Poet Chandra Prakash Deval: Rajasthani language should be included in our Constitution’s Eighth Schedule

It is such a unique, precious, and important event because it allows us to connect with world literature and global cultures, and helps establish a literary dialogue between countries, regions, and languages. Considering the name that JLF has built for itself over the years, it’s become a crucial and integral phenomenon.

Absolutely. People who write in languages other than English know that a good, faithful translation can lead to great outcomes. For instance, Ret Samadhi reached the heights that it has because it was translated so well. We need such kind of powerful translations to catapult the literature in Indian languages to the global stage and help the rest of the world get familiar with our rich literary repertoire. We want and we are hopeful that this win will help translations of regional literature gain momentum.

I am a translator myself who has worked with several Indian languages such as Odia, Bengali, Punjabi, and Gujarati. Hence, I understand the incredible value and the important role a good translation can play.

Why, despite being so rich and vibrant, Rajasthani literature hasn’t been able to find a space in popular consciousness the way regional literature of other states such as West Bengal, Kerala, and Maharashtra has?

A big reason is that when India got independent from colonial rule in 1947, several regional languages were included in our Constitution’s Eighth Schedule but for some inexplicable reason, Rajasthani wasn’t. As a result, in the last 75 years, we have missed out on all the work that should have gone into the promotion of the Rajasthani language and literature through governments, academies, and publications.

The regional languages that were included in the Eighth Schedule have benefitted greatly from it all and therefore, today, their literature is robust and thriving. We stand nowhere in front of Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, or Hindi literature. These languages have countless prolific playwrights, poets, essays, novelists, and critics. Rajasthani has been most unfortunate in this regard; despite being about 1,000 years old, it was thoughtlessly thrown in the trash bin after independence and deprived of its rightful stature.

If Rajasthani is included in the Eighth Schedule even today, it will give the language a major and much-needed boost. It will lead to the building of academies and educational institutions, the printing of magazines, newspapers, and textbooks, and its inclusion in the school curriculums as a compulsory language and a medium of instruction. Only then we can make our literature reach the new generations.

However, it’s not like the youth is not writing in Rajasthani. They are, despite such an acute lack of support and resources. But the thing is, currently, there is no such institution where they can learn Rajasthani properly and then make a career in it. When you don’t teach or learn a language, how can you expect someone to write in it? Forget about writing well, that’s a battle for much later.

But this is the magic and the strength of the mother tongue. Everyone who is writing in Rajasthani today or has written before us, we have not learned it in any school or college. The people who write in Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, or Hindi, their exposure and understanding of their mother tongue are much stronger and more informed than ours. It’s their medium of instruction, communication, means of livelihood, and way of life. If you don’t give Rajasthani any opportunity to flourish, how can you expect it to stand as tall as other regional languages? It can’t.

The academy was originally set up in 1983. But it wasn’t run as actively as it should have been. They didn’t just make it as an academy for the Rajasthani language, they made it into Rajasthani Bhasha Sahitya and Sanskriti Academy. So it was for language, culture, and literature. But they kept its budget as minimal as possible. Rajasthan has eight academies and the one with the lowest budget is dedicated to the language. So in no time, it lost the continuum.

The current government has been in power for four years now but even then it hasn’t been able to form the academy properly. It’s still under process. Meanwhile, the previous government was so kind towards Rajasthani that it didn’t let the academy form at all in its five-year tenure. So for the last eight years, we have had an academy but it’s of no use. Without any budget, governmental intention, or intervention, what can it do? You can’t expect a non-functional institution to contribute towards the growth and spread of literature.

Of course, I was there. In fact, I had two sessions. One was on the new education policy and Rajasthani. But this Anjas Mahotsav should have happened not in 2022 but in 1950. And the state government should have organised it, not the Rekhta Foundation. Even if it didn't want to organise, it should have at least supported it.

It was a commendable initiative by the Rekhta Foundation but if they can do this for the Rajasthani language, why can’t our own state government, our universities, academies or our local Akashvani and Doordarshan do it? It is the responsibility of our government’s arts and culture department.

Since it was the first event, they are also still learning but it was really good. Over 100 Rajasthani writers and artistes were in attendance. But a standalone festival like this can do only so much. We need to follow it up with other things like JLF does. These talks, discussions, and debates need to be recorded so that more people can see, research, and learn from them; it will allow them to be taken forward and result in something substantial. Festivals such as the Anjas Mahotsav need to happen every year and we need robust follow-up mechanisms to keep them alive in popular consciousness.

We have a gigantic star in Rajasthani literature who was nominated for the Nobel Prize for his work — Vijaydan Detha. We lovingly call him Bijji. His Baatan Ri Phulwari (Garden of Tales) is a collection of 14 volumes of folklore. Even the newer ones, he wrote in the folk idiom, which is why they are easy to read. They are also impactful; once you start reading, it is difficult to put them down.

Rajasthani literature is so vast, it’s like an endless sea. If you want to read novels, there’s Bharat Ola. We have several poets too. You can read Kanhaiyalal Sethia, Chandra Prakash Deval, Satya Prakash Joshi, Narayan Singh Bhati, Nand Bhardwaj, Aidan Singh Bhati, Malchand Tiwari. If someone is interested, there are many writers whose work is keeping Rajasthani literature alive and up with current times. Much like other regional literature, we are also telling modern stories of today.