Geetanjali Shree’s radical fiction, written in Hindi, is finding a global audience

In 2022, Tomb of Sand became the first work of Indian literature to win the International Booker Prize. Written in Hindi by Geetanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell, the novel is Shree’s magnum opus and the pinnacle of a distinguished literary career.

Indian writers have previously won the Booker Prize, which is restricted to works written in English: Salman Rushdie (1981), Arundhati Roy (1997), Kiran Desai (2006) and Aravind Adiga (2008). But English is spoken by about 10% of the Indian population; its rightful place as an Indian language is a result of the passionately contested legacy of 200 years of British rule on the subcontinent.

Hindustani – or Hindi, as it is commonly known – has 611 million speakers around the world. Some estimates put the figure closer to 855 million. And yet the global recognition of Hindi literature, like literature in the 22 other officially recognised languages of India, each of which has its own complex history, remains hostage to Anglophone publishing regimes.

Shree notes this conundrum in one of her earliest stories, Pilaki Mane Faye (the title is a bit of nonsensical wordplay, implying the absurdity of a situation). Its central character, who wants to make a bit of extra money through Hindi publishing, comments on the comparative profitability of the English language:

Yeah, it would...

Read more