Why isn't reading Indian Fiction 'COOL' anymore?

Why isn't reading Indian Fiction "COOL" anymore?
#readtravelbecome #fiction #books

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:23 Reason 1
03:41 Reason 2
05:29 Reason 3
07:50 Reason 4

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[harishusg]

Great video, Avdoot, and a very good point for discussion. In my opinion, I do not believe Indian fiction is on a decline or lacklustre. However, I cannot agree more about the "marketing" point that you mention. It does prove it's point on it's own, with the fact that all you came across in Indian literature is Durjoy Datta, Amitav Ghosh, Amish Tripathi or Chetan Bhagat. Vikram Sethi and others that you mention are great authors, but there are many gems in various regional literature, that teaches us about different cultures and societies. India in itself are like multiple countries in one- with every state coming with it's own flavour of culture. So, the familiarity aspect that you mention may not be true if you look towards regional literature. Also, regarding the authors not being celebrated- is kinda true when you look at it on the surface level. BUT- Indian authors have a niche audience, and this audience does celebrate their authors. There are programs, felicitations and celebrations of authors who may not be popular or treated as "celebrities" in the normal world, but within this niche ecosystem of readers, these authors do get their dues.

I would like to recommend a few hidden gems from the Indian fiction, which I think deserve to be explored, if a reader wants to deep-dive into Indian fiction literature somewhere in between the two extremes from Durjoy, Chetan Bhagat, Amitav to Vikram Sethi, Anita Desai and others:

1. Age of Frenzy by Mahabaleshwar Sail (Translated from Konkani, tells us about Goa, it's culture, Portuguese colonial rule etc)
2. Leila by Prayag Akbar (A dystopian satire that beautifully paints a picture of Indian politics)
2. Ghachar Ghochar (Vivek Shangab, translated from Kannada)
3. Bombay Balchao by Jane Borges (A poignant tale about the catholic community in South Bombay)
4. I named my Sister Silence by Manoj Rupda (Translated from Hindi, tells us about the grim story of marginal people who end up joining the Maoist)
5. The Two Wanderers by Bappaditya Chakravarthy (explores Buddhism culture, however I am yet to read this)
6. The Boy Unloved by Damodar Mauzo (Translated from Konkani, a contemporary fiction based in Goa that really leaves the reader pondering)
7. Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto (In my TBR, but deals with important issues like mental health and depression.)

I am sure there are many more hidden in other states- Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odhisha, Gujarat, North-East, Kashmir etc. Exploring Indian fiction is a journey in itself.

[dhara.tripathi]

Honestly Chetan Bhagat is so bad (and so irrelevant) that he shouldn't be the standard for Indian fiction.

[slaytalks]

Most of the literature we have in various parts in india, is in regional languages.We have a very tremendous amount of literature that we should translate to english and publish it globally.And indian society and people as well as government should promote reading and writing also read it.

[LitVersee]

In India, sadly saying the habit of reading books (fiction, non-fiction etc) is missing. Parents only want their students to read those books which are in the syllabus, so there is no culture of reading books. 😢 Children are allowed to play 'video games' but not allowed to read books because they think that it only waste time( as per some respected relatives)

[kdhd]

Indian fiction is something i can relate to and is familiar.... So hands down Indian fiction works for me. ..
But you need to select the right ones.... Fiction by Bengali or South Indian authors is a work of art.... They are less popular but brilliant.... Rooted in our culture, and full of lessons in life....

[indiancarateume]

As an Indian redear I really feel that Indian booktubers should promote more of indian literature, fiction books and authors. As for myself i do love to explore many genres like fantacy, classic lit, crime thriller, si-fi ! But I don't get good enough of them by Indian authors! However, I've my favourite regional author like Satyajit Ray, Ravindranath Tagore. I love their writings since childhood and I still read their works.

[abhijeetkulkarni]

My reasons -
1 - Indian booktubers haven't put enough effort into promoting good Indian authors/books(not targetting you just speaking in general)
Same goes for bookstragrammers. Majority of what people buy these days is based on what their favourite book influence has recommended.
Indian book influencers NEED to promote good Indian books. Its high time now.
2 - Colonial hangover. As much as it may sound weird but stillmany peole have this incorrect colonial hangover that somehow a book written by a white person is always better than a book written by Indian author. I even came across some weird comment that ' I dont like to read books which have Indian names' . So we are still just getting out of this hangover and I hope in future people embrace more Indian authors and more Indians also taking up writing and we get better writers as well

[unrealstupidity]

Unpopular opinion but i think Bollywood and Education System are the two major reasons for directly or indirectly Hiding Indian Literary

[Joee-Random]

Need High Fantasy / Epic Fantasy books from Indian authors, instead of Mythological fictions genre.

[pragatisinha]

As an Indian, I feel that writing is often viewed more as a hobby, something we engage in during our free time, rather than a potential career path. Very few people pursue a career in literature, as our society does not strongly encourage exploring the literary world. This lack of support prevents many from delving into novels and other forms of creative writing. In local villages and towns, there is so much untold potential and stories that could be shared, and there are many people eager to read them. However, the main issue lies in the lack of promotion and support for literature.

