constructing pathways to translation - Higher Education Commission

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On a practical level, translation in Urdu serves as a bridge between two cultures and two
languages. Thoughts, knowledge and ideas are transferred from one civilization to
another, and thus the reception and production process takes place.
It is because of importance of translation that in the contemporary world, huge
‘translation projects’ are being launched and activated. Well-known examples are the
U.N.E.S.C.O and I.F.T: International Federation of Translation. The ‘Star’ magazine is
published by America’s biggest institute, the ‘NASA’, in which translations of world
space research and investigations are regularly published. In the case of translations in
Urdu language, no such projects are being launched anywhere in Pakistan (Baig,1988).
Currently almost 986 journals pertaining to translation are published throughout the
world, the details of which can be found in ‘Journals of Translation’ available in the
British library lending division. Movements in translation work have yielded positive
results in the Muslim world as well. Translation has played a vital role in the
consciousness and liberation movements of Asia and Africa. The Muslim World in
general has greatly benefited from the translation movements of the West.
A large number of institutions came into existence, whose main purpose is to create
learning, awakening and consciousness. The best examples of such institutions are Sir
Syed Ahmed Khan’s Scientific Society and Vernacular society, the Delhi College and
Aligarh Muslim University, where substantial work in the field of translation studies
continue to be done, as compared to Pakistan.
As far as the translation tradition in the Urdu language is concerned, it can be easily
divided into three main categories, for convenience, as under:
1. Genre/Generic (Sunfi)
2. Creative and Non creative (Takhleequi-o-Ghair takhleequi)
3. Poetic or Prose (Nasri ya Shehri)
All over the world, Translation is done for the following four reasons, which Urdu also
shares :
1. To spread the message of God to reach the general population in its own language.
Such translations are claimed to be purely for religious purposes: to spread the
message of God.
2. To introduce the Arts and Literature of developed nations at the national level.