“By losing myself in his landscape, story, and imaginative world, I found the rhythm needed to translate this extraordinary classic,” Vanamala adds.Maithreyi Karnoor, a scholar at Aberystwyth University, Wales, who has released her story collection ‘Gooday Nagar’ and poetry collection ‘Skinny Dipping In Tiger Country’ in 2026, has translated an extraordinary range of works to English, from HS Shivaprakash’s plays (Four Plays) to Shrinivas Vaidya’s ‘Halla Bantu Halla’ (A Handful Of Sesame) and Vasudhendra’s ‘Tejo Tungabhadra’, besides rendering in English the poetry of stalwarts such as DR Bendre.While translating across genres, what Maithreyi seeks is the euphoria after writing subtitles for the film ‘Bedara Kannappa’ for a class-screening during her MA.“That is still all I seek from translation across genres: the great sense of satisfaction of a job well done. What has changed is that I am less agog and awed by the flimflam surrounding a work and have evolved a no-nonsense way of connecting directly with the text. I’m less greedy and more choosy about what I translate now.”The Kannada translation boom is real, and it is transformative. The success of ‘Heart Lamp’ demonstrates that there is an appetite for Indian regional literature among international readers. Major publishers are investing in Kannada voices.Translators are gaining recognition that was unimaginable a decade ago. The pipeline from Kannada to English is fuller and more diverse than ever before.However, diversity is not the same as inclusion.“The translation boom began over a decade ago with Vivek Shanbhag’s ‘Ghachar Ghochar’, a success so enormous it rewrote what Indian and global publishers thought Kannada could do in English. Several works have been translated since then, spanning caste, class, gender, sexuality. But look closely and an uncomfortable pattern emerges: an overwhelming majority, writers and translators alike, are from dominant, privileged castes, or based in Bengaluru or abroad. Against this backdrop, Heart Lamp is genuinely a heart lamp,” says Shashikumar J, who works at the University of Alberta, Canada.Another challenge that plagues literature in translation and, by extension, the literary economy, is one of payment. Literary translators in India are still largely treated as hacks who do not deserve due compensation.Most publishers continue to offer flat rates instead of payments based on actual word count, say insiders in the publishing industry. This dynamic creates an unhealthy situation wherein quick money from commercial fiction is prioritised over literary translations.While there has been a steady inflow of texts from English and other languages, Kannada litworld has struggled to take its authors to a global audience.This imbalance in the translation economy has resulted in a skewed literary presence of Kannada on the world stage. For instance, while Kannada readers have been able to read and re-read Tolstoy, Shakespeare, and Gogol, the reverse has not been true.Maithreyi says when literatures from the Global South travel to the West especially as translations, the challenge of craft and remuneration are secondary.“The more immediate challenge begins with what gets chosen to be translated and read and who sets the narrative for what these texts ought to look like. The Western literary world has a patronising attitude as it still categorises our literatures as exotic – except, we are supposed to have traded in the exoticism of snake charmers for the exoticism of oppression.”“I think the only way forward is to not stop with tokenisms and flashes in the pan but focus on building bigger readerships. Academia and publishing must work towards broadening the understanding of our languages and literatures.”Launched in July 2026, Hyphen is an international literary journal focused on translating Indian regional language writing into English. It aims to amplify diverse literary voices across linguistic boundaries.Its debut issue features contributions from 17 writers and 11 translators spanning seven languages. Vivek Shanbhag, who leads the initiative through the Bahuvachana Trust, speaks on Hyphen.Given the unique linguistic and cultural challenges of translating between Indian languages and English, how does the journal, publishing house and digital platform collectively contribute to building a sustainable ecosystem for discovering, training and supporting next generation of translators?The space available today for publishing translations from Indian languages into English is limited. The three initiatives of Hyphen are designed to address this need. The inaugural issue of the journal provides an exceptional amount of space (272 pages) for a print literary journal.The extensive digital platform (the-hyphen.in) further expands these possibilities by making a wide range of content accessible to readers. Hyphen Publications will bring significant works from Indian languages to a broader English-language readership, while the online bookshop will increase the visibility and reach of translated literature.Complemented by workshops, mentorship programmes, fellowships, and residencies, Hyphen seeks to build a vibrant ecosystem that nurtures translators, connects readers with literature from across India, and brings the richness of Indian-language writing to the forefront through English translation.Hyphen seeks to bridge linguistic divides through translation, yet concerns remain about the underrepresentation of historically marginalised voices in our translation ecosystem…Representation alone is not enough; it acquires meaning only when readers have the context to appreciate it. A journal’s diversity of content helps cultivate an openness to different literary traditions, aesthetic sensibilities, and ways of seeing the world.ost translations are driven by the interests and passions of individual translators as literary translation is largely a labour of love.While such commitment has produced many outstanding translations, it also means that the body of translated literature is shaped by individual preferences.A literary journal offers a different possibility. It can commission translations of works that deserve wider attention but may not otherwise be chosen by translators.This enables a broader and more balanced representation of Indian literatures, bringing into view voices, regions, and genres that might otherwise remain inaccessible to English-language readers.