The Translation Programme
The translation programme which led to Marga publications was complementary to the main focus of the Institute’s work. It met a felt need in the field of higher learning in Sri Lanka.
The programme was preceded by a survey of the Sinhala reading public which helped to identify the gaps particularly in the field of social sciences. The objective was to translate approximately 100 books into the Sinhala language and by so doing provide the Sinhala educated intelligentsia with a substantial body of writing in the social sciences. These writings were selected from the works of eminent experts and thinkers in the relevant disciplines and represented different schools of thought. The authors included Myrdal, Baur, Sweezey, Baran, Wriggins, Rostow, Prebisch, Heilbroner, Kindleberger, Worsely, Almond and Coleman among many others. The programme also included a few well-known modern creative works such as Camus’s "Plague", Silone’s "Fontemara", Solzenitsyn's "One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch", Orwell’s "Animal Farm", Lederer’s "The Ugly American". A few of the Marga publications have been translated into Tamil.
The Institute’s objective has been to provide reading material in both Sinhala and Tamil, in keeping with its vision of a multi-ethnic society. In its future programme of translation it plans to fulfill this objective.
