A people hungry for knowledge

The expansion of the economy in England in the early 18th century resulted in the emergence of a middle class, thirsting for knowledge, and The Spectator, a  single sheet daily newspaper published by two Englishmen Joseph Addison  and Richard Steele  from March 01, 1711 to December 06, 1712 was instrumental in catering to that middle class. In a previous post, I had described the motivation for Addison and Steele to start The Spectator,what they did and how they did it (if you haven't read that post yet, it may be a good idea to read that before reading further).

A similar class of people wanting to be enlightened  is emerging today in India.The identity of this class, a veritable middle class, is defined not by their level of affluence, but by their inability or discomfort in reading in the English language, when compared to their fluency in their native tongue. Most of this class (about 95% of India's population) cannot read, write or speak English at all. While some can read, write and speak English, they are unable to do so fluently enough to be comfortable reading in English.

Their appetite for knowledge has been kindled by the breadth of programming they have been exposed to on television,, but unfortunately television is constrained both by time (slots) as well as the choice of what one can watch being dependent on what the channel chooses to broadcast. Television cannot satisfy their craving for knowledge.

The problem these people face today is that there is little or no hope for them to gain access to knowledge (history, biographies, ideas, science and technology, IT, economics, politics, globalisation, social issues and the like) in their native tongues, since there is very little knowledge-oriented content being published in the Indian languages. What little is published in the Indian languages tends to be pedantic and academic, putting off such readers. The lack of sufficient content in the Indian languages is also one of the main reasons for the PC penetration increasing very slowly. Without knowing English or being comfortable with English, it is quite difficult to use a PC, let alone to use it to access the Internet, where most of the information and content is in English anyway. So there is a total lack of motivation for those who don't know English to use PCs or get on to the Internet.

But it is clear that there is latent demand for knowledge out there which is currently not being met. If knowledge and content can be presented to this large class of people in their native languages, in an easy going style and in a manner they can grasp, they will jump at the opportunity to enrich themselves.

Now you may wonder if  what I've said is just my surmise or if it is indeed really the case. Let me explain why I believe it is indeed true.  In early 2004, my friend Badri and I set up New Horizon Media, a book publishing company to publish knowledge-oriented content in Indian languages, starting with Tamil.  We felt then (and still do) that the way to change society for the better is to increase overall awareness and knowledge levels amongst the people. The reason we decided to do so by starting out with publishing books is simply due to the fact that the book-publishing has an established revenue model with people willing to pay for books, as opposed to the Internet where people are still not tuned to paying for the content they get online, let alone the fact that only a small fraction of the populace have access to the Internet today.

In the past 15 months, we've published around 70 titles in Tamil (through கிழக்கு பதிப்பகம் - Kizhakku Pathippagam, our imprint in Tamil). Some of our best selling titles have been

• அம்பானி - ஒரு வெற்றிக் கதை  - a biography of Dhirubhai Ambani
• அள்ள அள்ளப் பணம்  - a simple introduction to the how the stock market works
• டாலர் தேசம் - a political history of America
• 9/11 சூழ்ச்சி - வீழ்ச்சி - மீட்சி - a book on the 9/11 attack, who was behind it and how it was planned and executed
• பாக். - ஒரு புதிரின் சரிதம் - a political history of Pakistan
• இஸ்லாம் - ஓர் எளிய அறிமுகம் - a simple introduction to Islam in an FAQ format
• ரமண சரிதம்  - a biography of Ramana Maharishi

Addendum: other titles published recently that are amongst our best selling titles include

• Infosys நாராயணமூர்த்தி - a biography of Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys

While we started out with the idea that there was a need for increasing awareness and overall knowledge levels for the betterment of society and that the best way to get started was by publishing knowledge-oriented books, we had little idea of how the readers would respond. We have been pleasantly surprised to find that these books are selling well across the entire state of Tamil Nadu. We priced டாலர் தேசம் - a political history of America, an 850 page hardbound book at Rs. 350 which is at the highest end of pricing in the Tamil market and yet the book has sold over 1000 copies in less than a year's time. We have learnt from booksellers that the buyers of the book on the political history of America and the one on the 9/11 attack ranged from politicians to policemen! What better indicator of the hunger for knowledge.

Annie writing in Known Turf about the views of Sudhish Pachauri (a professor of Hindi at Delhi University, a Hindi critic and writer) and her own, echoes this and feels the Hindi literary world is out of touch with its readers.

The new readers of Hindi books are keen on information. They want to read about globalization and its impact. I write about media and my books sell. People want to read about politics and media. Kameshwar's 'Kitne Pakistan' was a success, because it dealt with the Indo-Pak issue with great sensitivity, and humanity. Readers need an understanding of poetry and sociological issues.

"The reader's world has changed. The writer has failed to notice...