[CreativitySimplicity]

For the first time, I hear someone talk about the fact familiarity with the characters and plot being a hindrance in enjoying the book. It applies to me as well which is why I rarely pick up a contemporary novel with regional setting. Fantasy and Suspense interest me more because they are too distant from my life. Ashwin Sanghi is my favourite Indian author right now

[lenkasarkhelova]

Great topic brother! I personally come from the Czech republic - a country with lots of book lovers. Literally if you travel, you will always see someone reading a book (including me 😁). But our own writers were not that much preferred until recently. I had the same attitude, I utterly avoided books by Czech modern writters. But slowly a change came. Our booktubers started bit by bit to include national writters and they were totally amazed. They spoke about so many fascinating topics, varieties of genres and their enthusiasm was so infectious that I myself have dared to try the same. And it changed my mind too. For example I am currently reading Czech book set in a jungle environment during a war time, so not our current time and our country at all but I got immersed inside the book immediatelly, it is so interesting. Our writters are coming with fascinating topics like very less known time in our history and they try varieties of genres. Along with it there are many people who speak about those books and promote them further. It's not that we prefer Czech books but slowly and steadily we are starting to give them the same value as to very high acclaimed international authors. So from my opinion there are many factors involved in it. It is the courage both of the writer and the reader to come out of the comfort zone and try something different and sometimes not easy too and the attention the books themselves get by their readers. And maybe there are other factors not so obvious too. But I hope for the best in your motherland too.

[Akriti_]

As a reader who loves to read various authors from India and other parts of the world, I have seen that there are not much people in our country who are interested in books that are written in hindi or any other Indian language. That's why lots of great classic Indian books are not that famous like any other well promoted books... Definitely in hindi also quality of books is degrading, but still some are there to keep our hope high.✊
(Although I find world literature more relatable and interesting, so I am going to explore more this year.☺️)

[UnknownUser-ec]

As a 10th grader, I extremely agree with you that we, students of the Indian education system, struggle to build the habit of reading. Even after this I managed to buy some books and tried to build reading habit but whenever I think that I should read that novel or that self-help book my mind always comes up with one thing that I'm in class tenth I've boards so rather than reading other books I should be studying for my exam.. I'm really exhausted with this thinking cycle where I really can't start any book I have. My parents also say that you shouldn't be reading that book, I still hope that one day I will be able to read all those books which I've planned to read and make my own book collection like yours. You're a true inspiration for me because you see the world of literature in the way I see.❤❤

[souravmondal]

One should explore bengali fiction books by sunil ganguly, shirshendu mukhopadhyay, samaresh Majumdar and many others..

They are greats and their works are availbale on english translation by well-known publishing house like rupa, penguin, oxford.

Just go and give a try.

[BhandarD]

I feel that the fourth point is one of the most important point you have discussed till now . Because I love reading but my parents literally asked me if I gain something while I read novels or poem or a prose or any other thing which will not help me increase my marks and I feel that that is one very very very very very very big problem. Encouraging someone only to read to gain something makes the person hate or dislike that particular action. And for me reading from every genre helps to make a better person to make a better character or a personality of a person because sometime you cannot gain some life tips from just a non fiction but a fiction book can teach you much more than just what the nonfiction taught you. A combination of all the genres is what makes reading more fun and enjoyable. Not promoting Indian authors and their books in the market of Indian literature is really a big problem because some authors or writers are really very very underrated but people refuse or fail to see or read those works by them because it is not marketed enough and later fails to reach the public and a gem gets hidden forever. I have seen this pattern in Indian literature as well as in Indian entertainment industry that when a particular genre gets currently famous then all the other people try to copy and do the almost exact thing with just a bit of editing and continue to promote them and publish them just because that particular genre is in demand. Like if a non fiction book gets famous all the other authors will write non fictions only and if in a movie a horror genre will get famous or a mythological genre will get famous than the majority people will do the exact same. That's a huge problem people fail to recognise. The famous writer Chetan Bhagat, I have read almost all books of him but he always writes from a point of Bollywood movie. Many of his books were adapted into movies but I don't like a story because though his writings are really easy to understand but as a reader I have read diverse categories of literature and it made me realise that his women characters kind of really problematic. My first novel which made me fall in love with reading was a book by Durjoy Dutta, his " the boy who loved" book and since I always liked a dark book his book was perfect for me as a first novel. But
Some of his other novels are not that good ...But I have also read Amish, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni who writes so well but are not recognised or promoted enough .

[srutisridhar]

There's a great fantasy book in Tamil called Ponniyin Selvan or PS, which was made into a movie by director maniratnam. It is very popular and much loved in the locality. But it is a Tamil book. So many don't know and many can't read the language in other states. If books like these are translated to different languages, then these gems can also be popularized worldwide.
Thanks to mani sir, because of him the book was again the talk of the town and many youngsters and elders started reading the book as well as listen to audio books before watching the movie.
Many readers thought this should be taken as a web series instead of a movie as many scenes were deleted or modified to fit it into a 2 part movie

[alephnull]

I have had a hunch about few of your reasons but i was not sure if it were true. Quite a delightful video btw.

[juniordisneyprincessclub]

I would just like to mention that these days, children here are reading a lot ! My daughter is in class 4, an avid reader, explores different genres and I know many such children are out there who are reading a lot! Parents have to be encouraging and need to understand that reading other books is as important (!if not more) as reading text books and performing well in school.

[Fe_bn]

Indian literature should not be confined solely to Indian English literature. Native Indian languages play a much greater and more significant role in shaping it. As a Malayali, I can vouch for the brilliance of our writers—they are undoubtedly world-class, if not better. This is true for every native language in India. The only major hurdles are the lack of quality translations and effective marketing, both of which can be overcome with focused efforts.