[Reader-list] 3rd Posting (Y.Sikand and Naseemur Rahman): On Urdu Publishing Industry in India

[Yogi Sikand]

Urdu in India and a Man with a Mission: Arif Iqbal and His Urdu Book Review

Yoginder Sikand

A narrow lane leads out from a maze of crowded, winding streets in the
heart of Old Delhi's Jamia Masjid area. Ancient crumbling havelis line
the lane, which, probably dating back to Mughal times, is lined on
either side with open drains laden with garbage. Cycle rickshaws,
cattle and pedestrians jostle with each other amidst the interminable
din of bells clanking, customers and shopkeepers loudly haggling and
craftsmen in dim-lit hovels hammering away at tin sheets. At a
nondescript building at one end of the lane a flight of broken stairs
leads down to a dingy basement. It is there—housed in two diminutive
rooms—that Urdu Book Review, India's only Urdu journal devoted solely
to book reviews, has its premises—a telling comment on the sad state
to which Urdu has been reduced in the land of its birth.

Muhammad Arif Iqbal, the amiable middle-aged editor of the magazine,
is a man with a mission. 'Urdu has been grossly neglected, by the
state and by Urdu-speakers, and Urdu Book Review represents a modest
effort to revive and promote the language', he says. The bi-monthly
magazine was launched in 1995. 'There is nothing of the sort anywhere
else in South Asia', Iqbal proudly says. The only other Urdu book
review journal, published from Pakistan, deals solely with Pakistani
books. Urdu Book Review, on the other hand, covers new Urdu books
published all over the world, including India and Pakistan.

Iqbal served as production manager of a leading Indian Muslim
publishing house, the Delhi-based Markazi Maktaba Islami, for ten
years, and in the course of this had the opportunity to interact with
many publishing houses. 'That made me realize how much the Urdu
publishing industry has to learn from others', he says. 'A week-long
course in publishing organized by an institute really changed me', he
relates. 'I was the only Muslim there, and, interacting with the
course instructors and other students, I realized that Urdu publishers
have much room for improvement. This experience inspired me with the
idea of launching an Urdu book review magazine in order to help the
Urdu language and the Urdu publishing industry'.

Modestly priced at Rs. 100 per annum, Urdu Book Review comes out as a
100-odd page magazine, the whole of which is available online as well
free of cost. Separate sections are devoted to book reviews,
announcements of new titles along with the addresses of their
publishers, obituaries of noted writers, names of new Ph.D. awardees
in Urdu and related fields, summaries of writings in the Urdu press
and biographical notes on important Urdu scholars. The magazine has a
print-run of around 2000 copies, of which some 300 are sent free of
cost to scholars and institutions. It receives hardly any
advertisements and does not earn enough to cover costs, which Iqbal
meets by doing contract printing jobs.

'Urdu publishers in India have particular problems of their own,
besides the general problems that they share with other publishers',
Iqbal says. 'Few of them have professionally qualified editorial
teams. Technically, they are way behind Hindi and English publishers.
They don't do book launches, and almost no Urdu newspaper has a book
review column through which new titles can be introduced to the
public', he comments. 'Since the number of Urdu readers in India is
rapidly falling, Urdu publishers that used to publish two or three
thousand copies of a book have now cut down to around five hundred,
and even that takes some two years to sell. That is why some of them
are now shifting to publishing in Hindi and English instead', he says.
'However', he adds, 'few of these are original titles, most of them
being low-quality translations'.

'A distinct lack of vision', is Iqbal's answer as to why Indian Urdu
publishers produce books almost entirely on historical, religious and
literary issues but hardly anything on the empirical realities of the
Indian Muslims. 'Many Urdu publishers do not have a sound academic
background, often being just businessmen. They may have inherited
their businesses from their fathers and run them simply as a
commercial concern. But this cannot be said to be healthy
commercialism. They suffer from a distinct lack of professionalism and
often lack any social commitment. ' he rues.

