The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

The JCB Prize for Literature is an Indian literary award, established in 2018. It is awarded annually to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer working in English or translated fiction by an Indian writer. The winners are typically announced each November, with shortlists in October and longlists in September.

Website: https://www.thejcbprize.org/

The JCB Literature Foundation was established to maintain the award. It is funded by the English construction manufacturing group JCB. Publishers are allowed, per imprint, to enter two novels originally written in English and two novels translated into English from another language.

List of winners:

2018
Jasmine Days
by Benyamin, translated from Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib

2019
The Far Field
by Madhuri Vijay

2020
Moustache
by S. Hareesh

2021
Delhi: A Soliloquy
by M. Mukundan, translated from Malayalam by Fathima EV and Nandakumar K

2022
The Paradise of Food
by Khalid Jawed, translated from Urdu by Baran Farooqi

The 2022 shortlist was announced on 21 October 2022:

Imaan
by Manoranjan Byapari, translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha

Song of the Soil
by Chuden Kabimo, translated from Nepali by Ajit Baral

The Paradise of Food
by Khalid Jawed, translated from Urdu by Baran Farooqi

Tomb of Sand
by Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell

Valli
by Sheela Tomy, translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil

As discussed on the general thread, the 2022 short list is noteworthy because all five shortlisted books are translated into English from Indian languages.

Here is a good article summarizing the shortlist and prize, courtesy of Areeb: https://scroll.in/article/1035497/tra...

As a point of reference, India has over 400 languages with 22 identified in the Indian Constitution as official languages.

According to wikipedia, there are 13 Indian languages with over 13 million first language speakers:
Hindi - 528 million
Bengali - 97 million
Marathi - 83 million
Telugu - 81 million
Tamil - 69 million
Gujarati - 55 million
Urdu - 50 million
Kannada - 43 million
Odia - 37 million
Malayalam - 34 million
Punjabi - 33 million
Assamese - 15 million
Maithili - 13 million

These numbers reflect first language speakers within India. The numbers are higher if diasporic speakers are taken into account. The Bengali language, in particular, has approximately 300 million native speakers, as it is the language primarily spoken in Bangladesh.

Thanks for this, David!

Folks, it's JCB Prize for Literature. Not JBC.

Gaurav wrote: "Folks, it's JCB Prize for Literature. Not JBC."

Thanks - I have corrected the title of the discussion.

I was hoping to read for this year’s shortlist, but I won’t be getting Imaan until Jan 2023!

I'm reposting from the General Book Discussion Areeb's recommendations from prior JCB longlists:

2021: Anti-Clock, What We Know About Her, and The Plague Upon Us.
2020: Prelude to a Riot and Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line.
2019: The Far Field, There’s Gunpowder in the Air, The Queen of Jasmine Country, and A Secret History of Compassion
2018: Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat, Latitudes of Longing, and Half the Night is Gone.

And Areeb's recommendations from Seagull's India list:

Anything and everything by Mahasweta Devi. Nabarun Bhattacharya, Abul Bashar, Bhuwaneshwar, Banaphool. There is a very well-done anthology too A Thousand Cranes for India: Reclaiming Plurality Amid Hatred. Plus, Rajkamal Chaudhary's Traces of Boots on Tongue: and Other Stories which will come out soon.

In general, Seagull has a very strong Arab list, Africa list, and a great German Library in paperback. A new collection of Bernhard is soon. They have published the latest Elfriede Jelinek too. Plus, they are making audiobooks now as well.

I used to love novels set in India. Some of my favorites are A Fine Balance, of course, Nectar in a Sieve, A River Sutra, The God of Small Things. I have many more, but these stand out in my memory.

I love novels set in India, too, Wendy. I've been trying to be better about reading novels translated from Indian languages, which is one of the reasons Areeb's post about the JCB prize was so interesting to me.

The novels I mentioned were written by Indian authors, but they aren’t translated. I also look forward to reading books originally written in one of the 13 Indian languages.

I’ve now ordered the other 4 titles for this year’s shortlist.

What do you think of Song of the Soil, Wendy?

I was going to ask you the same thing, David. It’s a rough go for me. It doesn’t flow well and the reviews I read said this is not a great translation, but I still like the story so I’ll stick with it. I started it a few days ago and I’m only on page 39.

What do you think?

I’m looking at the reviews for the other books it looks like this and The Paradise of Food aren’t the best rated of the 5.

