Books for the masses

WHETHER the public can be made book-minded by the sale of books through post offices and petrol pumps, as suggested by Information and Broadcasting Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, is doubtful. The proposition is as unreal as the question whether sophistication can be injected among those living in sub-human and slum conditions. Why the minister has petrol pumps in mind for the promotion of books is difficult to say. Maybe, he wants to compensate them for the reduced oil demand after the recent price hikes. The reading habit is something that grows with literacy and the purchasing power of people. It is a habit that partly comes naturally and is partly acquired. In the prevailing struggle for survival, the educated Indian is hardly left with any money to satisfy his thirst for knowledge. Whatever little urge lingers is finished because of the high prices of books. So the simple remedy for promoting the reading habit lies in the production of cheap and good quality books. This is a challenge to publishers and the government as well as to the creative authors in English, Hindi and regional languages. Apart from the lack of initiative and honesty, there has been much lopsided thinking in the book publishing field at all levels. The publisher’s main interest is to make a quick buck, often at the cost of authors and readers. The government, on its part, has made matters worse by haphazard bans on the import of books. True, foreign exchange is precious and has to be saved for crude and all that. But then the inadequacies of our books programme cannot be taken care of by slogan-mongering.