Sahitya Akademi

IMPRESSIONS, EXPRESSIONS....
Author(s): A.J. Thomas
Source: Indian Literature, Vol. 51, No. 3 (239) (May-June 2007), pp. 5-8
Published by: Sahitya Akademi
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23340405
Accessed: 21-01-2024 16:48 +00:00

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 IMPRESSIONS, EXPRESSIONS....

T'helanguages'
idea of isIndian
one of literature
the foundingbeing 'one,
principles thoughAkademi.
of Sahitya written in many
However, an ordinary individual gets to know about this only much later
in life, through the happy coincidence of getting to read about the Akademi
or to listen to someone speaking about it. But, for a youngster from
a middle class family in the rural areas of India, such chances are very
rare. The fact that Indian literatures have an underlying unity was luckily
brought home to me very early in life, through the nationalist policies
of Mathrubhoomi, the number one Malayalam weekly magazine of those
days, which mainly dealt with the literary scene, followed by political,
social and other issues of the day. This magazine used to bring out an
annual number, a 'Republic Day Special,' in which short stories from
all Indian languages in Malayalam translation would be published. Four
jdecades ago, this was done with the regularity of a religious ritual. This
brought into the impressionable mind of a teenager, life in the different
corners of India. For me, the idea of Indian literature was born this
way. Names such as Popati Heeranandani from Sindhi and Indira Goswami
from Assamese caught the imagination of this young, avid reader. This
was a different experience than the introduction one got from the sections
in Hindi text books for middle school and high school, like the dohas
of Kabir, Rahim, Tulsidas or the poems by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan,
Mahadevi Verma, Sumitra Nandan Pant, Gajanan Madhav 'Muktibodh',
Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala' and others.
Then, the translations of novels from Bengali, Hindi, Oriya, Marathi,
and from Kannada and Tamil nearer home, serialized in this magazine
and in another one called Kalakaumudi, which began publication in the
mid-seventies, built up my awareness about the diversity of Indian literature
tending towards a centrifugal unity through similarities in cultural ethos.
Apart from these, there were also magazines like Janayugam, Cbandrika
etc., which followed the practice of serialising novels in Malayalam and
novels in translation from other languages on a 1: 1 ratio. Eminent
Kathaaprasangam artistes presented novels from Bengali, Hindi and even
from foreign literatures in a dramatic presentation consisting of straight
narration, acting, miming and singing.
The unique capacity of Malayalam literature to assimilate the best
of Indian and foreign literatures through translation has stood me in good

A.J. Thomas / 5

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stead in acquiring a comprehensive awareness about the various literatures
of India, and generally about world literature.
Stories like "Abachoorina Post Office" by eminent Kannada writer
K.P.Poornachandra Tejasvi (who passed away recently), mesmerized my
early youth. Names of Bonophool, Ashapoorna Devi, Bimal Kar, Bimal
Mitra, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Kamleshwar, Amrita Pritam, Kulapati
K.M.Munshi, U.R.AnanthaMurthy, Sreekrishna Alanahalli, Chandrasekhara
Kambar, Pratibha Rai, Nakulan, Akhilan, Sundara Ramaswamy and others,
and translators into Malayalam like Nilina Abraham, Leela Sarkar, Ravi
Varma, V.D.Krishnan Nambiar, A. V.M.Narayanan, C. Raghavan, K.P.Sankaran
and others, that appeared in the pages of these magazines still come
up in my memory.
As I grew up, the awareness about other literatures of India growing
through translation, wanderlust and migratory instinct coupled with
imagination and an adventurous spirit reinforced with a notion of
patriotism— a feeling for the Taj and Rajghat combined—gave a face
to my idea of Indian literature.
The role of English, envisaged by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as truly
linking the expressions and articulations of people in the various regions
of India, knitting an all-India sensibility as it were, reaching out to nooks
and corners—ironically, owing to our colonial legacy— where Hindi has
not successfully reached yet, presenting at least to some degree—especially
in the South—a cross-section of Indian literary writings, comes alive in
Indian Literature. Indian English, which Sahitya Akademi has long ago
recognized as an Indian language mainly through Nehru's efforts, has been
producing a powerful body of literature through weighty contributions
by illustrious authors, especially during the last couple of decades. Another
development that calls for satisfaction is the fact that Indian Literature
in English Translation is being adopted for graduate and post-graduate
courses, at least in a few important universities of the country. English,
my medium of creative writing, has certainly gained considerable ground
through Indian Literature.
Recently, while going through all the issues that came out over the
fifty years from 1954 to 2004 for the purpose of making selections for
the anthology, Best of Indian Literature, I was amazed at the veritable treasure
of literature the magazine has in its archives—from poets like Tagore,
Kumaran Asan and others, through Nehru, S.Radhakrishnan, Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad and almost all great masters from all Indian languages, through
significant literary movements, to the works that belong to the contemporary
period and to the pulsating present. Only Sahitya Akademi can maintain
such a unique journal. Having relished the joy of contributing to it years

6/Indian Literature: 239

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ago while not even dreaming of serving on its staff, the new assignment
fills me with a sense of destiny and mission.
During my interview for the post of Assistant Editor ten years
ago, I was asked, by a renowned litterateur on the interview board, as
to why I wished to opt for this job in the Sahitya Akademi, while I
already had a decent government job. I replied that I wished to be in
the world of letters even as I was doing a job; that, I wanted to be
in the company of writers from all over India; that I wanted to
communicate with them, interact with them, try and share their world.
And during the last nine and a half years with the journal, I have had
my fill of what I had dreamt about.
A friend, an eminent literary editor, made a statement recently: "An
editor should read scripts respectfully, find out more about the author
(and translator), and what he or she is trying to say...." I think this is
a worthwhile motto to follow.

* * *

Now, to get on with business....

The very first issue I began work on, upon
carried an interview of the well-known Tamil w
by T.K.Doraiswamy 'Nakulan', who was a doye
Malayalam and Tamil literary backgrounds. S
published a long poem by Nakulan in Englis
in the present issue, we are carrying his obitua
poetry both in Tamil and English, and fiction
in Tamil, was a formidable presence. As Suku
"Nakulan: Some Notes," he was a 'writers' w
Malayalam writers who believed that only tot
bring about any truly creative work, used to fl
in Golf Links, Thiruvananthapuram, next d
Maharaja of Travancore. His modest home wa
the monarch of monarchs—the true anarch.
Oriya, one of the richest literatures of the coun
for its poetry and fiction. Over the years, we h
our pages, poems and stories depicting the rura
proved to be very powerful in their impact. Su
piece, "Is there a Rural/Urban Transition in K
on the occasion of the celebrated fiction writer's
the preoccupation of the writer with the rural

A.J Thomas / 7

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the time as a critical insider and his exuberant anticipation for modernity
as found in most ofithe renaissance writers in all major Indian languages.
Jayanta Mahapatra is undoubtedly one of the most important of
the living Indian English poets. He writes poetry in Oriya too and very
relevant critical articles. Shyamsunder Padihari, in his essay, "Jayanta Mahapatra:
The Poet of the Soil," brings out the poet's essential engagement with
Orissa's spirit.
I am filled with anticipation, looking forward to the great association
I am going to have with you, readers....

A.J. Thomas

8 /Indian Literature: 239

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