The Indian Book Publishing Industry in Transition: Strategies of Regional Language Publishers in the Age of Globalization

• In Event: Old/New Media Cultures in Modern Asia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine how the Indian book publishing industry has been reorganised over the last two decades in response to rapid economic growth, technological changes and globalization. I focus in particular on experiences and strategies of Gujarati language publishers to understand how regional language publishers tried to negotiate with this period of great social changes. The book market in India has been steadily growing with the rise in literacy rates and growing consumerism, which is evident in the ways in which chain and online bookstores have developed. The entry of foreign companies also brought in significant challenges and urged Indian English language publishers to devise new strategies for their survival. The emergence of e-books encouraged publishers and writers to revise their notions about what books are. While some scholars and journalists have already examined the ways in which English language publishers in India coped with these changing times, more research is still required to help us understand how regional language publishers evolved their responses. It should be also noted that for regional language publishers the growing dominance of English as a global language became another critical challenge that they had to deal with. By analyzing, various strategies taken by these publishers, this paper attempts to deepen our understanding of the complex relationships between old and new technologies, English and regional language publishing and large and small publishers/ booksellers in contemporary India.

Author

• Riho Isaka, University of Tokyo