The roots of India’s disinterest in reading
· Scroll
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The outrage that followed a report in The Guardian this week about the absence of a reading culture in India reminded me of a conversation with the editor of an online Hindi journal. With palpable sadness, he said the reports published on the portal often go unread.
To labour over these pieces, to bring them to light amidst chronic financial distress, is an ordeal that only those embedded in the struggle can comprehend. Long before the writer’s fingers touch the keyboard, there is the gruelling labour of groundwork, meticulous research and the ethical burden of verification and investigation. For this exhausting toil, writers are not even paid adequately.
Then comes the secondary labour of editing, managed by a skeletal team. Yet, they have persisted with a quiet defiance, publishing dispatches that the well-funded, corporate behemoths of the press would hesitate to touch.
It is disheartening to analyse the digital metrics and realise these efforts remain largely ignored. However, a curious and painful irony emerges: when these same reports are translated into English, the readership multiplies manifold. This disparity only deepens the wound for those who commit their intellectual lives to the original language – in this instance, Hindi.
According to my editor friend, the contemporary public prefers the passive consumption of video...