I guess I should try again to finish Tomb of Sand.

I'm with you on feeling it's a bit disjointed. It's short, though, so that doesn't bother me a whole lot.

I'm more questioning the politics of it. But since I'm so far removed from the conflict (spatially, ethnically, linguistically, etc.), I'm reluctant to weigh in on that aspect of it without really mulling it over first.

I feel like it's assuming readers will all share a certain point of view (i.e., sympathy for the Gorkhaland movement) without examining the larger questions of Balkanization vs. pluralism, etc. It really has the potential to deal with India-wide issues head on, using this conflict as a microcosm, but seems unwilling to go there.

I had a family friend emergency so haven’t read for 2 days, but I felt it was picking up about halfway through. I don’t foresee it being at the top of the list.

At the halfway point it feels more about child soldiers who aren’t particularly invested in the cause.

I've come around on Song of the Soil. I think it's one of the best books I've read all year.

One of the reviews I found online had the line that Song of the Soil dramatizes how a revolution is built in the minds of a few, but borne on the backs of thousands. I think that's exactly right. Villagers were recruited as child soldiers, led by revolutionaries who themselves did no fighting.

The translation seems to be divisive. It sounds like it errs on the side of literalness, honoring the Darjeelingay dialect of Nepali, perhaps at the expense of a fluid English.

I’m hoping for a quiet week and will go back a few chapters to get back into the flow of this book.
My copies of Valli and The Paradise of Food arrived this weekend.

The JCB Prize is releasing (very high quality) videos for the shortlisted books. I saw it pop up on instagram and twitter, but I'll link to youtube for anyone interested.

First up is Imaan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6driP...

This is a quite compelling story and, incidentally, one of two books I'm currently reading that was translated by the prolific Arunava Sinha.

The second video was posted earlier today (or yesterday if you're in India). Here is the video for Song of the Soil:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txo_d...

David, my copy of Imaan arrived today. That is much earlier than they told me, they told me January!

Those videos are wonderful. Thank you, David.

Here is the third video, for The Paradise of Food:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOn8S...

When I first saw the shortlist, this was the least intriguing title for me, but now my interest is piqued.

These are great videos. I like seeing what inspired the writers, I was particularly moved by Manoranjan Byapari’s background.

WndyJW wrote: "These are great videos. I like seeing what inspired the writers, I was particularly moved by Manoranjan Byapari’s background."

I thoroughly enjoyed his book, Imaan. Even though the title refers to one character, it's really about an entire community of people who live in poverty around the Jadavpur train station. It's very readable - no literary fireworks - but I don't think that's a bad thing at all.

For folks interested in Indian literature, the Sahitya Alademi awards Indian literature in all the major Indian languages. One of the JCB long listed books - Rohzin - won the award for Urdu. The award recognizes poetry and drama as well as fiction. It’s worth checking out the winners. For example, one of my favorite authors is Ambai who writes in Tamil. Her work is unabashed feminist and anti-caste/ communalism.
Link below:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahit...

That’s a rich mine of books to dig though, Arun. Thank you!

You’re welcome Wendy!
And David - thank you for sharing the videos. Very compelling!

WndyJW wrote: "These are great videos. I like seeing what inspired the writers. . ."

Even Chuden Kabimo talks about walking six miles each way to school as a child - up and down the foothills of the Himalayas.

I’m now skimming Song of the Soil, it’s just not hooking me. I started Imaan last night just to get a feel for it and was immediately hooked!

WndyJW wrote: "I’m now skimming Song of the Soil, it’s just not hooking me. I started Imaan last night just to get a feel for it and was immediately hooked!"

For me, chapter 2 is when Imaan really took off!

Here is the fourth video, this one about the making of Valli:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuPQ1...

The winner will be announced on Saturday. I'm hoping to finish Valli and make good progress on The Paradise of Food before the announcement. Those are my last two. I'm enjoying both and they might be my favorites of the bunch.

Final video, for Tomb of Sand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2rO0...

I've noticed something interesting about translated Indian fiction. When I read fiction translated from other languages, the translator is almost always a native English speaker who is fluent in the language they are translating from as a second language.

The pattern seems to be the reverse for most translated Indian fiction. The translator is most often a native speaker of the original language of the novel. (This is true for four of the five translators of works on this shortlist; Daisy Rockwell the lone exception.)

This has an interesting effect where the original language is perhaps better preserved in the translation, albeit at the expense of fluidity in English. Each translator of course has their own approach, but this seems to be a pattern I've noticed.

