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Back to front!

The Federation of Indian Publishers recently honoured those who write to keep the breed of wordsmiths growing

WELCOME STEP Girja Kumar (left) receiving the shawl from Kartar Singh Duggal in the award ceremony at IIC

Rewarding the unsung heroes of the writing and publishing world, the Federation of Indian Publishers recently gave away the "Books on Books" awards. The awards honour those publishers and authors who have written books on the techniques of book publishing and various other aspects as censorship on books, copyright, freedom to publish, the role of authors and publishers and the entire gamut of book publishing.

Delivering the keynote address on the occasion, D.N. Malhotra, President Emiretus, FIP, who himself was one of the awardees for his book "Dare to Publish", which recounts the challenges he faced in ushering the paperback revolution in the country, pointed out that the role of such authors and publishers has hardly been recognised. "I agree such books don't make too much of marketing sense but they play a crucial role in enhancing the quality of books."

Girja Kumar, who has been awarded for "The Book on Trial - Fundamentalism and Censorship in India" maintained that such books, can also attract readers provided they are not boring. The book has eight exciting case studies on the censorship controversies like the one's involving dissenting writers like Rangeela Rasool and Pyar Singh.

Writing formats

Talking about the writing formats, the veteran writer gives the example of his latest work "Brahmacharya - Gandhi and his Women Associates". "Here I have mixed both Indian and Western traditions. We have a tradition of itihasa and sahitya from Mahabharata and Ramayana respectively which makes the work readable but here you don't have to prove anything. In modern historiography you have to build on the facts. In the book I have mixed the two." A sort of novelty for a biography, Kumar says, "Each chapter is a complete essay in itself; still all the chapters are interconnected so that the reader should feel excited about what happened next."

The other winners include M. Sivaramakrishna, Sumita Roy, Narendra Kumar and S.K. Ghai, Usha Rajagopalan, the late Krishan Chandra Beri, Shashikala Upadhye and the late D.C. Kizhakemuri.

Sharing his experiences, the Guest of Honour, veteran author Kartar Singh Duggal said there is still need to promote book mindedness in the country, which Pandit Nehru dreamt of. "He created National Book Trust for this purpose. Otherwise Sahitya Akademi was there." Getting nostalgic, he said it were the book fairs, which were started when he was at the helm of affairs at the Trust that played a pivotal role in taking the books to the public. "At the outset the publishers were apprehensive for it would take the sheen out of the publishing industry, but seeing the response of public, they got so excited that fairs became a countrywide phenomenon."

ANUJ KUMAR

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