Navigating the Cultural Gulf: The Critical Role of Translation in Cross-Cultural Understanding

Abstract

The Indian subcontinent, with its profound linguistic diversity and stratified cultural history, represents a unique and complex laboratory for the study of translation. This paper moves beyond a Eurocentric theoretical framework to examine how translation in India has historically functioned as a critical, contested technology for the negotiation of cultural and political power. It argues that the practice of translation in India has been instrumental in three key processes: the construction of classical and vernacular knowledge systems, the formation of modern regional and national identities, and the political management of contemporary multiculturalism. The analysis explores key historical junctures—from the translational activities under Buddhist, Mughal, and early colonial patronage to the politicized debates during the 19th-century Bengal Renaissance and the post-Independence era of linguistic reorganization. By focusing on case studies of translating sacred texts, modern literature, and legal-administrative documents, the paper investigates the role of translation as both a bridge and a barrier, a tool of cultural exchange, and an instrument of hegemonic control. It concludes that in the Indian context, cultural understanding is not a passive byproduct but an active, often contentious, achievement mediated through the translator’s choices, which are inevitably situated within matrices of caste, religion, class, and regional politics.