The Publishing Horizon

Translating The Economist into Indian langauges? Why not!

Andy Baio discovered The Eco Team.

... a group of dedicated fans of The Economist newsmagazine are translating each weekly issue cover-to-cover, splitting up the work among a team of volunteers, and redistributing the finished translations as complete PDFs for a Chinese audience.

...

It's an impressive example of online collaboration with simple tools, a completely non-commercial effort by volunteers interested in spreading knowledge while improving their English skills. In the process, they're taking a political risk in translating controversial articles about their homeland behind the Great Firewall.

...

They call themselves The Eco Team, a group of about 240 passionate Economist fans led by a 39-year-old insurance broker named Shi Yi. The ECO China forum was originally founded in May 2006 by a mysterious character named "nEo," though he's no longer involved with the site. On their About Us page, nEo delivers the mission statement:

"Like the forum name says, producing a Chinese version of The Economist is our goal. But we're still young and immature; very amateur, not professional. So what? Because we are young, we have the fervor, the enthusiasm, the passion. Because we are amateurs, we'll double our efforts to do our best. As long as we wish, we can be successful and do a good job!"

Every week, in their Weekly Topics forum (translation), a moderator creates a thread linking to every untranslated article from the newest issue on Economist.com. Here's the list for this week's issue, published on February 21.

Volunteers choose their stories in the comments, while the moderator keeps track of assignments. As each story's translated, it's posted as a new thread in topic-specific forums, like Special Reports or Science & Technology.

Each article weaves together paragraphs of the original text and its translation, while other volunteers suggest their corrections in the comments. The lead editor incorporates all the comments, eventually arriving at a final draft ready for publication.

The best part is that The Economist is actually ok with the Eco Team doing their thing - an extremely smart move on the part of The Economist.

How long before we can get Indian language translations of magazines like The Economist? Time we did something about it.

As an aside, The Economist is part of my staple media diet. Though I don't necessarily agree with all the views expressed in The Economist, I'm an unabashed admirer - it is a simply superb magazine.

English translations of Tamil pulp fiction

Mukul Kesavan gains access to the world of Tamil pulp fiction through recently published English translations (published by Blaft, a Chennai-based publishing house) and is overwhelmed.

But like many Anglophone Indians, I find reading in an Indian language a chore. The reason our reading lives aren’t nourished by popular novels set in locales we know is not because they aren’t written, but because they aren’t translated.

Which brings me to this anthology, a riveting collection of stories written by 10 bestselling Tamil writers. They are real professionals who make Stephen King and Barbara Cartland look like amateurs. Indra Soundar Rajan, who is represented here by a splendid story on the theme of reincarnation, has written 500 short novels. If that sounds like fiction manufactured on an industrial scale, wait till you get to Rajesh Kumar, who has published 1,250 novels and 2,000 short stories in 40 years.

To the discriminating Anglophone desi, who buys Rushdie for literary sustenance and Dick Francis for base narrative pleasure, this suggests that everything they write is awful. Not so fast. He might consider the fact that during the boom years of Tamil pulp fiction, the mid-’90s, Rajesh Kumar’s novels sold in millions. Then he might actually read the stories and novellas in this anthology. My personal favourites are two private-eye tales: Hurricane Vaij by Subha (pen name for two writers, Suresh and Balakrishnan) and Sweetheart, Please Die! by Pattukkottai Prabhakar, but a reader looking for romance should read Dim Lights, Blazing Hearts by Ramanichandran, while someone in the market for lurid, "real-life" squalor might sample My Name is Kamala, a massively popular novel about prostitutes in Delhi.

I don’t know Tamil so I can’t tell what’s been lost in translation, but the magical thing about this anthology is that I never once thought of the stories as Tamil stories. In Pritham Chakravarthy’s translations, the characters in these stories live and breathe an English that smells like a neutral ether: neither elaborately English nor annoyingly vernacular.And it’s hard to convey the delight I felt in reading time-pass fiction where the starlets, the hard-boiled detectives and the vengeful goddesses came from the world I inhabited, were mine.

There are two reasons to buy this book. One, it’s a wonderful read and, two, it’s the best-produced paperback in the history of Indian publishing. From the luridly brilliant cover (complete with gun-toting, full-breasted Tamil rose) to the colour plates, the line drawings, the perfectly judged author introductions and the high-quality paper inside, this book is an object lesson in how publishing is done.

The Hindu describes the origins of the idea for a publishing initiative like Blaft.

“I got interested in Tamil pulp fiction novels after moving to Chennai in 1998,” says Rakesh Kumar Khanna, a mathematician from U.C. Berkeley and IIT Madras.

“But I found that none of these books were being translated, and I really wanted to read them!”

