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Literary Review
The book
THE book is one of the greatest inventions of man. It is, even today in the electronic age, the best retrieval system yet devised. A book is the most user-friendly way of storing human knowledge, whether it relates to four or 500 different disciplines from fine arts to technology. And it is likely to remain the best retrieval system in the foreseeable future.
When you hold a book it seems like any other commodity because it has weight, texture and a feel like other commodities. But there ends the comparison. Because unlike shoes, textiles and furniture, it is a cultural commodity: this transports it into an entirely different dimension. When you deal with books, the first thing that strikes you is that no two books appeal to exactly the same market. In other words, no two books are the same commodity even if they have been written by the same author. This is one small example of the cultural dimension to which I referred to earlier. I would like to give you one more. In the case of books, even when 300 different people have read the contents, they are intact for the 301st person to drink at the fountain. This aspect of the product is unique. Therefore there are libraries for books for those who cannot buy, but still want to read. But there are no such facilities for textiles and shoes.
In the English language alone there are about 4 million books (different titles) in print and this is growing at the rate of about 1,50,000 new titles each year, apart from reprints of the older titles. Therefore, unlike other commodities, it is an ocean and no single person can hope to master the whole canvas. At best it is an approximation to the ideal, provided the dealer, i.e. the bookseller, devotes a lifetime doing so.
The realm of books is described as the knowledge industry and aptly so. From this follows what the great Rabindranath Tagore said in his Nobel Prize winning Gitanjali. He said in parts: "Where the mind is without fear and where the head is held high", and "Where knowledge is free". These words sum up the subject very nicely. Just as libraries can be created for scholars to drink at the fountain of knowledge without having to buy a book, it automatically follows as the great Tagore said, that in the ultimate analysis, "Knowledge, like air, is free". This is the nature of the product.
Take for instance a great novel like War and Peace by Tolstoy — it is the product of a great mind at work. The same goes for our own great playwright Kalidasa who lived nearly 2000 years ago. What these great people experienced and expressed is handed down to us over decades and centuries through the medium of the written word. The design of a book for this purpose must have been the handiwork of a true genius. Whether it is the Vedas, Upanishads, Smrutis, Newton's "Gravity" or Einstein's "Relativity", all are recorded in a medium called a book.
I have to explain why I said that the book is the most user-friendly invention of man. In its simple form it does not require any elaborate equipment for you to absorb it, for you can even take it to a park bench and read at leisure. You can, for your own better absorption, underline the portions which are significant and go backwards and forwards as you wish. To the best of my knowledge, it is not possible to do this with the same ease in the electronic medium as it stands today.
Historically, a publisher and several booksellers started vibrating at the same time. Both hailed from the most respected, cultured backgrounds. In other words, they were respected members of society. This legacy cannot be or should not be compromised for the sake of pure commercialisation. It is necessary for society to let such elements exist, nay thrive, in its own interest. In the ultimate analysis an enlightened publisher and a similar bookseller will see to it that the author who is the creator and the reader for whom he creates are kept on centre stage. In other words, commercially speaking, make the books as cheap as possible for the readers to afford. We should serve a social purpose. It should be taken out of the realm of pure commerce to a level where selling and buying knowledge should be reduced to a minimum and it should be elevated to a "sense of sharing".
I cannot but relate this concept to our local conditions. Unlike the West where the purchasing power of the middles class is vastly greater than ours, we have to make a special effort even at the cost of a little personal belt-tightening to see that the prices are brought down until it hurts. In the long run it pays to expand the horizon.
In 5,000 years of our civilisation we have excelled in metaphysics and analytical thought. But when it came to steam engines and gunpowder — in short, working with the hands — we fell behind the West. Then came Information Technology and Biotechnology, which are both in the same realm as analytical thought (we may call it tapasya). Our nation has come into its own and we shall be the world leaders if we are not there already.
There is no shortcut to feed hungry minds; our large population is our only asset. If we bring books to these billions of people and uplift them then we will have fulfilled Tagore's vision in Gitanjali, which ended with the words "Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake."
I urge you, my countrymen, through your various charities, to make worthwhile books available to the vast number of "Blossoms in the Dust" in our beloved country.
The writer is the founder of Strand Book Stall, Bangalore.
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