Indian Vernacular Pulp Fiction in English Translation

Abstract

Amidst the enormous variety and scale of Indian print productions, a relatively small — indeed miniscule — area attracted inordinate attention in Indian newspapers and magazines around 2010. A smattering of English translations from “pulp fiction” in Indian vernaculars appeared in the market. In vernacular book circuits such works have usually been cheaply and prolifically produced, publicized and packaged to highlight their sensational contents, targeted towards a mass readership, and considered unworthy of “respectable” readers. Chennai-based publisher Blaft mainly took the initiative and produced English translations of two anthologies of Tamil Pulp Fiction (Chakravarthy 2008, 2010), four volumes of Urdu novelist Ibne Safi’s Jasoosi Duniya series (2011) and two from the Vimal (criminal-cumhero) series by Hindi author Surender Mohan Pathak (2009, 2010). Random House India started publishing Safi’s work in English somewhat earlier, with two volumes of his Imran (superspy protagonist) series (2010, 2011). An English version of a Pathak novel from the Sudhir (private detective) series also appeared in 2011, from Delhibased Diamond Books. The firms which put a stake in this nascent area of publishing evidently had promisingly varied profiles. Indian sales of these have been modest in the first instance.