Hinduism Today
06-30-2005
Five brothers face the age of the Internet with an unwavering commitment to
a scholarly readership
IN 1903, A MAN NAMED MOTI LAL JAIN established a small religious bookshop
in a portion of Punjab which is now part of Pakistan, with his son, Banarsi
Dass. It was an unusual business venture for these two gentlemen from a
distinguished family of jewelers well established in the court of the Sikh
king, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. But the store was immediately successful, and
the two men were quite happy until Motilal passed away just a few years
later. When Banarsi Dass also died shortly after that in 1915, the
responsibility for running the bookstore went to his younger brother,
Sundar Lal Jain. Sundar Lal was soon joined by Shanti Lal, the only son of
Banarsi Dass. It was this uncle-nephew team that built that small bookshop
into the towering empire that came to be known even beyond the shores of
India as Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.
The first branch of the business was established in Patna (Bihar) in 1937.
After Partition in 1948, when the Jain family home and publishing house
were burned to the ground during the riots, the Jains moved their
headquarters to their branch office in Patna. Three years after that, they
relocated to Varanasi. In 1958, they moved one final time to New Delhi.
Sundar Lal was a scholar of Sanskrit, an educationist, a philosopher and a
philanthropist. When he took over the business, he began publishing serious
works authored by respected scholars and attracted the cultured friendship
and assistance of such eminent Indians as Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Dr. S.
Radhakrishnan, both champions of Indian culture and heritage. In New Delhi
under Sundar Lal's distinguished leadership, Motilal Banarsidass flourished
as never before.
By featuring serious literature, the book company has earned the respect of
universities, researchers and historians around the world. Its books fill
the libraries of virtually every institute of higher learning where
Indology is studied. The Motilal trademark is a unique combination of
scholarship, quality production and moderate costs, something major
universities and struggling professors worry about. The Motilal book list
covers a wide gamut of subjects: Indian languages and linguistics,
literature, art, drama, music, history, religion, epigraphy, iconography,
social themes, astronomy, astrology, ayurveda and yoga. The catalog is so
extensive--over 2,000 titles--that more branches have come up in Patna,
Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Banares, Mumbai, Kolkata and Pune to handle
distribution. Now there are sales offices in London, and the US Library of
Congress has made Motilal their authorized dealers for supplying
Indological works from India. Sundar Lal Jain passed away in 1978,
Shantilal in 1997. Shantilal's five sons--and now, two of his
grandsons--currently handle different aspects of the family business.
Are you training anyone to take your place as the Managing Director of
Motilal Banarsidass Publishers? The person who will take over from me is my
youngest brother, Rajeev. When we sit together, we discuss what is to be
published and how many copies. Now, he is learning which authors are to be
picked up.
Do all of the five brothers work harmoniously together? There is no power
struggle going on in our organization. If there were, we would be living in
five different houses with five different businesses. By the blessings of
our ancestors and our gurus, we are united. We all love and respect each
other very much.
In your estimation what are the finest books published by Motilal
Banarsidass? The criterion we currently follow in choosing books to publish
is that they should feature the teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism.
Of these three main streams of knowledge, Buddhism is the most popular for
us, because Buddha ventured beyond India. Today, we are the largest
publisher of Buddhist teachings in the world. If you ask me which of our
books is best, my choice may not have been our best seller. It may not have
sold at all.
How do you feel about New Age literature and music? We have been selling
New Age publications for about five years now. While it is true that they
are currently popular and have an unlimited potential for growth, our
financial stability is already established. For more than 100 years,
Motilal Banarsidass has featured books that are scholarly and academic. Our
sales are consistent in this market.
Most of these New Age books are also paperback, which makes them very
economical. Popular books are always reasonably priced. The people of India
will buy books only when the price is reasonable. Now, the youth are
turning to these New Age publications.
Do you get many requests for publication? We receive so many manuscripts.
We try to select the best ones for publication. Out of ten submissions, we
might publish two. I am the first one to go through these, but I do so with
the help of specialists on the topics of books submitted. Sometimes when I
think that a book is of an outstanding nature but needs some work, I will
commission an author, an editor or a scholar to come in.
What are your views on the changing world of book publication? As
businessmen we should expand. But we like to think of ourselves as
publishers who are scholarly and academic. We are more concerned with
quality than quantity. In India, the general emphasis is more on quantity.
If you go through our catalogue, you will find that most of our authors are
Western scholars. When Western scholars start a project, they put their
body, mind and soul into it and take the work very seriously.
Does book publication have a future? There was a time, not too long ago,
when book publishing all around the world was suffering. Today things are
looking a lot better. Trends start overseas. Then India copies them. When
television came into the world, people stopped reading books. Then there
was the Internet. For a time, it seemed all but lost. Yet miraculously,
people are now slowly starting to read books again. As usual, this started
in the West and is only just now coming to India. Even the youth are coming
back to books. Look at Harry Potter.
Our sale of educational books will always be secure, but scholarly and
academic publications have never been lucrative. This is why scholars seek
grants for publication. They cannot raise the necessary funds from book
sales alone. About twenty percent of the books that I publish are by
authors who are working on grants.
