In 2014, the Odia language – spoken by over 40 million people – was granted classical language status by the government of India in recognition of its long literary heritage. He was closely associated with the Odia language movement which began as a cultural movement against the imposition of languages such as English, Bengali, and even Persian – which was the court language before English — on the Odia population. While Odia literature has mostly remained inaccessible to the non-Odia speaker, the recent focus on Indian writing has led to an increase in the availability of English translations, including those from Odia. I’ve put together a list of novels and short story collections that reflect the best of modern Odia literature in translation. As a champion of the Odia language, Senapati was critical of the elevation of certain languages at the expense of local languages.

Source: Huffington Post January 04, 2020 03:45 UTC