A Zubaan Books Project in collaboration with the Ashoka Centre for Translation
Recently, I had the chance to attend a book discussion on translation by women writers and translators at the India International Centre (@iicdelhi), New Delhi. Organised in collaboration with Zubaan (@zubaanbooks), the Ashoka Centre for Translation (@translationatashoka), and the Susham Bedi Memorial Fund, the panel—titled When Women Translate Women—brought together esteemed translators Krupa Ge (@krupage), Astri Ghosh (@astrighosh), and Ira Pande in conversation with Rita Kothari (@kothari4140), in a discussion introduced by Urvashi Butalia.
The collaboration initially took shape around the idea of translating Susham Bedi’s works, making her words accessible in multiple languages. But as the project evolved, the team saw an opportunity to expand the conversation: why not create a series where women translators translate other women writers? This question now forms the heart of the ‘Women Translating Women’ (WTW) project—a publishing partnership between the Ashoka Centre for Translation and Zubaan Books. Supported by the Susham Bedi Memorial Fund, the project is commissioning twelve books over two years, bringing into English works by women across languages in India.
One of these books is Susham Bedi’s Navabhum Ki Ras Katha, translated by Astri Ghosh as A New World Romance—the third release in the WTW series. Bedi (1945–2020), a celebrated Hindi writer, explored themes of migration, feminine modernity, and the constant negotiation between tradition and selfhood.
Ghosh reflected on her process of translation at the book discussion, speaking about how understanding a writer’s life is an essential part of translating them.
“Susham Bedi’s writings reflect the negotiations of identity a migrant faces in the meeting with a new world. After translating many male writers, I am delighted at this opportunity to look at the world from a woman’s point of view.” —Astri Ghosh
Read more here: (https://www.ashoka.edu.in/ashoka-and-zubaan-announce-partnership-to-translate-books-by-women-written-in-indian-languages/)
The panel explored how gender influences translation—not just in terms of who translates, but in how texts are read, interpreted, and carried forward. Co-director of the Ashoka Centre for Translation and Professor of English at Ashoka University, Rita Kothari argued that when a woman translates another woman’s work, she hears not just the said but also the unsaid. Language, she emphasised, is inherently gendered.
Historically, men have occupied positions of authority, and their language reflects that—coded with an impulse to ‘lead.’ Women, on the other hand, have often been in the position of ‘following,’ shaping a different relationship with language—one that includes silences and submissions. This sensitivity, Kothari suggested, makes women translators more attuned to the cultural nuances in women’s writing. She also referenced Toril Moi’s essay, ‘While We Wait: The English Translation of The Second Sex’, to highlight these complexities.
When a woman translates another woman’s work, she hears not just the said but also the unsaid...women translators more attuned to the cultural nuances in women’s writing.
The idea that language itself carries traces of power structures is something we often acknowledge in theory but rarely examine in practice. And yet, as Kothari spoke, I began thinking about how often women’s voices—especially in literature—are filtered through structures that are not their own. When a woman translates another woman, there is an opportunity to subvert that, to read between the lines with a certain knowingness.
Ira Pande reflected on her experience translating her own mother’s stories. “She was a character in her own world,” she said. Translating the work of someone so intimately known allows for a kind of distance—an opportunity to see them beyond the singular perspective shaped by personal relationships.
She also spoke about how even the sound of words plays a crucial role in translation. “Relationships,” she noted, “are embedded in the languages we speak.” If translation is a way of listening, as the panelists suggested, then perhaps it is also a way of coming to terms with history, with identity, with all the things that language refuses to say outright.
If translation is a way of listening, as the panelists suggested, then perhaps it is also a way of coming to terms with history, with identity, with all the things that language refuses to say outright.
Krupa Ge raised an important point about women’s heightened vigilance—how they are conditioned to be hyper-aware, always anticipating the needs of others. This attentiveness, she suggested, is present even in translation, where women translators often bring an added layer of care and sensitivity to their work.
As she spoke, I looked around the room full of women—reflecting an unspoken understanding that this was a space where these ideas could be explored freely.
At the end of the day, I was left with questions to wonder what new ways of reading do such conversations open up for us? The ‘Women Translating Women’ project is not just about bringing important literary works into English—it is also about shifting the lens, about reconsidering who gets to speak, who gets to interpret, and how meaning is shaped in that process. Sitting in that room, I felt elated—this wasn’t just a discussion about books, but about the power of women-led spaces, about the ways in which translation itself can be an act of reclamation.
What a beautifully written blog! And equally beautiful points made by these fantastic women ❤✨