Indian authors writing in English have been the toast of the town for a while now, but authors expressing themselves in regional languages hardly get noticed.
Discussions on the challenge before regional authors to get the same kind of attention from a global or national audience has been the topic for discussion in national conventions.
The Indian publishing industry has an annual turnover of Rs 100,000 million and rolls out 80,000 titles every year in languages, including English. However, India’s regional literature tends to be accessible to a select few. Many authors writing in regional languages feel they are marginalised because their work is not available in translation.
Need of the hour is to get books translated from one regional language to the other and to English, which will help communicating with other regions of India as well at global level. A publisher should come up with at least two publications of translated works in a year. Publication of translations would help check marginalisation of regional authors.
More so, as translations are vehicles for promotion and national integration in a country known for its language diversity. Governments also have a role to play in this endeavour.
Some of the major problems before the authors as well as distributors are quality of translations and fund crunch. Such problems could be overcome by adopting a definite policy on these two matters.
Beyond Languages 
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