So, he began a personal project to translate the treasure trove of pulp literature in Tamil. That morphed into Blaft when his wife Rashmi Ruth Devadasan and their friend Kaveri Lalchand came on board.

Hindi writer, Shivani

Ira Pande, the daughter of Hindi writer Shivani, talks about her writer-mother in an interview with Kamla Bhatt on the Kamla Bhatt Show (audio - 33MB mp3). A very interesting interview.

In the interview, Ira Pande describes some interesting experiences including one where her mother had sent a handwritten manuscript of a novel (the only copy she had) to Dharamvir Bharti at Dharmayug magazine. Bharti forgot the manuscript on a suburban train in Bombay and asked Shivani for another copy. Bharti was mortified to learn from Shivani that it was the only copy of her work and he had lost it. But the lost copy eventually came back. It was found by a passenger on the train, who then tried to pass the work off as his own and gave it to his sister for her feedback. Her sister read one page and said "this is Shivani's work." The person who found the manuscript then wrote to Shivani saying "when my own sister could tell that this was your style, how did I ever assume that I would
fool the world." Shivani apparently wrote a story based on this incident.

Ira Pande's obituary of Shivani, who died in 2003, is here.

Book publishing output in India from 1977-2001 - interesting trends

A study of available data on the number of books published in India every year across the various Indian languages and English throws up some interesting trends - see the graphic below. I was only able to find data for the years 1977-82, 1990-96, 1998-99, 2000-2002.

Except for English, Tamil, Hindi, Bengali and Marathi, the output in all the other Indian languages has been less than 1,000 new titles per year for over 20 years from 1977-2001.

Oriya publishing seems to have experienced a boom of sorts going from about 200 titles published per year to 1,700 titles per year in just one year in 2000-01, but was still fifth in terms of the number of titles published behind the top four languages which were English, Tamil, Hindi and Bengali.

In 2000-01, Tamil publishing experienced a surge (from about 1,900 titles to over 2,800 titles published per year) to move to second place behind English (~7,000 titles per year) by overtaking Hindi and Bengali. Hindi dropped to third place (~2,200 titles published)and Bengali was in fourth place (~2,000 titles published per year).

Marathi experienced a boom in 1994-95 going from 800 titles per year to about 1,900 titles per year, but dropped back to 1,200 titles per year after that.

The data is based on the number of titles received by the National Library at Kolkata under the Delivery of Books and Newspapers (Public Libraries) Act 1954. As per the act, every Indian publisher is required by law to send a copy of every title published to the National Library at Kolkata. The data has been gleaned from different sources: a UNESCO report for the years 1977-82, the Education Ministry site for the years 1990-96, and answers to questions raised in Parliament for the years 1998-99, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. I've compiled together all of the above data and put it up online (MS Excel format). I sent an email to the National Library at Kolkata for data for the missing years, but have not received any response. Maybe an RTI request or another question in Parliament could do the trick!

A report on the Education Ministry web site suggests that statistics of books received by the National Library at Kolkata can be taken as an approximation and the actual number of titles published are likely to be a good 20-30% higher.

The data from National Library, however, do not present the real picture on titles published in the country because many publishers do not send a copy of each of the published titles as required under the Act. As experts suggest, the number of titles would be more by at least 20 per cent in the case of English language and by 30 percent for other languages. The book division of Chemicals & Allied Product Export Promotion Council (CAPEXIL) estimates the number of new titles published in the country at about 50,000 per annum. Even this seems to be a underestimate.

Fortunately, the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) in recent times had compiled the latest statistics on Indian book publishing, which was published in a book titled " 50 Years of Book Publishing in India since Independence". According to this source about 11,000 publishers in India bring out nearly 60,000 titles in a year. To be more specific, in 1997 57,386 books were published in the country in 17 Indian languages and English, which had a share of about 22 per cent. The FIP data which were collected through various Indian languages publishers' associations appear to be more reliable compared to the incomplete information provided by NBC & the CAPEXIL.
Even if number of titles published in a year is known with certainty, the estimation of publishing market in India remains difficult. There is no consensus over average print runs per title and average price of a title. The print runs for a title can be as high as one lakh for a popular novel and can be even a few hundreds for another. Similar is the case with the variability in prices.

Few readers for Indian language literature today, there's no money in it.

In an interview, Ira Pande (daughter of Hindi writer Shivani), laments the lack of recognition for the good work being done in Indian language literature ("Bhasha Literature"). She claims there are few readers for it today and there's no money in it for the writers. She wants their work to be translated to reach wider audiences and is working on it herself.

