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The Bengali publishing industry has travelled a long way from its starting point in the 18th century.  According to the order of Governor General Warren Hastings in 1778, Panchanan Karmakar, an employee of the East India Company, prepared the earliest known set of Bengali types for N. B. Halhed’s ‘A Grammar of the Bengali Language.’

Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya was another pioneer of the Bengali book industry. In the 18th century, he, along with his business partner Harachandra Roy initiated their own business of Bengali books and publishing and the Bengali publishing industry officially took off.

According to the leaders of the Bengali publishing industry, the market of Bengali books is still flourishing despite several technological constraints. Subir Mitra, Managing Director of Ananda Publishers Pvt. Ltd., says, “The market for Bengali book publishing is mainly concentrated in West Bengal and to some extent, in Tripura.”

Subhankar Dey, CEO of Dey’s Publishing, says, “Bengali readers have a preference for literature. So the market for Bengali literature is always good for the Bengali book industry.”

Regarding the present trend in the Bengali book industry, Mitra specifies, “The market for fiction has contracted as compared to the previous years. In the 1960s, the Bengali book industry had at least 50 renowned writers who could be compared with each other. However, that number of brilliant Bengali writers has dwindled. New fiction writers are coming up but the numbers are few. But on the other side, the volume of research-oriented non-fiction writings has increased. Therefore, a new market for subject based non-fiction writing has developed.  It is a new trend now.”

By pointing out some sensitive characteristics of Bengali book readers, Mitra adds, “In the Bengali book industry, we have experienced that Bengali book readers do not prefer to read translated books and prefer originals. Bengali book readers are also very sensitive about the books they possess. The demand for paper-back books is lower as compared to hard-cover books for the Bengali book industry. Bengali people consider books as assets and hence prefer to buy hard-cover books.”

Subhankar Dey says, “Firstly, we do not get the required printing quality here in West Bengal. In Delhi, many varieties of papers are available which we do not get here. We have also experienced that in the case of bulk production, if we get the printing done in Hyderabad and Delhi, the production cost is much lower as compared to the cost in Kolkata.”

Dey adds, “Due to the socio economic condition in West Bengal, we have to fix the prices of Bengali books at a comparatively lower slab. Hence, we cannot afford good proof-readers or editors. Therefore, the Bengali book industry is unable to attract promising publishing professionals and that pulls down the overall quality of our industry.”

Mitra emphasises “For any business to succeed, you have to give a quality product to your customers. For Ananda Publishers, we maintain that for our readers. Secondly, for any business, you have to find new avenues for growth. We have brought out children’s digital books. We have also published comic forms of popular Bengali books like Professor Sanku, Feluda and others.”