An Exciting New Book Pub. in India (fwd)

Sreenivas Paruchuri (sreeni@ktpsp1.uni-paderborn.de)
Tue, 10 Mar 1998 12:49:18 +0100 (MET) 

Found it on SASIALIT-Mailinglist ...... I am forwarding it to
Telusaa without Mr. Poddar's permission. Hope he doesn't mind.

Regards,		--Sreenivas

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Reply-To: RAJAT PODDAR <rkpoddar@AD1.VSNL.NET.IN>
Sender: SASIALIT -- Literature of South Asia and the Indian diaspora
From: RAJAT PODDAR <rkpoddar@AD1.VSNL.NET.IN>
Subject:      An Exciting New Book Pub. in India

A few days back, on one of my frequent trips to Crossword bookshop
in Ahmedabad, I encountered a book. This post is about that book.
I have not read it as yet. Just the Foreword and the Preface. As
it is a new book, and seems to have been published only in India,
I thought I would share this discovery with the Sasialiterati.
Particularly as I think the publication of this book is an event
in itself.

Before I tell you about the book...

I joined Sasialit in November as a result of a chance discovery
while browsing on the Inet. In the last two-three years I had
begun discovering S Asian authors. The progress had been slow as
I had to buy what I wanted to read. The libraries I know in
Ahmedabad stock just the usual stuff (popular fiction, feel good
books, etc.) and friends read the latest Grisham and such.
Joining this list and reading the sometimes involved, sometimes
erudite -- and of course sometimes inane -- discussions really
fired up my interest. In the last few months my reading shelf has
been slowly taken over by Chandra, Chatterjee, Ghosh, Mistry,
Nagarkar, Tharoor, etc. The Grishams and such have receded into
storage. With friends I now propagate Ghosh, not Grisham.

I began to realise just how little I knew of the literature of my
own land. I wished to know more. This book addresses my desire
squarely.

Knit India Through Literature, Volume I: The South
Published by Eastwest Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd., Chennai
Distributors: Rupa & Co.
The 'author' is Sivasankari.

Extracts from her Preface [[with my comments thus]] :

"About ten years ago I was in Mysore, to participate in a literary
 meet that attempted to analyse a novel written by a Black
 American woman writer. Around twenty writers from different parts
 of the country had gathered there to analyse the work in minute
 detail. Dwelling on the discussions on my journey back, I was
 suddenly struck by the incongruity or irony of the whole situation.
 While we had sufficient knowledge of world literature -- Black,
 Latin-American or European -- to be able to thoroughly analyse it,
 we were woefully unaware of our very own literary treasures."

"Let alone the people, even our learned writers do not have much of
 a knowledge of the literary works in Indian languages other than
 their own!..."

[[ She began work on this project four-five years ago. The ]]
"second volume, on the eastern languages, is just about ready to go
 to print and I have started meeting the writers of the western
 languages for the third volume."

Extracts from the Foreword by Khushwant Singh:

"Sivasankari's venture to knit India through knowledge of each
 other's literary heritage is bound to have a more lasting impact
[[than the occasional forays of noble-minded patriots and the feeble
  attempts of the National Integration Council ]]."

"Through her compilation readers will realise how much we share in
 common with our scriptures, classics of our many languages and,
 above all, how concerned writers and poets of today are, faced with
 the problems that beset our country..."

"Sivasankari's attempt to knit India is based on her conviction that
 novelists, short story writers and poets, can and do change the way
 of thinking of an entire people....I do not know any of these
 languages and only have superficial acquaintance, through English
 translations, with the works of some of the men and women listed by
 her. I learnt much from her probing interviews and feel that what
 had been as alien to me as Greek, is now well within my grasp."

The book has four sections -- one each on Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh and Tamilnadu. Each section begins with a map of the state
and a short travelogue. For each state she has interviewed six or
seven writers and given samples of their work. Each section is
concluded with an over-view article on the modern literature in the
language of that state.

Authors covered:

Kerala:
M.T. Vasudevan Nair, Kamala Das, Thakazhi Sivasankaran Pillai,
Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer, Sugatha Kumari, Sethu, Balachandran
Chullikad.
Modern Malayalam Literature by Ayyappa Paniker.

Karnatka:
Prof. U.R. Anantha Murthy, Dr. Sivaram Karanth, S.L. Bhyrappa,
Devanoor Mahadeva, Chaduranga, Seshagiri Rao.
Modern Kannada Literature by K. Narasimha Murthy.

Andhra Pradesh:
Dr. C. Narayana Reddy, Vasireddi Seetha Devi, Arudra, Ravuri
Bharadwaja, Malati Chendur, Seshendra Sharma.
Modern Telugu Literature by C.R. Sarma.

Tamilnadu:
Abdul Rahman, Indira Parthasarathy, Jayakanthan, Rajam Krishnan,
Su. Samuthiram, Prapanchan, Ponneelan, M. Thamizhkudimagan.
Modern Tamil Literature - I by Neela Padmanabhan.
Modern Tamil Literature - II by Maalan.

She writes in her Preface:
"Many of you might wonder if national integration can be fostered
 merely by publishing these four volumes. No, I certainly don't
 have any such Utopian ideas. I am aware that we have miles to go
 before we reach our goal and only wish that this effort helps us
 to cover at least the first few miles of our long journey..."

rajat poddar
rkpoddar@ad1.vsnl.net.in