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Read Right
Sach Kanwal
Singh
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Who is reading in Punjab? And who is publishing? The author
brings to the fore the crisis in the world of Punjabi
publishing. |
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 At
a time when many in our community are deeply worried about lack of
the Sikhs’ own media, and some are making amazingly wonderful
efforts to build a media base and ensure that the Sikh community’s
perspective is heard and seen when it comes to issues impacting
South Asia or the Sikh Nation, it is also necessary to take a step
back and look at the very nature and size of the people who are our
potential readers and targets.
While efforts at
nurturing and strengthening the English media are all very well, and
must receive even more attention, resources and brainstorming hours,
we must remember at all times that the vast millions are wedded to
the vernacular and the readership figures in Punjabi are way down
than the ideal notch in any civilized society.
It is easy to
understand the intensity and scale of the problem with simple
figures. Gurdial Singh is Punjab’s only Jnanpeeth Award winner. His
novels are not published in print orders of more than 500, or at
times 1,100. Some of the best known names from Punjabi literature
are published only with print orders of 300.
Surjit Patar’s
latest book of poetry has a print order of 2,000. And come to think
of it: Surjit Patar is a rock star among contemporary
Punjab’s
poets alive. Two thousand? Yes. And the fact that it still hasn’t
been sold out only underlines the crisis.
Now, take the
other end of the mathematical equation. The Kendri Punjabi Lekhak
Sabha in Punjab has some 4,500 registered writers. Thousands of
Punjabi literature lecturers and professors in Punjab and elsewhere
are ostensible consumer of these books. Ideally, a publisher should
safely assume that these people will be part of his captive
readership if he is picking up a great name like Gurdial Singh or
Patar.
Who is reading
in Punjab? “Virtually, no one,” says Harish Jain, the man who has
brought market savvyness to the Punjabi publishing trade through his
imprints Lokgeet Prakashan and Unistar. He says the total size of
the market for Punjabi books is simply not viable enough to sustain
good publishing practices.
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Domain
experts and men of letters say the real problem lies in a
complete disconnect between the readers and the publishers. They
say the publishers are flooding the market with so much trash
that for a genuine reader, the disappointment is the norm.
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Harish may have
a point, since he is also often blamed for leading from the front a
culture of book publishing where authors can pay and get themselves
published. SP Singh, former vice chancellor of
Guru
Nanak Dev
University, Amritsar, said the ill advised conditionality of
university lecturers and readers having to have published work to
become full time professors has brought a lot of substandard stuff
into the market.
But domain
experts and men of letters say the real problem lies in a complete
disconnect between the readers and the publishers. They say the
publishers are flooding the market with so much trash that for a
genuine reader, the disappointment is the norm. On top of that, the
lack of a penetrative network of bookshops across Punjab keeps
readers and books separated by the huge availability gap.
“But all these
arguments are subjective opinions arrived at as a result of drawing
room discussions or writers’ mehfils. The empirical evidence should
be focused on much more,” said a senior writer who has studied the
world of publishing closely for years.
He said the from
the dismal figure of just about 40 books published annually each
year on an average during the 35 year period (1947-1982), when the
entire time band saw publication of 1,528 books, the annual figure
is now more than 150. This number is slowly but steadily growing.
 The
perplexing thought is that even a moron knows that we are facing a
crisis of readership in Punjabi.
That is a
situation of irony writ large. More books, low readership. And
publishing world complaining about size of the readership. And we
are only talking of Indian Punjab. The Pakistani Punjabi publishing
story is a tale so sad that mere cold numbers will make the most
stone hearted cry. Notwithstanding the ambitious and brave efforts
of Suchet Kitab Ghar, Punjabi Adabi Markaz, Punjabi Adabi Board,
etc., and now the Institute of Punjabi Language and Literature in
Pakistan, the number of books published is almost closer to a
naught.
But take the
numbers on this side of the Radcliffe Line. As per the Federation of
Indian Publishers’, slightly less than one lakh titles are currently
published every year in India. Nearly 25,000 of these are books in
Hindi, followed by almost competing number in English, followed by
Tamil (about 10 per cent), Bangla (about 7 per cent), Marathi about
7 per cent, Telugu (about 5 per cent) and then Malayalam, Gujarati,
Urdu, Kannada. Punjabi titles claim less than two per cent.
