Visitors at the Book Fair in Exhibition ground in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 3: The publishing industry of the state today has been left in a lurch. While some complain that literary books in Oriya do not find adequate readership, many publication houses have reduced the print run for every edition of a book.

Manoj Mohapatra, who runs Grantha Mandir publishing house, says they have reduced print runs by 50 per cent because literary books do not have the same following anymore.

“Since we used to incur huge losses when Oriya readership started declining in the 1990s, we brought down the print run to half of what it used to be earlier,” he says.

The publishing of Oriya books began in 1809 when Srirampur Mission Press in Calcutta published the Oriya version of Bible. In 1837, the institution of Orissa Mission Press became the first press in the state that used to publish a number of religious books on Christianity and Hinduism.

The publishing industry and Oriya literature got a boost when Gourishankar Ray began publishing at his ‘Cuttack Printing Company’ in 1866. Balu Bazar and Binod Behari areas in Cuttack became the hub of publishers.

“Most of the publishers then used to bring out educational books. I, too, had started with printing school books in 1961 since there was a huge demand for them,” says Pitambar Mishra, proprietor of Vidyapuri publishers.

“But things changed when in 1972 the publishing of educational books was nationalised and the Board for Secondary Education began to organise the publishing. It was then that all publishers started focusing on the interests of general readers and thus literature,” he adds.

Many even believe that the popularity of English is a chief reason for the decreasing number of readers of Oriya books. However, not everyone agrees with this. “All over the world people have become bilingual. So, that cannot be the only reason for the decline of Oriya readership. I believe, it has got a lot to do with what is being written,” says academician Ganeswar Mishra.

“If one has to survive amidst the various threats, something new has to be done. Publishers and authors should now focus on various other aspects like books on travel, wildlife and many other such subjects along with literature since that is what interests readers today,” he adds.

Author Kedar Mishra says the marketing and distribution system has to be increased to reach more people.

“Book fairs are mostly organised in urban areas. But since readers in rural areas prefer Oriya books, we should look to explore these areas through book fairs and by being present at the book stores there,” he says.

Many feel the lack of a proper library system in the grass root level is a major issue.

“It has been close to six decades now that states like Tamil Nadu and t Bengal have implemented the Library Legislation Act. But though the Orissa Public Libraries Act 2001 came into force in 2002 on papers, nothing significant has been done by the state government to maintain libraries at the Panchayat level,” says Pitambar Mishra.

Author Anadi Sahoo adds that a Directorate of libraries that would make sure to implement the libraries legislation would have increased the reading habits and with more libraries, publishers too could expect better days.