I write, therefore I am…

NUPUR SHARMA

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BOOKMARK Nupur Sharma explores the motivations behind the boom in mass market Indian English writing

I ndia has now become the third largest publisher of English language books in the world after the U.S. and the U.K. Of the over 17,000 publishers in India, more than half are in English language publishing. Trade statistics bear out that a slew of companies (multinational as well as Indian owned) are creating bestsellers, and the boom includes both, ‘popular fiction and non-fiction'.

Chetan Bhagat (the writer credited by many as the torchbearer of this trend) recently came out with his new book (“2 States - The Story of My Marriage”). Over 500,000 copies were sold in the first six months. Rujuta Diwekar's diet book (“Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight”) has more than 200,000 ticks to its credit.

What explains the rise of low and middle-brow books in a scenario where Indian English writing has been synonymous with literary heavyweights like V.S Naipaul, Anita Desai, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh and Arundhati Roy? What are the plot points and who are the characters that have created this new story?

Deepti Talwar, senior editor at Rupa Publishing, says, “As publishers we respond to the dictates of the market. In the last five years, there has been a perceptible jump in the demand for Indian English writing in India. Readers have realised that books by indigenous writers are as good as those that have been coming from the West and they're better priced. From our point of view, we make up in volumes what we lack in terms of individual book price. Also, digital printing technology has made publishing more economical.”

Bhagat, prosperous banker-turned-novelist, brings in the writer's perspective. “I am part of an inevitable phenomenon triggered by the changing reality of India. Post liberalisation, the spending power of certain segments of urban India has gone up. These growing numbers of English-knowing Indians want to read stories about people like themselves — whether it's the adventures of a North Indian marrying a South Indian in a ‘neutral' setting or the antics of a call centre executive. They are confident about their cultural identity and have had enough of old-style depictions of rural poverty and immigrant angst,” he says. As the poster boy of his genre, Bhagat leads a burgeoning tribe that writes sans claims of literary merit. The accent is on “telling a good story that entertains and is easily digestible”.

Writer and cultural commentator Mahmood Farooqui supports the trend, saying, “The racy read is not necessarily something to be apologetic about. There are good and bad specimens of mass market driven fiction. The formula re-invents itself in multiple ways. Let people write what they want to write and read what they want to read. If Chetan Bhagat sells, so be it.”

It is worth noting that for every Chetan Bhagat there are several first-time writers who are giving vent to “the one book they have within them”. Many in this sub group hold lucrative day jobs in engineering, marketing and finance. Despite that they go to enormous lengths to have a book to their credit — from self-publishing and slick YouTube advertisements to distributing sample chapters and undertaking extensive promotional tours at their own expense.

Is this effort triggered purely by an artistic impulse to create? Sociologist Mithilesh Talukdar suspects it may be more than a labour of love, “The material gain and acclaim received by writers like Arundhati Roy on the international stage has fuelled the aspirations of many. Being an artist is no longer equated with the notion of being an overly earnest cultural misfit a.k.a ‘loser'. It's cool! Today, many writers are part of new India's discourse of success. They have been appropriated by the cult of celebrity perpetuated by tabloids and glossies.”

While becoming a published author may be part of the larger scale of achievement that some IIT and IIM graduates want to attain, what draws readers to these books? Shruti Bhalla, a Delhi-based marketing executive and chick lit buff says, “I really connected with the heroine of Anuja Chauhan's ‘Zoya Factor'. Weight loss struggles, boyfriend woes and arranged marriage dilemmas are very much a part of my life. My brother prefers self-help books that give him information he can use. Neither of us has the patience for longwinded, depressing writing that can't be read without a dictionary on the side.”

Novelist and literary critic Anjum Hasan opines, “Middle class Indians are hungry for books and they are wary of them too. The English reading and writing culture in India as a whole is passing through an adolescent phase that will hopefully mature with time. Right now there is a sense of discovery and democratization — of writing being considered something that ‘anyone' with a laptop can do, and reading being a casual form of ‘timepass'.”

Since time immemorial, people have turned to books for pleasure and insight. However, what has exalted the written word beyond disposable consumption are the moments when it made us reflect and feel expansively connected to something larger than ourselves. Despite the vagaries of modern life and its utilitarian accent, it is hoped that myriad genres will co-exist and flourish.

Friday, July 15, 2011