Jadavpur Univ collaborates with UK university to document Nepali, Bodo, Lepcha & Kudmali texts

Kolkata: The Centre for Translation of Indian Literatures (CENTIL) of Jadavpur University (JU) is working on a Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) project with UK-based University of East Anglia (UEA) to increase access to the traditions through documentation and translation of key oral and written texts from four languages in Bengal—Nepali and Bodo, and Lepcha and Kudmali.

Bengal has 28 different language communities each having its own rich repertoire of songs, tales and stories. However, most of the people know very little about these traditions. Dissemination of key texts from marginalised languages through translation can make an immense contribution to making relatively marginalised cultures and communities more visible in the Indian national imaginary, helping these communities and cultures preserve and strengthen themselves and facilitate the representation of texts from relatively marginalized communities within academic curriculum, leading to enhanced public perception and understanding of India’s multiculturalism.

“Moreover, this kind of work promises to boost our understanding of Indian Knowledge Systems, which is one of the key recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020,” said Professor Sayantan Dasgupta of the department of Comparative Literature, JU, who is the principal investigator of the project.

The project is progressing through field research and interviews with community leaders, singers and storytellers from the four language communities. It has resulted in a small archive of audio visual research material. The team is also working towards a book on Academic Social Responsibility and the role of translation in it and an annotated catalogue of key genres from Nepali, Lepcha, Bodo and Kudmali, along with English translations of texts from these genres. These are expected to be ready by December, 2025.

The project titled ‘Academic Social Responsibility and Humanities in India: Researching, Archiving and Translating Indigenous and Marginalised Languages of West Bengal’ has already witnessed visits and lectures by UEA partner faculty. The project is based on the idea that universities have a responsibility towards the larger society and have a role in nation building.