From kings to cabbages

This collection of pieces by Kaushik Basu, written over the last five years, is verily a potpourri of thoughts on a variety of subjects, the only common element being the catholicity of his tastes.

Basu has had a fairly long stint abroad holding prestigious academic positions. Yet he retains the Indian weltanschauung lightly without being righteous. Respected for his research on development economics, industrial organisations, and globalisation, among others, he has edited commemorative volumes in honour of Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz. He is a self-confessed agnostic; but may not mind a prayer to Goddess Kali of Kolkata for its continuance! (He has a delightful piece on Praying at the foothills of Mount Fuji to get over his stomach pains!)

READER'S DELIGHT

A collection of this kind is surely a reader's delight, but a reviewer's peril. The subjects range from kings to cabbages: a comparison of the performance of India with China's; the state of the Indian economy, its strength, potential and failings; personalities; current economic issues; personal memorabilia; a couple of stories translated from Bengali and, finally, a play set in academic cloisters.

Full report here Hindu

Literary project to highlight Tagore's love affair with China

China's love affair with Rabindranath Tagore will be the theme of an Indo-Chinese literary collaboration which will see contributors of the likes of Amartya Sen among others.

The publication of the book on Tagore will be the first of a series of works to come out following an agreement between Sage Publications India and Central Compilation and Translation Press, China.

The two parties had signed a pact to publish Indian management books in Chinese and original scholarly works by Chinese scholars into English.

As the first step of this agreement, Sage India will publish in English the book on Tagore, which will have both Indian and Chinese contributors, says Sage India, MD-CEO Vivek Mehra.

"The first write-up is an original essay by Amartya Sen," Mehra said.

Full report here Times of India 

SAGE India's foray into Oriental publishing

India was the country of honour at the recently concluded Beijing International Book Fair, SAGE India also participated in the fair and had a stall in the Indian pavilion.

Vivek Mehra, MD & CEO SAGE India met He Yan, President, Central Compilation & Translation Press, China at the fair and signed a MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) to publish Indian management books in Chinese and original scholarly works by Chinese scholars into English. The Central Compilation & Translation Press is a wing of the Central Compilation & Translation Bureau, the highest authority in China when it comes to certifying translation from any global language into Chinese and whenever Chinese works are published abroad. Mr He, a highly respected figure is also a member of the Upper House of the Chinese Parliament

As part of this landmark agreement SAGE India will publish (in English with world rights) a recently published bi-lingual edition of 'Tagore and China' by Prof Tan Chung a leading China scholar, currently living in Chicago. Prof Tan has lived in India for many years and taught at the Jawaharlal National University. His father was also a scholar who was brought to India (specifically to Shanti Niketan) by none other than the legendary Rabindranath Tagore. In China this book is published by the Central Compilation & Translation Press. The book is a fantastic scholarly work which includes an original essay by Amartya Sen. We hope to bring this book out in May 2011 to coincide with Tagore's 150th birth anniversary.

This is a landmark moment in the history of SAGE India as we add another dimension to our language publishing programme and begin our Oriental sojourn

Full report here Afaqs

Nalanda university poised for revival after 800 years

Nalanda University, an ancient seat of learning destroyed in 1193, is poised for revival.

According to The Independent, an ambitious plan to establish an international university with the same overarching vision as Nalanda -- and located alongside its physical ruins -- has been spearheaded by a team of international experts and leaders, among them the Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen. This week, legislation that will enable the building of the university to proceed is to be placed before the Indian parliament.

“At its peak, it offered an enormous number of subjects in the Buddhist tradition, in a similar way that Oxford [offered] in the Christian tradition -- Sanskrit, medicine, public health and economics,” Mr. Sen said on Tuesday, August 3 in Delhi.

