Transmission of Chinese Cultural Capital： Translation of Classics and Contemporary Chinese Works in India

The paper argues that irrespective of an uninterrupted civilizational dialogue and extremely huge"embodied cultural capitals"in both India and China,transmission,and circulation of this capital has remained abysmal,and hence the"cultural disequilibrium".One of the important factors for this disequilibrium is the non-translation of each other’s literary capital rather than untranslatability of the Chinese or Indian languages,for the existing repository of the entire East Asian Buddhist literature was constructed through translations alone!It further argues that whatever efforts have been made of late,originate from the individual passion for Chinese classics and other literary genres by scarce sinologists in India,rather than by greater incentives or market forces,which nonetheless is taking shape with the rise of China.The study while looking into an overall scenario of the translation and transmission of Chinese cultural capital in India,also analyses some of the issues that are jeopardizing the circulation of the same.With the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between India and China on Cooperation in Mutual Translation and Publication of Classic and Contemporary Works,the author hopes that some of the disequilibrium will be done away with,and pave way for wider translation of each other’s rich literary tradition.However,to fully realize the potential,both need to mitigate various constraints inherent in our bilateral relations on the other.