Nynas/Researching Global Religious Landscapes, 2.Translation and Major Categories in the Study of Religions: The Case of "Religion" and "Spirituality" in West Bengal

The translation of research instruments presents a window to the many difficult conceptual problems related to commensurability or incommensurability. We often face them in cross-cultural studies involving different cultures and languages. Hence, a translation process may gain a methodological value in itself and produce significant data. In this chapter we examine the process of translating the Faith Q-set into Bengali. This case study reflects many of the issues that we came across in working with translations of the Faith Q-set from English to eleven different target languages. The impact of linguistic, conceptual and cultural differences become evident in this study, and we question the ideal that one can overcome cross-cultural boundaries, and modestly prefer to refer to the quality of a translation process with respect to target groups. Yet, in contrast to the impact of cultural differences, and supported by a translingual-practice approach, we emphasise that comprehensibility and understanding still emerge through different forms of linguistic contact, interaction and interpretation. This happens on a historical and societal level as well as on a micro-level within the interviews.