What Globalization: Whither Literature (2)

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

But in the contemporary world it is not possible to live in isolation. We have to partake of resources available in the world for survival. And for that we must have alliances, treaties, pacts with countries whether we share common language- literature and culture with them or not. Survival and the desire for growth and development makes enemies join at the dinner table. Cultural identities undergo transformation for capitalistic ventures. Post Second War capitalism jointed most of the world with a corporate culture. The multinational corporation and inter- governmental  financial and other deals made the world ‘borderless’, a term coined by  a Japanese corporate consultant Kenichi Ohmae in the 1990’s. This corporate capitalism led to a profusion of literature in Business and Corporate management, Medicine and Health studies and other allied fields of interest. But imaginative literature or classicization of human affairs was not in their focal area. These corporates emphasised liberalism and secularism without which it was not possible to pursue their corporate interests in a borderless world. This was termed towards the close of the last century, Globalization. Basically it is an economic globalization where attractive products of different countries will find a global market.

By Globalization we normally think of economic globalization.The world as one market where the products of the world in a competitive market will enter into global capitalism. Literature in this so called age of globalization is a product, marketable and consumer friendly.The product attractively packaged and competitively priced must be backed up by bold and aggressive advertisement.The publisher like a corporate participates in the capitalistic venture with the products of his country. If it is a MNC (Multi National Corporation) like Viking, Oxford, Harper Colllins, Penguin and the like it has to invest a pretty penny  to familiarize its brand  in the cities of its presence.

In the Indian context any corporate publisher would wonder: what is Indian literature? India writes in many languages and cultural voices vary in tone and tenor from language to language. The works written in English mostly look at India with borrowed western eyes or through a native Chasma scanning the virtues of an irretrievable past. The bhasa literatures project an Indian-ness through local prisms. How then an MNC select his product for the world market. Globalization presumes a borderless world but borders to exist. Nationalism is a potent energy. Patriotic nationalism expressed in one language  is all the more powerful.  I shall do well to quote the German philosopher Johan Ficte ‘ Those who speak the same language are joined to each other by a multitude of invisible bonds by nature herself, long before any human art begins’. (Address to the German Nation 1806) Geography, Culture and language create their own exclusive appeal  which may not move the buyers of bhasa products to throng the book stores in foreign cities. If a great work from bhasa literatures is chosen as a product, there is another difficulty. The work must be translated into English for English in the present day world is the only comprehensible language of communication. But when a great work is translated into English, the aim of the translator is to cater to the taste of the English reading public. The translator sacrifices the local and the Indian nuances and the voice and rhythm to please the English knowing people. Moreover translators in India and in Odisha too are a rare specimen. However, competent they may be like the Voyager to the moon they please neither the population on the moon, nor the earth dwellers by their accounts.

The other, more intricate problem is globalization often undermines democracy. The local units in a globalised world are not treated equally. The identities of literature-rich but week in money and bargaining power are often hidden on the stalks and booksellers never display them. The advertisement for these products, therefore is never aggressive. The identity of the country’s is never recognised . As the neo-liberal global trade in literature seldom recognizes and often undermines the literature springing from a democracy or nation-state, MNC’s shy away from aggressive marketing . A Salman Rushdie or Vikram Seth may push into the market fortified by  a Booker prize but in  general , bhasa literature of great literary value loses out in the competition.

Is there any hope then? Well, as I am an optimist, great works in Indian literatures may one day find place on the display table in foreign cities; provided translators emerge to communicate the human universality in Indian literature in readable English. I will conclude my brief presentation in the words of Aime Ce’saire : And no race has a monopoly on beauty , on intelligence and on strength : And there is no room for us all at the randezvous of history.