“It was destroyed in a war. It was [at] just the same time that Oxford was being established. It has a fairly extraordinary history -- Cambridge had not yet been born.” He added, with confidence: “Building will start as soon as the bill passes.” The plan to resurrect Nalanda -- in the state of Bihar -- and establish a facility prestigious enough to attract the best students from across Asia and beyond, was apparently first voiced in the 1990s. But the idea received more widespread attention in 2006 when then president, APJ Abdul Kalam set about establishing an international “mentoring panel”.

Full report here Hindu

Nalanda University will take time to materialise

The grand vision of resurrecting the ancient international glories of Nalanda University may take some time to fulfil as ambitions are being tailored to current financial limitations, admitted Amartya Sen, chairman of the Nalanda Mentor Group. The Group concluded its two-day meeting here on Tuesday, having worked on a blueprint to set up the international venture.

The first big step toward making the dream a reality is likely to be taken this week, when the Nalanda University Bill, approved by the Union Cabinet last month, is introduced in Parliament. However, Dr. Sen admitted that the University would be starting relatively small, and the growth could be relatively slow. “The building work will begin as soon as the Bill passes…I should imagine that within a couple of years, there will be buildings and we will begin faculty appointments. You must understand that a university takes a long time to establish.”

Answering a question of the international nature of the student body, Dr. Sen said that while the University was committed to a globally diverse population, it would be “feasible when the funding comes up.”

Full report here Hindu

I for identity, I for inclusion

In 1944, a boy of 11 was playing in the garden of his house in Bangladesh when he witnessed a scene of pure horror. Suddenly, a poor Muslim man, grievously stabbed by a fanatic Hindu mob, entered through the gate, pleading for a drink of water.

Kader Mian had made the fatal mistake of coming into the wrong neighbourhood, at a time of intense communal unrest, in the hope of earning some money to feed his starving family. As he collapsed, the little boy laid the dying man’s head on his lap. Later, Kader Mian died in a hospital, where the boy’s father had taken him.

The experience was to haunt, and grow on, the young boy’s imagination for years, until such a time when, as a Nobel-winning economist, he would recount the episode in one of his highly acclaimed books, Identity and Violence — The Illusion of Destiny, first published by W.W. Norton in 2006.

Speaking at the launch of the Bengali translation of the book, brought out by Ananda Publishers, on Tuesday at the ICCR, Amartya Sen recalled Kader Mian’s harrowing end to meditate on some of the most urgent issues of our times. How could one difference, religious in this case, become so important as to take an innocent life? Does this not imply that a sense of identification with a certain group of people not just bridges distances but can also open up dangerous new abysses?

Sen’s book, which has been rendered into Bengali by Bhaswati Chakravorty, takes on the problems and paradoxes of identity, its relationship with economic freedom, as well as with the forces of globalisation. And the answers and arguments that Sen offers in this work are bound to stir debates and discussions.

Full report here Telegraph

Santiniketan, Tagore's dream, breathing its last?

In the twilight years of his life, Rabindranath Tagore was an extremely worried man. The future of Visva Bharati — the most precious of his creative pursuits — was at stake.

The three men to whom he revealed his thoughts — Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose — assured him that his dream would be realized. On the poet's 150th birth anniversary, however, Santiniketan has lost sight of its founder's original ideals.

Sixty-nine years after his death, Visva Bharati has neither proved to be a pathmaker in educational experimentation nor does it remain a centre of excellence and achievement. A university that can boast of Indira Gandhi, Satyajit Ray and Amartya Sen among its illustrious alumni, Visva Bharati is nothing more than a "glorified Bolpur college" today, its universal flavour being a thing of the past. The university, which once attracted litterateurs, thinkers, philosophers, economists and artists from far and wide now rarely draws brilliant teachers, even as visiting faculty.

Full report here Times of India 

Two ideas of justice in abode of books

A brainstorming session on “eliminating injustice” behind closed doors, led by Amartya Sen and joined by the likes of Sharmila Tagore, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, Asim Dasgupta and Sitaram Yechury.