It is generally understood that your family approaches publishing almost as
if it were a spiritual mission of sorts. Is this true? Publishing as a
spiritual mission has been a tradition in this family. Actually, we think
of it more as the dissemination of Indian culture. We have even been
recognized and honored with awards for this work. We can maintain this
attitude of service because we keep our personal requirements limited. This
is part of the philosophy of Jainism. We follow the path of aparigraha,
which means non-possessiveness. Gandhi followed this path. His spiritual
guru was a Jain whose name was Shrimad Raj Chandra.
Can you talk a little about the joint family structure? Running a family
requires a lot of sacrifice. Most of the problems that occur in a joint
family are not because of the men, but because of the women. This has my
mother worried. She says that women under the influence of modern culture
want freedom but no work. I believe that the division of this family will
occur eventually. It might have happened quite some time ago, if it had not
been for my father. He wanted to keep the family together. When he passed
away eight years ago, my mother and I inherited the responsibility for
running the family. Finally, when we thought we could not wait any longer,
we bought five houses in a colony. But now nobody wants to shift. Everyone
is saying, "We are happy here." God is great, you see! We are still
together.
There is another reason why we are still together. Many spiritual people
come to our home as guests. They bring stability and unity.
Do you have any special interests as you prepare to retire? I am now only
interested in spiritual life. If I come to know of some spiritual person
traveling through, I try to meet him. I do not claim to have realized God,
but I am clear in my understanding of my soul and my life. I know who I am,
where I came from and where I am going. I firmly believe that what we are
supposed to do is live a selfless life. While good deeds bring joy and bad
deeds bring suffering, selfless deeds bring liberation. This is my belief.
I feel that if one goes deeply into the study of Jainism, one will find the
spiritual path. Likewise, if one goes deeply into Hinduism or Buddhism, one
will also find nothing but the path of spirit. People generally do not go
into this kind of depth. For this reason, most of us are more religious
than spiritual.
As a respected elder advisor, do you have any advice for the youth? Our
youth of today need to get the right type of education. Modern education is
not complete. We must seek a type of education that improves the quality of
life. This is my message to our youth. The entire curriculum of our schools
has to be changed so as to include an instruction from our ancient
literature. Unfortunately, I do not see this happening.
How has the Internet affected reading habits in India? More and more
Indians are getting educated now, and the level of education is rising.
More education is bound to have a positive affect on the reading habits of
people. It is interesting to note that this is due in part to the Internet.
Although our whole catalogue is available on the Internet, I have no
interest in making the books we publish available on the Web in the shape
of E Books.
Do your plans to expand include featuring New Age publications? New Age
books and music are a part of our expansion plans. It fits right in with
what we are already doing, because actually, there is no "New Age." There
is ancient wisdom coming to this age. What is being called the New Age is
really just a repackaging of ancient wisdom--like old wine in a new bottle.
When we talk of New Age publications, we are talking about esoteric
material made easily understandable and accessible to the masses. These
books are meant to inspire the common man and act like a catalyst in
teaching him the art of living.
New Age books have been my passion for the last 20 years. Now that our
children are joining the business, I am promoting the sale of New Age
books. If I can make this new division of our operation successful, our
next generation of family members will be able to eventually handle it
independently. I will then be free to move on to something else.
New Age books have more scope for growth than our more academic works.
Motilal Banarsidass did 2,000 titles in one hundred years. Now in just five
years, our New Age division has already produced 250 titles. About 60 to 70
percent of the content of new age books is based on Hinduism. There is also
the chance that our New Age book readers will gradually become interested
in our other books.
Where do you make your most money today? We are surviving today due to the
international markets. Scholars and institutions outside India are
supporting us. Thirty percent of our sales go to institutions. For them,
Indian books are cheap. America is one of the largest buyers. England,
Germany and France are also good. We also have a large number of people
buying from us through the Internet and our online bookstore.
Is publishing a commercially viable business today? Publishing is in our
blood. We are not interested in any other business. However, I cannot say
that publishing is a commercially viable business. In publishing, your
stock has to be at least three times that of your turnover. When you print,
you don't just print one book, you print a thousand or more. Whether you
are able sell them or not, your money is already spent on production. Then
you need places to store these books--and more places to sell them. So
there is this huge cost for infrastructure. To start a publishing house
like ours in today's times would be an act of foolishness.
How do you see the future of Motilal Banarsidass Publishers? My own dream
is that our younger generation should be groomed so that they are happy,
healthy and wise. Our parents and elder brothers have worked much harder
than we have and left us a structure which is now profitable and growing. I
would like to do the same for our next generation.
I would hope that our growth would be slow and steady, but not extravagant.
Though I am not a very spiritual person, I go to our Jain temple almost
every evening. This gives me peace. I do not want to be an aggressive and
angry person. Our whole family is vegetarian and we are teetotalers. It is
my belief that any success we enjoy is only a reflection of the good and
wholesome life we try to live.
Article copyright Himalayan Academy.
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