It is true that
even at the India level, the situation is really bad. The per capita
number of book titles published in India is around 8 per 100,000
population. This number is much lower in comparison to those of the
countries like the UK, US, France and Germany.
In terms of
languages, the per capita number of titles published per 100,000
persons is 6.3 in Bangla, 6.2 in Gujarati, 5 in Hindi, 4.8 in
Kannada, 4.2 in Telugu, 3.9 in Urdu — at 7.7, the figure is the
highest in Assamese.
It is time we
zoom in and identify the key areas where immediate attention and
ironing out is required. Only heathens will be happy in a world
without books. Since Sikhs consider themselves Ahal-e-kitaab, the
People of the Book, it is our foremost duty to rise and respond to
the challenge.
How else will
the Guru’s Word spread far and wide in our own
Punjab
and among our own Punjabis if we do not bring in and usher a culture
of the written word? It is here that we are seriously lacking.
At the same
time, the kind of discrimination against Punjabi language being
practiced not just by the state bureaucracy, established
brahamanical powers, communal forces, and upper elite dress circle
in our Punjabi society needs to be met with a broad spectrum
response at all levels. It is in such a paradigm that the Punjabi
Diaspora can play a huge part.
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Only
heathens will be happy in a world without books. Since Sikhs
consider themselves Ahal-e-kitaab, the People of the Book, it is
our foremost duty to rise and respond to the challenge. How else
will the Guru’s Word spread if we do not bring in and usher a
culture of the written word? |
We are often
asked, as Harish Jain did in a recent TV panel discussion, whether
there is reader enough in Punjabi. But why are we not responding
forcefully to attempts to limit our readership in Punjabi with the
simple and deadly stratagem of denying them an education in Punjabi
medium, disconnecting young ones from the mother tongue and making
them rootless people.
Also, we need a
whole live movement for book penetration. Mofussil areas are badly
served by book trade. Availability of books is a major problem.
What else explains the runaway success of book exhibitions in areas
like Barnala, Mansa, Moga, Bathinda etc?
We all remember
the how, in 1950s, Dr. M S Randhawa as the Development Commissioner,
had led a movement to get books to the villages. That was a huge
success. We need similar, and manifold such initiatives now.
Otherwise we are
doomed to see rising number of titles being published, but
increasingly low book sales.
As Sushil
Dosanjh, the pioneering editor of “Hun”, the hugely successful and
content-rich Punjabi literary journal, put it during a panel
discussion, “Koora kabaarra chaapi jao, phir kehna ke pathak hee
nahi hai. First, understand what the reader wants, then try to
come up to his level.”
We cannot keep
harking back to the golden age of Navyug Publishers and Lahore Book
Shop. It is time to get professionals in. Where is the culture of
editors, subject excerpts in Punjabi publishing? In many other
languages, book culture is deeply entrenched. Print orders in
Malayalam and Bangla are huge. Why are cities like Ludhiana or
Amritsar two book shop cities?
The Punjabi
publishing trade cannot depend only on the resale value of Jaswant
Singh Kanwal, Gurdial Singh, Nanak Singh, Gurbaksh Singh etc. And
the rich with moneybags Diaspora writer, often derisively called
pounds and dollar writer, can only help so much.
It is time to
pull our socks and act. And ask the government why is it so
completely missing from the big picture. At one time, the university
publishing and Language Department were at the core of Punjabi
publishing world. Now, they are quoted as examples of dysfunctional
approach.
In what kind of
a society do literary magazines like Aarsi and Nagmani or even
Drishti die. Preetlari is as good as on dialysis. Sirjana is now in
its 45th year, but it is Raghbir Singh’s baby, not that of the
Punjabi world. If Aks or Mehram are surviving, it is because they
chose to remain general mags than metamorphose into literary
journals.
As for the
popular media, how much space do newspapers like Ajit give to books
or the larger biblio world? Nawa Zamana is on top of the heap,
Punjabi Tribune somewhat behind. As for the English newspapers
published from
Punjab,
the Punjabi literature is almost brushed aside. Why English language
newspapers are not according the kind of importance to Punjabi when
Chennai editions of same newspapers take in a lot of Tamil book
reviews?
It is time for
us to engage with the world of the written word, and ensure that it
is not emasculated under the weight of the liberalized forces of the
market. Remember, the tongue has something to with the idea of a
mother. Are we doing as much for it as we would have for our own
mother?
18
November 2009
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