India's middle classes have created a market for English translations of Tamil-language "pulp fiction" novels, according to the Washington Post.
Horror stories, wild romances and seedy crime thrillers are among the genre of cheaply produced paperback fiction first popularized in the 1920s.
Now Indians are devouring the new translations, in English for the first time. The revitalization of the genre follows the growth of large, American-style bookstores to cater for India's growing middle classes, who read mostly in English.
Chennai-based Blaft Publications has exploited the new market, publishing anthologies of Tamil pulp fiction. Already sold in India, the books are now for sale in North American, where Indian culture has increasing appeal, according to publishers.
"You understand a culture through the popular culture," Blaft translator Pritham Chakravarthy told the Washington Post. "Studying mainstream literature gives you only one side of India. This is the common man's perspective. This is what 60 percent of Indians are actually reading."
The translations retain many of the quirks and idioms of Tamil culture, rather than adhering rigidly to English stylistic conventions. Rakesh Khanna, a former math scholar who co-founded Blaft Publications, told The National (Dubai) that onomatopoeias such as "visshk" (the sound of a cracking whip) and "pulich" (spit landing on a wall) remained intact. Books contain a glossary for readers unfamiliar with cultural words and phrases.
English novels in India were once solely about class struggle and immigration, seen through western eyes, Khanna says. Pulp fiction was never translated into English because it did not fit into the "Booker-winning mould."
This changed in 2007, when Khanna founded Blaft with Kaveri Lalchand. The pair published their first volume in 2008.
The Post reports that Random House India has followed the trend by publishing a series of Indian-set love stories, in the style of the US's Harlequin romance novels.
16 August 2010
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