https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/7746 2026-04-26T21:18:29Z https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/7883 Title: Translating Orality: Documentation and Preservation of the Language of the Lotha Nagas with reference to Nzanmongi Jasmine Patton’s A Girl Swallowed by a Tree Authors: Banerjee, Aishwarya Abstract: Documentation and preservation of endangered and vulnerable indigenous languages are imperative not only to protect linguistic diversity and stimulate theoretical research but also to preserve a rich indigenous worldview. However, documentation and preservation of these indigenous languages would not be complete without a translation venture. Translating orality often soars beyond mere linguistic transposition to involve a more meticulous navigation between preserving linguistic and cultural aspects of oral traditions and adapting them to a literary form. The Lotha Nagas, one of the major indigenous tribes of Nagaland, rely heavily on oral narratives transmitted across generations through their language, Lotha. But owing to the dearth of institutionalised support and a gap in the intergenerational transfer, Lotha faces the threat of extinction. Thus, Nzanmongi Jasmine Patton makes an attempt to document, translate, and preserve Lotha, through her book, A Girl Swallowed by a Tree. To fortify the language against being lost into oblivion, Patton collects Lotha Naga tales and retells them in English. However, cultural references ingrained in the source language might not always be smoothly translated into English without losing their innate properties. Patton thereby chooses to retain in the heart of the text some Lotha words that are culturally untranslatable. Drawing on key theoretical frameworks from Linguistic Anthropology and Translation Studies, this paper seeks to read select Lotha Naga tales and examine how documentation of the Lotha language not only serves as a means of cultural survival but also provides oral storytelling with an impetus. The paper shall also try to explore the problems and prospects of translating indigenous oral narratives into a literary text. Description: pp : 01-14 2026-02-25T00:00:00Z https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/7882 Title: Whispers of Urdu: Language Politics and Non-Hegemonic Masculinities in Anita Desai’s In Custody Authors: Panda, Ankita; Sharma, Dr P. Muralidhar Abstract: The paper intends to discuss the decline of the composite linguistic/literary cultures fostered by Urdu, in terms not merely of a narrative of linguistic deterioration but as a potent metaphor for the disintegration of traditional masculine roles in post-independence India. In doing so, it will attempt to read Anita Desai’s In Custody (1984) vis-à-vis the disempowerment of a once-glorious linguistic and cultural ethos fostered by Urdu. With the expansion of British colonial power, Urdu, previously the language of the elite nawabi circles, yields to English, signifying the decline of Muslim cultural legacy. The consolidation of nationalist forms of cultural self-expression foregrounded Hindi as the venerated language of the nation-in-the-making, relegating Urdu to the periphery. Desai’s novel is a poignant reflection of the absolute impossibility of cultural reclamation contingent upon the emergence of communalized power structures and linguistic hegemony. Through the figure of Nur, an ageing Urdu poet, Desai portrays a world where language is inseparable from personal and collective selfhood. The displacement of Urdu serves as a powerful metaphor for the emasculation and cultural alienation experienced by men like Nur who once found status and meaning through their embodiment of a flourishing linguistic tradition. Nur’s passage into oblivion mirrors the broader vulnerability of men who are unable to adapt to the new linguistic and socio-political order. Urdu, positioned in the novel as the language of poetic creativity and masculine prestige, becomes a site of nostalgic mourning and symbolic disempowerment. Desai’s narrative thus dramatizes the intersections of language and gender, illustrating how linguistic shifts dismantle deeply entrenched notions of masculinity. Description: pp : 15-28 2026-02-25T00:00:00Z https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/7881 Title: The Enduring Echo: Language, Identity, and Cultural Survival in Select Fictions of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar Authors: Rahaman, Jemima; Wahida, Dr Hasina Abstract: Language is never neutral. For historically marginalized communities like the Adivasis, it is the first domain of erasure and the final frontier of resistance. Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, writing from within the Santhal community, navigates the fault lines of power, representation, and survival in a literary landscape that has long spoken about Adivasis but rarely with them. His fictions perform a double move: they destabilize the homogeneity of Indian English while preserving the cadences and consciousness of Santali life. This paper examines how his works, The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey (2014) and My Father’s Garden (2018), utilize language as a tool of resistance against cultural erasure while navigating the tension between oral tradition and written form. Throughout his fictional works, Shekhar weaves Santali words and phrases into his writing, often without providing direct translations for his English-speaking readers. This choice serves two main purposes: it authentically conveys the Santhal experience, immerses readers in the community's language, and acts as a subtle resistance against linguistic assimilation into English, asserting the validity of Santali in literature. Drawing upon recent theories of linguistic resistance by scholars like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Adivasi cultural theorists such as G.N. Devy, the paper argues that Shekhar’s strategic code-switching, narrative ambiguity, and vernacular embeddedness serve as acts of linguistic decolonization. Writing, in his fiction, becomes a battleground where cultural survival is not just thematized but actively performed. Through this lens, Shekhar’s work can be read as an insurgent archive, challenging the coloniality of Indian English literature and re-centering Adivasi epistemologies. Description: pp : 29-43 2026-02-25T00:00:00Z https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/7880 Title: The Slam Poetry of Xiomara: Analyzing the Assertion of the Adolescent Dominican-American Female Identity in The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo Authors: Barman, Karabi Abstract: Language as a societal and personal construct, tends to be at the center of identity formation and the assertion of the self. Akin to the variation in language structures and language patterns in different cultures and nationalities, the usage of language varies according to identities of age, race and ethnicity. This peculiar yet crucial intermingling of race and age in the poetry of Xiomara and the poetic verse of Elizabeth Acevedo’s verse novel The Poet X (2018), is integral to studies relating to the patterns of self-assertion and identity formation. As the young adolescent population often find themselves silenced or their presence subdued by the structures of family, religion and patriarchy demanding conformity to established norms, the rebellious and transgressive poetry of Xiomara represents the forms of self-expression, self-assertion and protests against these dominant structures by adolescents. Xiomara’s defiant slam poetry in the verse novel The Poet X marks a strong statement of the racio-cultural and age identity, attacking the superstructures and superseding these structures and the restrictive norms with triumphant free flowing verse true to the self. Language thus, serves as a racio-cultural ‘markedness’ in the text as Xiomara’s poetry serves as a marker of her Dominican identity and a defiance against the language patterns of the Whites. It is both a tool for cultural revival and cultural survival. Xiomara’s powerful rebellious teenage slam poetry is a revolution in itself that questions existing dominant dogmas and serves as a discourse about freedom, identity and assertion in itself. Description: pp : 44-56 2026-02-25T00:00:00Z