http://www.indianprinterpublisher.com/news/Publishing_Next_in_3973.html
Publishing is as much about sub-cultures as it is about culture. Last Sunday’s (11 August 2013) edition of the Indian Express described the results of a survey that looked at and measured the linguistic landscape of the country. In an article titled ‘India Speaks . . . 780 Ways,” it reported on the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre’s recently published Linguistic Survey of India. The Vadodara based centre, which has done pioneering work in documenting both written and spoken languages in India is headed by an unassuming Dr. Ganesh Devy who, in his own words, set out “to celebrate and admire the finest of languages that India has.” Ganesh Devy was a speaker at the Publishing Next 20l2 conference a year ago where he shared his insights (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgaf4kpgTJ0) on the linguistic diversity of the country. He exhorted publishers to incorporate the variety of Indian languages of India in their publishing programmes instead of ignoring them and choosing to print in only a few languages. India’s linguistic diversity needed not just protection, he said, but also encouragement. He felt publishers alone were in a unique position to do this. Dr. Devy further enunciated his ideas in a panel discussion at the same conference, titled ‘Preservation of Oral Traditions in India.’ Here he said that the local or native speakers of a language must be given the freedom to develop their languages themselves instead of a regiment of correctness being imposed. Languages, he implied, thrived in a free environment giving the example of Argentina, where there are probably more languages than in India but where a government edict has suppressed the use of languages other than Spanish. While conceptualizing Publishing Next, we understood that any conference ‘on the future of publishing in India’ was incomplete without the discussion of Indian language publishing (for want of a better term). We also understood that Indian language publishing was too broad a stroke because each language and culture (or subculture) brings along its own set of challenges and successes. However, there had to be a start and Indian language publishing had to be discussed, no matter how small the space given to it and how limited the discussion. The first edition of the conference, in 2011, had a single panel discussion on ‘India in Translation.’ (See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZBcx6Eyjfc). Moderated by Arshia Sattar, the panel some of the challenges requiring addressal for a more meaningful translation programme that captured the essence of the country’s literary treasures in the current idiom. The panel agreed that it wasn’t enough only to translate from Indian languages into English but that it was necessary to also translate from one Indian language or vernacular to another. At the second edition of Publishing Next in 2012, several sessions were committed to Indian language publishing. K Satyanarayan, director of the Chennai-based New Horizon Media and an advisor to Publishing Next, suggested that since ‘Indian language publishing’ was too big a territory to cover we should address the issue in small steps. In a panel session quite ambiguously called ‘Indian Language Publishing’ ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7gr9S9yz44) speakers representing Konkani, Hindi children’s literature, as well as Bengali, Marathi and Tamil publishing gave the audience a snapshot of the trends and challenges in these languages. Other sessions too addressed language -- such as a workshop on the use of metadata in electronic books and the above-mentioned panel on oral traditions. In the third edition this year, we will continue this focus on Indian languages. The panel on Indian language publishing will have speakers representing Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada and Odiya publishing. There will also be a panelists session ‘On cultivating readership in Indian languages’ while the panel discussions on ‘ePublishing issues’ and ‘developing Indian content for global audiences’ will also explore the impact of Indian languages on these pathways. The continued focus of Indian languages has attracted publishers of regional and vernacular languages to attend the Publishing Next conference in large numbers. This can only mean huge opportunities for service providers such as those who can provide ePublishing and other professional and production services for Indian language publishers. The conference intends to catalyze the creation of an ecosystem where publishers and service providers of all hues can network and develop business associations. Warm Regards, Leonard Fernandes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tel: +91 98503 98530 Publishing Next '13 An International Conference on "the future of Publishing" Sept 20-21, 2013 - Goa, India http://www.publishing-next.com