'Most Urdu publishers are guided solely by the profit motive', Iqbal
goes on. 'So, they produce what will bring them profits. They don't
have any system to commission experts to write books on particular
subjects. They generally publish whatever they get if they think it
would be profitable, often without caring for the social relevance of
their contents. They just want quick returns'.

Thus, for instance, Iqbal says, many Urdu publishers are associated
with one particular Muslim sect or the other, and they churn out books
that rant and rave against other Muslim sects. 'Some of these
publishers are actually paid to produce books in favour of or in
opposition to certain governments and rival sects', he reveals. Living
as a minority, such sectarianism fanned by certain publishing houses
has serious consequences for the Muslim community, he says. 'The sort
of sectarianism actively promoted by certain Urdu publishing houses
has had a major role in keeping Muslim divided, so much so that
religious scholars of the different sects often refuse to even sit
with each other on a common platform', he says.

This relates to the social background of a significant section of Urdu
authors, the ulema, who are graduates of madrasas. The sort of
education that they receive in traditional madrasas is reflected in
the sorts of books that they write. 'Generally, madrasa students are
kept unaware of the world surrounding them, and so when they graduate
and step outside, they are often unable to properly adjust or relate
to the world', Iqbal rues. For their part, 'modern' educated,
middle-class Muslims increasingly prefer to write and read in English,
thus narrowing down the class base which the Urdu publishing industry
caters to. Further, Iqbal says, many middle-class Muslims seem to
distance themselves from the Muslim masses, taking little interest in
their problems and concerns. 'And so', he adds, 'a class of Muslims
that could have played a key role in revitalizing the Muslim or Urdu
publishing industry is largely disinterested in doing anything of the
sort'.

In the current context of growing Islamophobia, Iqbal says,
Muslim-owned publishing houses, including Urdu publishers, have a
major role to play in countering anti-Muslim discourses. But in this,
he laments, they have not been very successful. 'Rebuttal of
anti-Muslim propaganda is generally done in Urdu, through books and
magazines, which few non-Muslims can read. Thus, their rebuttals do
not reach the readers that they should. It is like preaching to the
converted', he rues. 'Few Muslim publishing houses bring out
literature aimed at non-Muslims and written in a mode that they can
understand'.

'Perhaps', Iqbal reflects, 'Muslim publishing houses suffer from a
sort of fear. They fear that if they actively challenge misinformation
about Islam and Muslims they may be targeted. They don't want to court
controversy'. 'And, in any case', he says, there are almost no Muslim
research institutes or publication houses that do any serious analyses
of anti-Muslim writings, and so their efforts to rebut this propaganda
is generally quite ineffective'.

Another area that the Urdu publishing industry is seriously lacking
in, Iqbal relates, is in the matter of translations. 'So many good
books are coming out in the market in English, on Islam, on Muslims
and also on other issues which Urdu-readers might be interested in.
Yet, translations of such books have been negligible', he says. 'Most
Urdu publishers would be blissfully unaware of these new books, so
narrow is their vision', he argues.

Given the numerous problems that the Urdu publishing industry faces,
Iqbal stresses that it is vital that Urdu publishers form an effective
association of their own. Two such associations do exist, but he
claims that they are virtually defunct. 'We need an active association
that could help Urdu publishers be more professionally and technically
competent', he insists. 'It could help the industry produce more
socially relevant literature. It could also promote interaction
between Urdu publishers and others, so that they can learn from them'.
'Some of us', he adds, 'think we don't need to learn from others,
being content with living in our own little islands'. 'But that', he
insists, 'is ridiculous'.

'Urdu faces a grim future in India', Iqbal tells me as we wind up our
conversation, 'but there are spaces and opportunities that we need to
make use of'. 'Ultimately', he says, 'it is up to lovers of Urdu to
save, protect and promote the language'. And by publishing his
magazine against heavy odds for over a decade now, Iqbal shows what a
major difference a single individual can make in this regard.
==================================================

Muhammad Arif Iqbal can be contacted on arifiqbalubr at yahoo.co.in
Urdu Book Review can be accessed on www.urdubookreview.com