“Around the time of Independence, our regional `bhasha’ literature had a richer bank. English writing didn’t even have a status. Mulk Raj Anand had to go abroad for publishing. It’s a reversal now, most people don’t even know the big names who are writing in Marathi. Our strength is in our plurality, why should we destroy what we already have? Some of the most modern, most real work, in terms of the country is being done by the `bhasha’ writers. We owe it to them to translate their work, to make it reach the larger reader audiences. Translations are what I want to do.” Currently working on translating late Manohar Shyam Joshi’s novel and Shivani’s Apradhini, which talks of women in prison in the late 1960s, Ira felt, “some books age well. My own book is in my head. I’ll do it when I find the courage. My sense of dignity is rather fragile, I’m choosing to hide behind translations.”

Matter of concern

The rise of Indian writing in English is a matter of concern for Ira. “We’ve made English writing only for the English speaking people, we’ve cut ourselves away from our roots and there is a kind of sameness in the fiction that’s coming out. There is no connection with ordinary life; this kind of writing is not a part of our fictional landscape. It’s quite literally literature for the `baba log’ and `baby log’. An ordinary reader cannot connect emotionally or academically with people of Indian origin living in ghettos in New York or Birmingham. The great promise lies in our non-fiction. Suketu’s Maximum City, for instance, was very impressive.”

No money in it

Bhasha literature in our country is doing extremely good work but sadly there are no readers and there is no money in it for our writers. “Except for Katha and Sahitya Akademi, no one is really working in this field. We are killing whatever little writing that’s being done in our bhashas by imposing English translations on them. Hindi has to be translated to English and promoted abroad. Kiran Desai doesn’t need to be promoted, everyone will run to translate her work. The lesser known yet substantial and great writers need to be given a push. English Literature in India has acquired the glamour of Bollywood. It has its SRKs and ABs.”

“We still live with the colonial burden, in spite of claims otherwise. You should have seen the hype that was created around William Dalrymple’s new book, the crowds that came but the reality is that only a very thin crust of the urban English speaking population is getting to read these books. Popular writing in Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam is being ignored. My mother’s books were being sold, printed on toilet paper. What will happen if we treat our own with so much contempt? The glitz and commerce of India shining is probably going to scare good writers away, only those who are glib and well connected will get picked up.”

I think the opportunity here is huge. We, at New Horizon Media, will be launching an English imprint shortly to translate the best of Indian language literature into English, starting with translations of noted Tamil writers like Ashokamitran, Indira Parthasarathy, Jayakanthan and others.

Imagine this happening in today's India

Imagine a new series of affordably priced books on politics, philosophy, sociology, economics, science, history and the like, available widely all across India in each of the Indian languages.

Prem Shanka Jha's obituary of Shamlal provides a hint of what could happen, if this becomes reality.

Sometime in the 1930s, Penguin’s new paperback series on politics, philosophy and sociology became available in a bookshop in Delhi. Today, when any book can be ordered on the Internet, it is difficult to imagine the impact these books had on a brilliant and impressionable young mind. Shamlal fell in love with ideas and, from that day till his eyes finally gave out four years ago, he spent a fifth of his income every month on books.

We, at New Horizon Media, believe that non-English India is hungry for knowledge and ideas and the time is ripe to replicate in today's India, Penguin's successes of the late 1930s.

We want to make this happen. If you would like to get involved, drop me a line (satya_AT_nhm_DOT_in).

First International Literature Festival of India

Indian Express reports that the first International Literature Festival of India is to be held in Mumbai from February 20-25, 2007.

“The idea here is to give a boost to the literature of different Indian languages, by getting writers in direct contact with publishers from all over the world. Translation of various Indian works can be done into many languages of the world,’’ explains Rajvinder Singh, Poet Laurete of Germany, talking about the first International Literature Festival of India. To be held in Mumbai, between February 20 and 25, the festival will see about 100 chosen writers from all over the world, including Indian writers from various Indian languages, come together on a common platform. “Through the festival, the idea is to have a dialogue between various cultures and countries and what’s more, publishers will be able to find new writings and writers will have a chance to meet important publishing people,” says Singh, explaining the various aims of the festival and fair.

... the festival will be dynamic and will travel to different places each year.

I haven't able to find any other mention online of this event.

Cambridge University Press not to publish in regional languages in India

"We are not entering into printing or publishing books in regional languages as of now," said Stephen R R Bourne, chief executive officer, Cambridge University Press. Cambridge University Press had tried publishing books in Spanish and in other languages but it did not work out for them because most people don't associate Cambridge with anything other than English, explained Bourne. "Therefore it makes more sense to focus on work in English," said Bourne.

according to a report in Rediff.com. Bourne also describes their dual-brand model for India which is to be extended to other countries too.

"We would be working under a dual-brand system where one global partner together with a national partner would tap every country individually," said Stephen R R Bourne, chief executive officer, Cambridge University Press.

