Oxford University Press, India, is all set to introduce Indian languages publishing programme with the aim of bringing out books in some of the major Indian languages, starting with Hindi and Bengali. The programme, set to be launched in January 2018, will include new titles in local languages as well as translations of their classic backlist titles in both print and digital formats. THE WEEK caught up with Sugata Ghosh, director, Global Academic Publishing, to get an insight into the programme and the agenda behind it. Excerpts:
Oxford University Press has been in the business for the last 100 years. What took it so long make a foray into regional languages?
Oxford University Press has always been there in the way of translation, but the point is that we are the only publisher in the country who actually and proactively translates from regional languages into English from the last 20 years or so...The kind of gems that we have in regional languages, it is essential to take it from the original language and translate for the larger and wider English speaking readership. However, being a British press, it takes time to do certain things.
Also, the concept of regional languages have changed over the years...If we look at the last one decade, people are getting much more serious in terms of the understanding that regional languages play an equal or even more critical and crucial role in the changing global politics and economics. So, the role that the regional languages was playing has increased manifold in the last 10 years or so. As a university press, when we look at the translation programme, we look at it as a mission instead of being a money making business. We found that there are amazing things happening at the regional languages for quite some time and as a university press, it takes time to dive deep and find out the possibilities– where are our strengths, what we can do and what we cannot. So, it took us a couple of years to ready the plan.
As a university press, we do have the responsibility to reach out to the audience. There are people who still think in their mother tongues. They are not as fluent in English as they are in their own languages. Its unfortunate that they are normally kept out of the spotlight. So we thought, why not? Also, the three main pillars of the publishing–the authors, traders and distributors who reach out to the audience; and readers are completely ignored. Student group (people from college level and above) does not have that kind of reach which would help them access the best scholarships that English language have. So, we thought of introducing this programme.
What are the highlights of this programme?
We will bring in translations of the existing classics that we have. These could be five years old and even contemporary ones. We are also very proactively going out and commissioning work in both Bengali and Hindi, which we were not doing before. We also have plans if the situation and work demands to do reverse translations—that is from Bengali to Hindi and Hindi to English.
How long did it take you to come up with the plan?
We started planning this early 2016. The books will be coming out in two years. The reason the process took so long was because it involves a huge amount of work in translations, plus we had to set up a small team. Then the finances, because the payments of the translators are all paid upfront. The kind of reputation that Oxford University Press has, we cannot put much into risk. We have to take into consideration a lot of things. When we get into translations, we need to get permissions cleared from the authors and other copyright holders. So, it has taken it's time. We are looking at around 15 titles in January 2018. But once that is done, as we are simultaneously working on translating other projects and also commissioning other projects, there will be a steady flow of books.
Who are these translators involved?
These (translations) are given to the outsiders as Oxford University Press does not have any in-house translators. We are trying to pick up the best that we can get. Since we are so conscious about the quality, we follow very stringent review process. So, before we decide to publish, it has to be endorsed by scholars or people from the field to understand whether the work is good and the improvements that are required. In the translations, we follow this process and this takes time.
However, now we have build up a system along with a pool of freelancers who are senior in their fields. While we were hunting for translators, we took in consideration two things – understanding their work in the subject area and reviewing the samples of the work that they have done.
What were the main reasons to choose Hindi and Bengali for the programme?
In terms of the volume, it was a little easier for us to choose Hindi. A large part of the country speaks Hindi and it is also the official language. Then we debated a lot on the next language as we didn't wanted to come with one language. Not many people know that Hindi is the fourth largest spoken languages in the world and Bengali, the seventh largest. Bengali is also spoken in Bangladesh, in some parts of northeastern states and even in the US and Europe. So that was the reason.
How were the books selected?
We have considered both the demand and the supply side. Supply side is ours. The editors sat together and looked at the reviews of the books that came post publications. They worked with sales colleagues to gain an understanding on the books that sold well over the last few years. This gave us an idea about the areas that were getting traction...In the demand side, while the research was going on with the editors, we met academicians, authors, readers and spent a significant amount of time with them to figure out the readings that were going on this environment. We have taken inputs from both the sides. In fact, we never thought that a few titles that are in the list would ever be recommended for translations in Hindi or Bengali. We have also done an informal survey in the regions where Hindi and Bengali is spoken.
What kinds of books would be translated? Where will they be sold?
None of these are textbooks. We are looking at academic references as well as general reads. We have been selling books both offline and online. In offline distribution channels, we have our own channels and we are also developing new ones in these two languages. They will also be available online. Our Hindi books will also come as e-books and would be available at Amazon. Quite a few books would be non-fiction which would be for general reading audience.
