The translator is a writer whose singular
originality lies in the fact that he seems
to make a claim to any.
-Maurice Blanchot
(as cited by Lawrence Venuti)

With the beginning of the post-colonial period in India, and especially in the last fifteen years or so, the act of translation can be said to have come of age, and its activity expanded a great deal. Penguin India, Macmillan of Madras, for instance, are coming out with translations in English of classics in all the regional languages of India.

If you believe in the strong/weak dichotomy of languages, English being a 'strong' language, then for once, it seemed, power flowed in the reverse direction. Or, conversely, the strong language appropriated to itself whatever best is available in the 'weak' languages so that it can grow stronger! English being a strong language in this sense also represents a strong culture which is globally influential and appropriative. To put it differently, that is, to view the phenomenon in global terms, even as the Indian nation state opened up for capital flows from the west, and is now on its fast track globalising itself in the process, it is also engaged, it can be said, in an internal process, an implosion of meaning whereby linguistic boundaries are being crossed through a massive programme of translation practice, for there will soon be a great pool of literary material available from all the national languages of India. However at this point in time, due to historical reasons, English representing a minority culture in India occupies the rallying point and a point of convergence for all the literary output from different languages through the instrumentality of translation.