A barracking session of “cholbe na, cholbe na” in front of the director’s office, by over 100 Citu members protesting the “injustice” of the suspension of 12 contractual conservancy employees and disrupting reader services.

The National Library on Monday presented a picture of contrasts dipped in irony.On the one hand was the decorous Kolkata Group Workshop on Eliminating Injustice organised by the Pratichi Trust (India), Harvard’s Global Equity Initiative and Unicef India, and on the other a raucous demonstration by Citu, protesting their idea of injustice.

Full report here Telegraph

Publishers look to China and India to help them weather recession

In China, inspirational business books such as Who Moved My Cheese and family health titles compete with the latest blockbusters; in India, classics from Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton vie for shelf-space with homegrown authors and the penned advice of billionaire IT entrepreneurs; while in South Africa, the boarding school antics of John 'Spud' Milton have captured readers' imaginations and created a Harry Potter-like craze, says a Guardian feature.

Across the world, the appetite for English language books is booming and publishers struggling under the weight of the recession in their core markets of the US and UK are increasingly turning their sights overseas. Random House, for instance, yesterday announced that the record-breaking first print run of 6.5 million copies of The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, will include over half a million for overseas territories including India and South Africa, an unprecedented number for a new fiction title.

Publishers from across the globe have gathered in London this week to discuss how to exploit this growing opportunity. This year's London Book Fair has a distinctly Indian flavour, with heavyweight authors such as Vikram Seth and Amartya Sen among the 48 writers appearing, but delegations from China, Russia, Africa and the Arab world will also be there to meet the estimated 16,000 publishers that have come to showcase their catalogues to the rest of the world.

Read full article here

Amartya Sen's book next for Allen Lane

Allen Lane, which is currently Penguin India's top imprint for non fiction books, saw its second release in the form of NR Narayana Murthy's A Better India, A Better World on April 20 in Delhi.
The next book to be released by Allen Lane India will be Amartya Sen's book, which will be launched in August.
Other Indian authors who are lined up to be published in the Allen Lane include Meghnad Desai, APJ Abdul Kalam, Gurcharan Das and Pavan K Varma.
Named after Penguin's foudner, the imprint was fouded in 1967 to showcase Penguin's premier publishing.

London Book Fair opens amid optimistic buzz

Earl's Court underground station was jam-packed this morning, as much of the UK's – and the world's – publishing industry attempts to make their way into the exhibition centre, clutching or dragging armloads of books, diaries weighed down with back-to-back appointments. It's the start of the yearly rights trading extravaganza which is the London Book Fair, and although the global downturn has affected exhibitor attendance somewhat, the crowds milling around the entrance and pouring into the aisles seem as busy as ever, and the flood of new book deals struck just before and during the fair as overwhelming. A Guardian report.

With India the focus country for the fair this year, a host of big names are scheduled to attend, from Vikram Seth to Amartya Sen, Amit Chaudhuri and Daljit Nagra. Fourteen of India's official languages are represented by the 50-plus authors in attendance, and around 90 Indian publishers will be showcasing their books to an international community – more than 54 countries are represented at the fair – keen to find the next bestseller from the subcontinent.

For full article, click here

In search of India

The theme of the London book fair this year is Indian writing, writes Amit Chaudhuri in the Guardian. Vikram Seth, Amartya Sen, William Dalrymple and other writers in frequent circulation in this country are going to be joined by writers - K Satchidanandan, Javed Akhtar - distinguished or popular on their own terrain but less known here, for five days of discussions and celebrations. Something like this happened in 2006 to the Frankfurt book fair, when planeloads of Indian novelists and poets descended on the Intercontinental Hotel, waved to each other over breakfast, and then read from their work to courteous audiences in the afternoons and evenings.

The theme then, too, was India; and the "idea of India" acted as a catalyst to a process that might have already begun, but received, at that moment, a recognisable impetus - the confluence, in one place, of literary and intellectual dialogue with what is basically business activity, each bringing magic and movement to the other. The India-themed Paris book fair followed swiftly.

