In Search of the Reader at sahitya.in

The author was in search of the reader,and she went to the internet.

Writer Manisha Kulshreshtha’s Hindinest.com, Abhivyakti.org,Ashok Pandey’s Kabaadkhaana.blogspot.com and the encyclopedic project kavitakosh.org were among the first to use the Web to expand the readership of Hindi literature. The kosh archived Hindi poetry both original and in translation and the other online spaces brought many writers on board. Soon,old and young,prominent and new writers began contributing to these sites and there emerged an online community of Hindi literature,with a promise of an innovative encounter between readers and writers. Resources and geography,the traditional hurdles for books and periodicals in Hindi,now appeared to diminish as Anil Janvijay edited Kavita Kosh from Russia,and young writer Bharat Bhooshan Tiwari sent translations of American writers from the US,the two are just a few among many. It seemed now possible to liberate the language and writers from the labyrinthine lanes of Daryaganj,the moribund centre of publishing houses in Delhi and create a new generation of readers.

I started Kavita Kosh in 2006 to create an online encyclopedia of Hindi poetry. It works on the same concept as Wikipedia. Anyone is free to contribute. Soon Kavita Kosh became very popular and we also began to include Urdu poetry,and poetry in Indian and foreign languages translated into Hindi. We also included Indian folk songs, says Lalit Kumar of Kavita Kosh. He later launched Gadyakosh.org,a website for Hindi prose.

With works of over 1,500 poets,Kavita Kosh has nearly 50,000 pages and sees around 1.25 lakh visitors a month. About its revenue model,Lalit says: It’s totally funded by team members: Pratishtha Sharma,Anil Janvijay and I. However,now we need money to develop it. We are setting up an NGO to raise funds for this non-profit project. At present,Kumar is working on a software to sustain Gadya Kosh in the long term. For Kavita Kosh,he plans to hit the 1,00,000-page mark in two years.

As the number of hits moved north,many writers took to blogging and some of them converted these blogs into e-zines Prabhat Ranjans popular-flavoured Janaki Pul,for instance,and Shirish Kumar Maurya’s Anunaad,the only Hindi e-zine dedicated to poetry. I wanted my work on a blog to have a direct interface with readers. Soon I realised its power and reach and converted it into a journal comprising pieces by other writers,especially those in oblivion, Ranjan says. It was my journal that made the Hindi world remember the birth anniversaries of forgotten poets like Bhuvaneshwar and Gopal Singh Nepali, he says.

Maurya had once wanted to bring out a print journal for poetry. Ashok Pandey and I even prepared 100-odd pages of translated poems,but somehow the material got lost. I then switched over to the internet, he says. Anunaad now features some of the best poems,both in Indian and foreign languages.

But the promising immediacy of Hindi literature online has dimmed somewhat. Swift visibility in any field,more so in literature,has its own pitfalls. The editorial rigour has slipped on many of these sites hastily written posts,one’s own verses or translated lines by a European poet or a short tale fill space. In another era,bringing out a literary journal was tough,requiring resources,conviction and commitment.

In the few seconds required to compose a love letter or down a beer,one can now be the editor,publisher and owner of a literary e-zine.

One of the first casualties is informed criticism of literature. The comments space gets filled by vacuous praises or acrimonious repartee among rival writers; personal vents go online in the absence of editorial vigil,so much so that a disappointed reader once compared writing a comment on a webpost to urinating on an open wall. This generation seems to have lost the rigour,discipline and time for criticism,” says veteran writer Archana Verma,who has been associated with the editorial board of prominent literary journals for over two decades. Apvaad,a site dedicated to criticism,by Anurag Vats,has seen just a couple of pieces in over a year,while its sister concern Sabad features quality poems,translations and other literary forms.

A somewhat recent entrant to the cluster of magazines,Pratilipi,shows the way ahead. Featuring authors of over 35 Indian and international languages,this bilingual e-journal by award-winning writer-translators,Giriraj Kiradoo and Rahul Soni,has made a massive difference in just three years. Domiciled in Hindi despite being bilingual,the young editors took their dream beyond the realm of the language. They have published writers from Europe and Latin America,brought out issues on terror,village/city,and translation as a narrative. Among the magazines editorial advisors are prominent literary names across Indian languages. The author list is equally impressive and eclectic: Ashish Nandy,Ramachandra Guha,Ann Jaderlund,Oscar Pujol,Krishna Baldev Vaid and Kancha Illiah,among others.

If several e-zines can be termed guilty of abandoning an editorial stamp and allowing vulgarisation of their pages,Pratilipi stands apart. And they have done it away from the centres of literary power,and without patronage from senior writers or institutions. Kiradoo is a university lecturer in a small Rajasthan town,Soni a freelance translator-writer.

The e-zines have brought freshness to the literary scene,and fed a generation hungry for Web-based content,but only a few,like Pratilipi,promote experimentation and deliver stuff that can transform the norms of the Hindi publishing scene. The Brave New World is yet to come.