The visualizations presented are intended to provide an overview of the archive’s contents and to illustrate how metadata can be analyzed to, underline trends (that can be historicized) uncover biases and gaps in translation decisions over time. The deliberate use of familiar forms, such as graphs and pie charts, is intended to help readers engage with the data more easily.
Temporality is a key indicator of trends over time, and it is evident that the volume of translations increased significantly in the 1990s. Globally, a surge in translations began in the 1980s, with the trend in India coinciding with Salman Rushdie’s Booker Prize win. This intersection complicates the narrative surrounding the translation of Hindi novels, a topic partially explored in the academic thesis based on this archive.
Despite the centrality of identity-related debates in contemporary discourse, the gender, religion, and caste of writers and translators often remain sidelined in literary discussions in India. The data reveals a persistent bias, particularly against lower castes, in translation decision-making. The absence of certain voices in the dataset signifies a gap and highlights the inequities present in the literary landscape.