Literature is not a stable thing. It changes. Public tastes change. They are 'constructed' in fact, and have to be 're-constructed', every so often. We need to form public tastes, as well as cater to them. Newspapers no longer do that - we need to, but we can't, without the right media... that is the other crisis.

The crisis is that writers in Hindi don't have a finger on the pulse of the public. That's why there are few big names, as far as the masses are concerned, in either poetry or fiction; because the masses know where to seek a reflection of their needs and ambitions. Writers are not writing about the challenges ahead. They don't know what challenges lie ahead!"

The kinds of books that are turning into best sellers are an indication of the hunger amongst the non-English speaking population to learn about various new ideas, concepts, history, biographies, science and technology, economics, politics, globalisation, the world out there and more. The challenge before publishers and writers is not only to cater to this demand but to produce more content and further stimulate the creation of demand.

The positive impact that The Spectator (see my earlier post) had on English society in the early 18th century is an indication of what is possible if the knowledge hungry are provided with enough ways and means to enhance their knowledge in a manner that they can easily grasp. Just as The Spectator did then, I would like to wager that there is an opportunity before us today to make a major impact in India by unleashing a torrent of knowledge in all Indian languages on receptive readers.

The Indian language publishing industry (offline and online) is headed for a decade of healthy growth with room for lots of  players innovating and experimenting to satisfy a people hungry for knowledge. The advent of blogs has democratised publishing and enabled everyone with an interest in writing to write and reach out to an audience. There is tremedous incentive for people to write and writing talent can now automatically bubble up to the top. The best writers of the future are more likely than not to be active bloggers. The fact that there are over 580 Tamil blogs out there with more starting up each month augurs well for the Tamil publishing industry. I'm sure the same applies to other Indian languages too.

Comments

[Lakshmi]

There are two essays that read recently which I liked.

1. In Defense of Curiosity by Eleanor Roosevelt

http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/documents/articles/indefenseofcuriosity.html

2. And the other one is an essay titled 'Production' by Henry Ford. I read both these essays in an old edition of Saturday evening post. If somebody could traslate these into Tamizh it would be great.

[sathish]

while on a trip to netherlands, I noticed that almost every latest book (fiction/non-fiction) is translated into Dutch.

I noticed mainly the fiction books, but, I am sure it should definitely be the same case for non-fiction too..

I believe it definitely should be case than can be reproducible in Tamil or any other vernacular language in India..

[mandar]

Loved this post. Yes, today, readers in vernacular are demanding more information on the latest developments and ideas in the world in a language and a form that's accessible to them. Vernacular Language blogs will eventually turn up -- but for the moment -- the internet has its own restrictions of availability and accessibility. Blogs might eventually provide excellent reading material but I think it is also the duty of vernacular Newspapers to fill this need. They already have the writers with them -- what they need to do is to get these writers to focus on the trends in society -- and on the kind of information that people would like to read. (It might also help if the vernacular newspapers start blogs on their site). But till internet penetrates into the interiors, newspapers have to take up the role of providing information. It is a queation of the newspapers realizing that they need to shake of their lethargy and writing the kind of stuff that their readers will be more interested in reading. Maybe it'll help if the newspapers model some of their sections on "The Spectator."

[Charu]

Satya, great post, I must confess that even when I spoke with Badri in detail about this, asking him many questions, I wasn't entiely convinced. but you are right, there are whole generations out there wanting to read more about the world - the only thing in their way being lack of resources in their own language...
(by the way, I mentioned your publishing venture in Annie's post!)

[Satya]

Lakshmi, thanks for the pointers to the articles.

Mandar, while vernacular newspapers can focus on reporting news from around the world, they can't provide the depth due to constraints of space and shelf life. That's where the Internet and books score over newspapers. But yes, newspapers ought to be doing far more in terms of covering news from around the world to cater to their readers' hunger for knowledge. Vernacular TV Channels are doing it to a small extent and since a picture is worth a thousand words, they have far greater impact than newspapers. They also reach those who can't or don't read, but TV suffers from the constraints of time (slots) and shelf life too.
Another problem for vernacular newspapers may be the fact that not many of their reporters/editors are comfortable enough in English to be able to read and keep up with what's happening in the rest of the world, for them to be in a position to write about it. Newspapers need more bilingual reporters to be able to bring a global perspective to their readers.

Charu, I think often we (myself included) tend to think in terms of demand-led supply (if people wanted something, someone would already have provided it. the fact that its not being provided yet indicates that there's no demand for it - so no point in supplying it). But unearthing (or even creating) supply-led demand is just as important. There are enough instances of supply-led demand making a difference and plenty of opportunities out there to unearth and meet supply-led demand. The onus is on us to spot these opportunities.
Yes, I saw your comment on Annie's post!

[Sunil Laxman]

Superb post...as always.

[Ananth]

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