44 Economy
at the fair. In Kerala, a com-munist state that is considered highly educated, people know their literature. The intellectuals here are familiar with German philosophers like Jürgen Habermas. DC Pub-lishers, named after the initials of its founder, has tapped this potential. It is publishing two volumes by German-speaking Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller as also Daniel Kehlmann in Malayalam. Suhrkamp, too, has found two women publishers who will translate their books initially into Bengali and Hindi. » But the business is slow in taking off, « feels Hardt. The barriers are high. Describing the situation and urgent need to modernise, Mallya explains, » A key factor in recent years that has worked to the disadvantage of publishing in Indian languages is the lack of appropriate computing technology. Word processors, desktop publishing, and other enabling technologies and localised IT solutions were un-available for a long time. « Kishore also criticizes that while the Bengali publishers, for example, are committed, their standard is not yet at par with the world market. » For in-stance, they have to learn to prepare their advance infor-mation of future books at least a year in advance so as to be able to circulate it at venues such as the Frankfurt Book Fair. «
And then of course there are the challenges of trans-lation. How would one translate chocolate pudding into Hindi? A chocolate pudding which no one in India knows? Pathak translated the children’s book » Lenny and Tweak « from German into Hindi. After much mulling he made the unknown pudding into mithai, or simply › sweets ‹, a finger-licking treat for every Indian child. The cultural ties between Germany and India are far older and more wide-ranging than it would seem. With regard to printing alone, India and Germany have links that go back over a hundred years. The painter Ravi Varma printed pic-tures of the icons of Indian mythology in Germany in the 1920s. At that time Germany offered a much more sophis-ticated printing technology, sharper and with brighter colours. Varma subsequently brought a German printing press to Bombay in the early 20th century. “The technical management of the press, however, was in the hands of experienced printers from Germany who were instrumental in introducing their highly organised management and work methods. Popular Indian imagery was as much influ-enced by the technical methods and stylistic conventions of these technicians, as from cheap, imported
‘Made in Ger-many’ prints,” write the art historians Erwin Neumayer and Christine Schelberger. The old German printing presses are still standing in the workshop of the painter, who is idolised in India. A recent successor to this tradition is Heidelberger Druckmaschinen who are firming up their presence on the subcontinent. The printing machine company from Heidel-berg has even opened a printing academy in Chennai that covers the entire sector including printing for packaging. Nevertheless, Roli publisher Kapoor still prefers to get the bulk of his books printed in Singapore. » We have had con-tacts there for decades so the prices are comparable. But quality and reliability are better than they are here, « says Kapoor. But this scenario is gradually changing. » We are in-creasingly trying to get our coffee table volumes printed in India. But some things are still lacking. « German publish-ers too tend to shy away from printing in India. The art book publisher Taschen from Cologne gets its books printed in Singapore and Hong Kong but not in India. While it may still take a while for printing to take off in a big way, a network of the entire publishing industry has now been built up. It started with India being the guest of honour country at the Frankfurt
Book Fair in 2006 and has been becoming increasingly close-knit. Pathak’s GBO is the nerve centre of these activities. The GBO serves as a kind of incubator of literary exchange. Of course, there is also money to be made. » But that is not our main objective. We regard the GBO as a gateway to the Indian market. We want to build up enduring and dependable relationships, « says Claudia Kaiser, who is responsible for business develop-ment at Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF). Obviously FBF is happy when Indian publishers book a stand at the fair. » We are also looking at the market in India with the objective of set-ting up a book fair, « says Kaiser. The GBO now offers semi-nars covering various aspects of the publishing industry. A five-day intensive course for senior management in the publishing industry conducted in spring was completely overbooked. In June, GBO invited Indian publishers from the » Mind, Body, Spirit « segment on a trip to Germany to link up with their German counterparts. Presumably yoga books comprised part of the luggage.Pramod Kapoor reflects, » We ourselves have not needed the German Book Office so far. « Then he pauses for a minute. » But perhaps we should try it out.
A key factor that has worked to the disadvantage of publishing in Indian languages is the lack of appropriate computing technology
German News
Volume 1 • Issue 1
February 2012
German News
Volume 1 • Issue 1
February 2012
German News 45