Recently Cambridge University Press acquired 51 per cent equity stake in New Delhi-based Foundation Books Pvt Ltd and its divisions Foundation Media and Foundation e-Learning. Post acquisition, the entity has been renamed Cambridge University Press India Pvt Ltd.
Foundation Books registered a turnover of Rs 25 crore last year and managed to publish 120 titles in the last 2 years. They have 11 editors right now based in Hyderabad and Delhi, and is looking at recruiting both free-lancers and employees.

"We would be managing and controlling the operations of Foundation Books from this time on. But would let them retain their imprint," said Bourne. "We chose Foundation Books because we have been business partners for a long time now," said Chris Boughton, chairman, Cambridge University Press India Pvt Ltd.

HarperCollins' plans for India

HarperCollins announced their expansion plans for Indian recently. Here're some excerpts from their press release (Oct 10, 2006).

"As we continue to transform HarperCollins into a truly global publisher, we are pleased to announce a series of unique partnerships and initiatives in India," said Ms. Jane Friedman. "Our primary goals include discovering new Indian voices, delivering quality literature to the Indian market, and establishing proper distribution channels to effectively reach the reader."

Licensing of HarperCollins India Titles

HarperCollins will increasingly look to license books published by HarperCollins India as a means to deliver Indian works to markets around the world, starting with two recent publications, Asian Juggernaut by Mr. Brahma Chellaney-- an incisive and insightful analysis of Asia's central role in the world, focusing on the three main powers - China, India and Japan-- and Blind Faith by Ms. Sagarika Ghose, a stunningly beautiful parable on the limitations of vision and this dark side of love. Both books will be published by HarperCollins around the world in the English language.

Hindi Release of The Chronicles of Narnia

HarperCollins India will also focus on publishing international bestsellers in local languages in order to serve the non-English speaking consumer market. This initiative will commence with the Hindi edition of the hugely popular children's series The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. First published in 1950, The Chronicles of Narnia have sold more than 100 million books in 41 languages, making it one of the world's bestselling series. "We are committed to serving the vast number of local language readers," said Ms. Friedman, "and dedicated to providing this population with literature of the highest caliber."

The India Today Group Distribution Agreement

In an effort to better serve all Indian consumers, HarperCollins has signed a unique agreement with The India Today Group, one of India's leading media companies, to leverage its broad retail and distribution networks across the country. The India Today Group will distribute directly to more than 2,000 outlets and bookshops through a network reaching more than 80 cities and towns across the country and will carry HarperCollins titles in its "Media Marts" - news and magazine kiosks in railway/tube stations, bus terminals and airports.

Jane Friedman, president and CEO, HarperCollins (HC) discussed HC's plans for India in an interview in the Financial Express (Oct 29, 2006).

HarperCollins has been present in India for a while. Do we see a spurt in the organisation's involvement in India? Yes, we have been in India, but just in distribution. In the recent past though, we have got into trade books. And going ahead, that's what we are interested in as we draw up a five-year plan through which we are looking at about a 30% growth. We have signed a deal with our partners to increase our presence in retail.

Why has HarperCollins published and distributed certain books in other parts of the world, but not in India?

That is something we are looking to correct. Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games is a case in point, as we are distributing the book in North America. Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things continues to be among our top backlist sellers. But yes, going ahead we are looking at world rights for our books.

What areas are you looking to expand in?

While we will bring books published in other parts of the world by us, we are looking at an increase in local publishing. And in local languages too. We are starting with a translation of CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia in Hindi, scheduled for release in 2008. We are also looking to publish in other Indian languages. As for categories, we are very interested in literary fiction of course, but are also looking at areas like lifestyle and business books. Children's books offer great scope in India too. We are also very pro Internet. We have a global digital warehouse, and though the e-world is still in the R&D stage, in the next few years, we expect exponential growth. India still has a long way to go as China is reading online, on PDAs, through text.

How do you compare China and India?

Both are emerging nations and there is a huge curiosity about books. Before this I was in China and I must clarify that both are in very different places. India has a wide acceptability in English and has larger volumes in sales, but China is growing fast too.

Penguin has established a headstart in India. How are you going to catch up?

We have our own strengths and enjoy a challenge. There's a lot of catching up to do, but we are also looking to expand our market share in India. Australia is a model for us, as we do about 30%-40% of the local publishing there now. We want to find new authors in fiction and non-fiction. I am looking to especially explore the mentor role played by established writers in finding new talent.

What is the rest of the world expecting from India in literary terms?

It is extremely important for Indian writers to spread across the world. Fine tales are popular everywhere, but that said, there is a certain curiosity, an exotic charm that intrigues the West. We are still fascinated by Indian stories and their touch of the orient, even when it is writers like Jhumpa Lahiri, who is fairly assimilated. And we are looking for more such authors!

HC's Indian language plans, to start with, seem to hinge on translations of titles for which HC hold the rights. When Friedman says she is looking for more Indian authors, she is probably talking about Indians writing in English.