An online training programme in translation, under way at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, is aligned to the National Education Policy 2020, in that it is setting the ground for making knowledge texts available in regional languages.
Titled 'Text and Context in Translation', the week-long programme is being hosted by the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, in collaboration with the National Translation Mission (NTM) of the Union government and Tamil Nadu Text Book and Educational Services Corporation (TNTB & ESC), with the intent of making information inclusive through accessibility.
Presiding over the programme, G. Aghila, Director of NIT-T, said translation training programmes on such a scale was the need of the hour.
Prince Rama Varma, a member of the Royal Family of Travancore, a well-known musician, writer and translator, who inaugurated the programme explained how translation provides access to great literature and ancient wisdom, by elucidating the curious connection between music, translation and culture. Shailendra Mohan, Director of Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) Mysuru; R. Gajalakshmi, Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Text Book and Educational Services Corporation; and V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, former UGC Chairman, also addressed the inaugural session, which was followed by sessions handled by K. Narayana Chandran, Professor, Institution of Eminence Research Chair in Literary and Cultural Theory, University of Hyderabad, and Githa Hariharan, author and literary critic.
Inaugurating a panel discussion on the second day, Ms. Gajalakshmi highlighted Chief Minister M. K. Stalin’s endeavours in restoring the ancient wisdom embedded in Tamil texts that are being lost. Briefing about Tamil Nadu Government’s project ‘Taking Tamil to the World: Transcending Boundaries, Ms. Gajalakshmi, along with S. Kannappan, Member Secretary TNTB & ESC; M. Shankara Saravanan, Joint Director, and Mini Krishnan, Co-ordinating Editor, discussed the relevance of translation in discovering, preserving, archiving and thereby revitalizing the ancient Tamil literature. The subsequent panel discussions dwelt on intricacies involved in Dalit literature in translation, issues and concerns regarding copyright, and the underlying issues in text and context in translation.