For full story, clIck here

For a fresh look

For the publishing troubled, the focus on India seems to be an ongoing story. Frankfurt and Paris had the spotlight on India last year, and London follows is following it up with an ambitious line –up of India centric events at London this year.

The London Book Fair, on at the British capital’s Earls Court from April 20-22 this year, is focusing on India as an emerging market and literary hub. This trade fair will look at not only English writing from the south Asian nation but also other vernacular languages, Alistair Burtenshaw, group exhibition director of the event, says during a recent visit to India to promote the fair.

Burtenshaw admits that the global publishing industry is reeling at the moment. But he is confident of the rebound for the sector as well. “Publishing is a very forward looking industry,” he says. “Even in a challenging economic environment, they are going to look ahead. Out industry relies on great writing, and that is not going to stop.”

The London Book Fair, part of Reed Exhibitions, is one of the largest trade fairs in the world for the sector. While leading publishers, distributors, exporters, agents and writers are present, since 2004, each year, the fair has also selected a ‘market focus’ country. A major area where Burtenshaw hopes LBF will see activity is the sale of copyrights, especially for new authors. While Indian literature has already made deep inroads in the western markets, Burtenshaw feels the fair will help the industry look at India through fresh eyes.

The fair sees about 75-100 seminars over three days and usually draws about 25,000 attendees. Last year, there were about 1,800 exhibitors, from 36 countries and 413 companies. This year, publishers, booksellers and industry representatives from 67 countries will be present at the fair. The growth of the LBF in recent years has also meant the fair has a more international flavour, with about half the exhibitors coming from overseas.

About 45 writers, including major names like Vikram Seth, Amit Chaudhuri, Anita Nair, Javed Akhtar, Amartya Sen and Ramchandra Guha are among the writers scheduled to attend the fair. Already 78 Indian exhibitors have signed up, far exceeding expectations, says Burtenshaw. About 40 cultural events, including seminars and workshops, are planned. “It will help Indian publishers to sell rights of works by Indian authors to other markets,” he says.

The fair aims to focus on different aspects of Indian publishing. With India already the world’s third-largest producer of English language titles, and a still growing economy compared to negative growth rates in most of the OECD economies, the country offers considerable marketing opportunities.

“This will see writing not only from Indians writing in English, but also from the other languages spoken in the country,” says Burtenshaw. The British Council is putting together the programmes, and Sujata Sen, Director, East India, British Council, points out, there are 32 languages in India with over a million speakers, and there is great scope for translation. She points to Sahitya Akademi’s programme, and hopes more translation rights will be discussed.
And the events will not be limited to LBF alone but will also form part of the Edinburgh, hay, Norwich and Newcastle literature festivals. As part of the build up, the Kolkata Book Fair this had its spotlight on Scottish writers, and BCL organized about 50 events during the festival, points out Sen. “It is all about long term sustainability and engagement, adds Burtenshaw. “The rationale is to create greater business opportunities.

With a going rate of £254 per square metre to rent place at the fair, participation does not come chap. But Capexil is giving financial assistance to participants. LBF has also been helping out potential Indian exhibitors through workshops and seminars, conducting workshops for agents on how they can make a book successful, on participation guidelines, how to set up appointments, which titles to promote, how to present stands, preparing the right publicity material etc. While many of the subsidiaries of international publishing houses have been participating in their global stands, many have also taken stands in the India pavilion, Among the participants from India at the fair are Roli, Rupa, Macmillan India, Mapin, Niyogi, OUP India, Penguin India, Sterling, UBSPD, Zubaan, Wisdom Tree, Ratna Sagar, Research Press, Pearson Education, Palgrave Macmillan, McGraw Hill, IBH, Cambridge University Press India besides a host of printers.

Whether the fair is able to achieve its goals remains to be seen, but what already seems guaranteed is the greater visibility of the India in one of world’s global financial capitals desperately in need of some succour.