Hergé, the creator of Tintin, sent a young reporter on an adventure in ‘Flight 714 to Sydney’ in 1968. He briefly referenced a Bengali city that most readers have never noticed. In the English translation, however, that city becomes Rangoon mysteriously. Let’s look at a small but fascinating twist in the history of translation.
In Flight 714 to Sydney, the story begins with Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, and Professor Calculus stopping at Jakarta’s Kemajoran Airport for refueling. Calculus, portrayed as the famously half-deaf, yet brilliant scientist, mishears the location, thinking they are in Rangoon.
In this scene, the original French edition had ‘Chandernagor’ instead of Rangoon.
According to Ranajoy Roy’s research, “Tintin's Bengali translation was translated from English translations, not from the original French. In the Bengali translation, Chandannagar remained as Rangoon. Both the people of Belgium and France were very much familiar with Chandannagar at that time because Chandannagar in West Bengal was a French Colony”.
Back story of Chandannagar
Chandannagar, located along the Hooghly River in West Bengal, was a French colony for over 277 years.
For Europeans of Hergé’s time, the city was well-known as ‘Chandernagor’. And yet, over decades and across translations, from French to English to Bengali, its name vanished from Tintin’s world.
Here's a little chronology
In 1673, the French established a trading post, marking the beginning of their colonial presence
In 1950, the French government officially ceded the city to Indian control, with the administration transferred on May 2, 1950
In 1951, the "Treaty of Cession" was signed, officially transferring Chandannagar to India
In 1954, Chandannagar was officially merged with the Indian state of West Bengal
This small nod to West Bengal may go unnoticed by Tintin fans today. However, Hergé's depiction of Chandannagar, a city that existed in both fiction and reality, serves as a reminder of the interwoven histories of Europe and India.
