As a result, translations into Malayalam have been prolific, especially in the last few years. thanks to the Malayali’s almost insatiable appetite for reading. For the mainstream publishers, the number of copies has also increased from the average of 1000 copies to 2000-3000 copies. The last ten years have witnessed a greater number of titles and volumes being published in Malayalam, with publishers doing cost control measures due to reduced net margins. Most of the main players also run their own chain of bookstores within the State. Direct marketing has also played a key role in developing a new market for books in Kerala in the last ten years or more….Kizhakemuri-the doyen of Kerala publishing-had a beautiful vision: A concept of 100 per cent literacy in a hundred days, which paved the way to Kottayam being the first 100 per cent literate town in India.( P. In fact many publishers have played a seminal role in mapping the socio-cultural and educational scenario of Kerala.
So let me note some of his observations and views here. Those are generally applicable to all the regional languages, particularly to Bengali publishing. A few exception can be cited like Dev Sahitya Kutur, a renowned publisher is running into its fourth generation M C Sarkar & Sons, Sahitya Samsad are in their third generation and Ananda Publishers is in its second generation.Īccording to 60 years of Book Publishing in India edited by Dina N Malhotra, more than 80,000 books were published in India during the year 2004 of which number of Bengali books published is 5,538 and placed fourth among all the Indian languages after Hindi, English and Tamil.In the ‘Publishing Scenario: Malayalam’ of the said book, Ravi Deecee splendidly narrated the history of Malayalam publishing with some intense observations and his views. Third generation publisher is seldom found among the Bengali publishers. Most of the publishing houses here are proprietorship business due to the fact these are personal aptitude-oriented as a consequence many publishers withered away within first generation, at best they can continue to second generation.
BENGALI BOOKS PROFESSIONAL
As a result the publishing industry in Bengal was dominated by personal motivation and aptitude rather than professional approach for a prolonged time. They never consider commercial interest as one of the important aspect of publishing. They publish little magazines, books cost of which is borne out of their pockets. This legacy is still prevailing among many of the today’s Bengali language publishers. One can easily contemplate that early Bengali language publishing did not follow the western commercial concept of profit and loss. The story of these great revolutionary publishers was never been recognized by the official history of freedom movement in India nor it has been chronicled by any non-official historian or publishers association. They courted arrest, imprisoned their press and publications were ransacked, confiscated for sedition. In the period of anti-British freedom struggle many publishers, who were essentially also revolutionaries, began to publish magazines, booklets, books to propagate their ideas among the people. Even Rabindranath Tagore initially published his books at his own expense, The pioneers among them were Raja Rammohun Roy, Vidyasagar, Bankimchandra and many others. They published their works on their own and distributed those almost freely. The social reformers of that age felt a strong urge to communicate with the newly educated Bengali middle class and developed the prose-writing form in Bengali. It began with Fort William College and Baptist missionaries.
Publishing in Bengali has a history of more than two hundred years and a very rich tradition.