Publishing and Literature

THOUGH a non-literary person, as a person long associated with Indian book publishing in English, I venture some comments on Markand Paranjpe's 'Post-Independence Indian English Literature' (May 2, 1998). I am particularly prompted to do so by the section he devotes to Publishing and Literature and his exploration of the reciprocal correlation between progress in book publishing and development of literature, in the widest sense. He draws our attention, for example, to the fact that fewer col lections of Indian English (IE) short stories are published than book-length IE fiction and, on this basis , we can, guided by Paranjpe, conclude that this is because the IE short story lacks the media par excellence for its publication magazines seriously interested in this genre. In contrast, many Indian language magazines regularly publish short stories, especially in their Divali and Puja bumper issues, thus providing readership and occasional additional income that keeps the writers going between books.