Watch: Kolkata Durga Puja club performs Chandipath in English, netizens divided

On Tuesday, journalist Tamal Saha (@Tamal0401) posted a video on Twitter in which a group of musicians is seen performing a religious recital in English. While sharing the 55-second video, Saha wrote, “This #DurgaPuja club in #Kolkata translated legendary #Bengali narration of Chandipath to English for larger global audience. Outcome is hilarious. Can #English ever replace the richness of our language, do justice to the quintessential emotion that is evoked only in our language?”

The netizens were divided on the English version of religious texts. Commenting on the video, a Twitter user wrote, “Keeping aside the painstaking efforts by the organisers & performers here, this is quite hilarious to hear.”

This #DurgaPuja club in #Kolkata translated legendary #Bengali narration of Chandipath to English for larger global audience. Outcome is hilarious. Can #English ever replace the richness of our language,do justice to the quintessential emotion that is evoked only in our language? pic.twitter.com/kfFBZrDSGh

— Tamal Saha (@Tamal0401) September 27, 2022

Nothing can ever beat the original and i don’t think he too wanted that. What deserves credit is that he has tried to keep the feel intact throughout the recitation, chanting hymns in English after all is not easy. But এটা কোথায় হচ্ছে? Your camera always captures unique things.

— Sourav || সৌরভ (@Sourav_3294) September 27, 2022

Contrary view: What’s in a language? Meaning is important. Goddess doesn’t need crutches of Bengali or Sanskrit, any language with true devotion will reach her.

— Somnath Nandy (@AbhiNdy) September 27, 2022

No, no, No! Sanskrit is beautiful! Try subtitles!

— nabanita sircar (@sircarnabanita) September 27, 2022

Many great films work so well on subtitles, the rest of the gap is supposed to be filled by the audience, who must make an effort to understand and, more importantly, feel. In the age of social media, people are always uselessly inventive!

— ParomitaS (@Paroms) September 28, 2022

This is pure gold. We yearned for something like this as kids growing up outside of India, but today I’m not sure!

— Snigdha Basu (@SnigdhaBee) September 27, 2022

Hilarious !

— ইন্দ্রজিৎ | INDRAJIT (@iindrojit) September 27, 2022

Original is original.. nothing can replace it

— Bhaskar Chakraborty ভাস্কর চক্রবর্তী (@Chakrabortyb07) September 27, 2022

Hilarious as it is I don’t think the translation is the problem. Its a great effort. There are and should be translations of canons and no point fetishizing the original. The problem is that they are trying to replicate the meter of recitation which English doen not allow. https://t.co/bpWXZ6fIej

— Ujaan (@ujaanghosh) September 27, 2022

Sounds more like the mass in some church!! Will these ppl change their “mother and mother tongue” in the name of globalisation?? https://t.co/QqYglTUwex

— Wandering Blue Moon 🇮🇳 🚩🕉️ (@perkyelf) September 27, 2022

Another person wrote, “Hilarious as it is I don’t think the translation is the problem. It’s a great effort. There are and should be translations of canons and no point fetishizing the original. The problem is that they are trying to replicate the meter of recitation which English does not allow.”

As per a report by TV9 Bangla, the English recital of the religious hymns took place at the pandal set up by the Kundghat Pragati Sangh in Kolkata. The organisers used the English version of Mahishasura Mardini translated by artist Supriya Sengupta. Sengupta, an engineer by profession, translated the original text into English as it was the last wish of his mother.