[net.nlang.india] A Press for Indians ...

dave@cad.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA (Bharat Dave) (09/19/85)

> From: raghu@rlgvax.UUCP (Raghu Raghunathan) Message-ID: <766@rlgvax.UUCP>
>
>	at reasonable levels. I doubt if the market for books of Indian
>	interests in large enough in North America to make the venture
>	profitable.

Although I would agree with the financial risks such a venture 
would entail, I think it is worth attempting. A number of books from
other foreign languages were/are available in Gujarati (which is my
native language). And they include all the genres- from `War and Peace'
to adventures of Tarzan. I am glad that I had the opportunity to
read those works when I could not read them in their original versions.

Again, I can speak only for Gujarati authors (those that I have been
familiar with) but I think there is sufficient variety of works that
could benefit from a wider exposure. The characters in stories by 
Pannalal Patel, stories by Shivkumar Joshi or Bahgavatiprasad Sharma 
or Gunavantrai Acharya's series of stories about `Sagar Samrat' (all 
revolving around the early sea-based trade between Gujarat and much of
the African continent) and many more -they all make very good reading.
I am sure there are equally significant authors in other regional
languages in India whose work could be very stimulating for even
non-Indian readers.

					-- dave@cad.cs.cmu.edu  (arpa)