We are one day before the winner announcement. Valli is my favorite so far. I wonder if we will continue the pattern of winners from Kerala.

Do you have a favorite, Wendy?

I loved Imaan, I’m reading The Paradise of Food this weekend, but my grandsons will be here so I won’t make much progress. I couldn’t get on with Song of the Soil.

I’ll read a few chapters of Valli and The Paradise of Food to see if I can get enough of a feel for the books to have an opinion before tomorrow’s announcement.

For anyone so inclined, the winner announcement will start momentarily and will be streamed here: webcastlive.co.in/JCBlitprize2022

Winner is The Paradise of Food by Khalid Jawed, translated from Urdu by Baran Farooqi. Very much a worthy winner.

These books aren’t in the JCB list (for I guess they were released before the launch of the awards). I just finished reading Fear of Lions (Amita Kanekar) and The Black Hill (Mamang Tai). I began reading River of Fire (Qurratulain Hyder). All of them are historical fiction. I think readers will like engaging with these texts.

I am feeling a little emotional looking at the love Manoranjan Byapari is getting. A sense belongingness - a recognition that should have come long before!

The works of Anees Salim too! Intelligent and skilful writer! His book (The Odd Book of Baby Names) was long listed for the JCB this year.

You've just added a bunch of books to my TBR, Aabha!

Aabha Muralidharan wrote: "I am feeling a little emotional looking at the love Manoranjan Byapari is getting. A sense belongingness - a recognition that should have come long before!"

Do you follow Baran Farooqi on instagram, by chance? She has a delightful reel up of Manoranjan Byapari holding court at a table full of writers last night. You can see Sheela Tomy with her phone out too, capturing the scene.

River of Fire is an Indian classic and well worth the time necessary to read it. It spans the arc of India history from the classical period past Partition. It is truly epic.
Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra is another wonderful historical novel.
A Red Throated Green Bird which is a short story collection by Ambai won the 2021 Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamizh and is exquisite.
Finally, Gopinath Mohanty’s Paraja is a classic, translated from Oriya.
Personally as I delve more into translated Indian literature I find more vibrant and socially progressive themes than much of the writing in literature. In particular translations from Tamizh, Malayalam, Urdu, and Bangla seem to be able to avoid the trap of excessive cynicism while remaining relevant from a socially progressive standpoint.

One of the fascinating thing about Indian fiction is that each of the languages seems to have its own conventions and styles. In that way, it reminds me of European lit where Danish fiction, for example, has an entirely different sensibility than French, which in turn is different from Hungarian, etc.

For a relatively small state, Kerala (Malayalam) seems to punch above its weight. It's not surprising to me that Bangla tends to have a socially progressive bent too.

I'm very impressed by The Paradise of Food. It's not progressive in a Western sense but it definitely has a lot to say about the rise of fundamentalism in the Hindi/Urdu belt.

I do follow Baran and watched the video too. It was heartwarming! Rewatched his interview with Naseeruddin Shah (JCB - where his book was shortlisted) soon after to maybe just go and hug him virtually.

I am trying to talk to more of my queer and anti-caste friends to find literature that doesn’t reach literary festivals (for obvious reasons!) to read and amplify their important labour. Gabbilam - A Dalit epic by Gurram Jashuva and How are you veg by Joopaka Subhadra are two books I recently purchased. Binu’s room by Nazia Akhtar is a non-fiction academic work talks about Urdu Prose by women of Hyderabad (works of Zeenath Sajida, Najma Nikhat and Jeelani Bano).

Rohzin that was longlisted for this year’s JCB was translated by a dear friend. Her poetry too is important :)

Arun - Works of Ambai reminds me of the profound and genre breaking work of Bama.

David - I come from the state of Kerala (Malabar region) and the beauty of India (never to push away caste) is how with every few kilometres the language (not dialect) changes adding to the richness of literature.

Bengal and Kerala has had a good history of Russian literature with the library movement making ideas accessible to people. But never to take away caste and fundamentalism in these states. They are perhaps the most active in a state like Kerala (ironically!).

Bibi’s room* OOOPS!

Aabha Muralidharan wrote: "I am trying to talk to more of my queer and anti-caste friends to find literature that doesn’t reach literary festivals (for obvious reasons!) to read and amplify their important labour."

This is so important. Please keep posting recommendations, Aabha, whenever you discover something new in this vein.