Dear all,
We invite potential contributors for a Government of India-sponsored SPARC project
titled "Translations in Colonial India, 1800-1947: Paradigms, Networks, and
Practices." The overall goals of the project are as follows:
 
1. To trace the networks of translations between modern Indian languages in the
period under consideration;
2. To trace the impact of European languages such as French, German,
Russian, Italian, and Spanish, on modern Indian languages and literatures,
either in the original or mediated through English translations; and
3. To trace how translational activities helped the establishment of modern
disciplines in Indian academia. The development of scholarly disciplines such
as musicology, film studies, and art history falls under the purview of the
scheme, as do other disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and
natural sciences.
 
We are looking for potential contributors to the project in terms of singly- or jointly-
written entries for three handbooks corresponding to the topics listed above.
 
We are particularly looking for experts who could contribute entries on:
1. Translation histories from and into Marathi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Urdu, and
Punjabi;
2. Translation histories involving Russian, Italian, Spanish, Czech, and Indian
languages;
3. Translational activities and the establishment of the disciplines of sociology,
history, cinema, the visual arts, and political science.
 
Our team of PIs and co-PIs are as follows:
 
1.    Suddhaseel Sen, PI (India), IIT Bombay;
2.    Tara Shankar Shaw, co-PI (India), IIT Bombay;
3.    Saroja Ganapathy, co-PI (India), Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design,
and Technology (Manipal Academy of Higher Education)
4.    Anupama Mohan, co-PI (India), IIT Jodhpur;
 
5.    Anna Schultz, PI (international), University of Chicago, US;
6.    Sourit Bhattacharya, co-PI (international), University of Edinburgh, UK;
and
7.    Aparna Dharwadker, co-PI (international), University of Wisconsin-
Madison, US.
 
Once we have a clearer idea of our potential contributors, we hope to organize an
online/hybrid workshop in late February or early March 2025 and use the ideas
generated through our discussions to plan the structure and organization of our
planned volume(s). We hope to receive draft versions of scholarly contributions
by August 2025 or so, and then plan a conference in hybrid mode based on our
findings in November or December 2025. We hope to submit final versions of the
contributions to Routledge by February 2026.

 
 
In case you would like to contribute, please contact Dr. Suddhaseel Sen (IIT
Bombay; suddhaseel@iitb.ac.in), cc-ing Dr. Anupama Mohan (IIT Jodhpur;
amohan@iitj.ac.in) and Dr. Saroja Ganapathy (Srishti Manipal Institute of Art,
Design, and Technology of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education;
saroja.ganapathy@manipal.edu).
Best wishes,
 
Suddhaseel Sen (on behalf of the SPARC team)