Intensity playing turf: Writers in Hindi and Sanskrit, learn from English and Urdu writers to be popular and marketed

In this article, the politics of language will be recalled. The books written in Hindi and Sanskrit are very difficult to sell. This is also the destiny of very popular Hindi and Sanskrit writers.

Why is this fate the standard for books published out in our mother tongue and the oldest language of the world? Hindi and Sanskrit language publishers are, in most of the cases, disreputably cold and uninterested about their authors. The books they bring out are generally poorly shaped, faultily edited and poorly marketed. Spicy literature does sell, but other books die away away fast, unseen and unsung.
Even some unknown authors in the regional languages do better, supported by the political leaders, especially in Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi. The situation of Hindi is very bad which is India’s leading spoken and written language touching about 45% of the population. The situation is Sanskrit is much worse. All the scriptures and hymns of Hindus are written in this language which has kept India together as one nation for thousands of years. In the planning and launch show, too much is wasted but no enthusiasm is shown in the selling of the book. Some VIP is invited to release the book and a booze party is thrown for the media to create a wave but the writer and the book sink.
Hardly any royalty is given to the authors of Hindi and Sanskrit. But English and Urdu authors earn a lot. In the case of Urdu, the centre and the state governments organize so many functions and give liberal awards and grants. But the authors of Hindi and Sanskrit live like orphans and hardly get any regular and timely records of sale and income from their publishers. Authors are given only some, one-time meagre amount to fend.
Recently, the central government planned to promote Hindi and Sanskrit but the political leaders of Southern state vociferously came against Hindi and Sanskrit openly. But all these leaders promote Urdu and English with great pride.
To compare, writers in English and Urdu have by now a host of specialized and government publishers, with international tie-ups. Their books are well-produced, accurately edited and assertively marketed. In most of the cases, the governments also provide support and financial assistance. They also get high royalty on time.
The group of professional publishers, accessible for writers in English and Urdu make certain that even poorly written English or Urdu has a nationwide market and readership. In contrast, exceptionally talented writers in Hindi and Sanskrit languages fade away in the limited areas and only those who read that language for some purpose. Thus, second-rate writing in English and Urdu have almost assured a pan-Indian coverage, But much superior writing in Hindi and Sanskrit is confined to a very small audience.
What is the way out to come out of this quandary?  There should be good publicity and good translation. First, they should select good topics. And second and more significantly, take them to the international audience. The absence of such an attitude is mainly hurting the Hindi and Sanskrit language too.  
Seeing this, the founding an institution of a multi-lingual translator should have been the top priorities of the government after freedom. The problem here too is that the involvement of the government is against to invite the self-destruction and handing over this task to the dead and corrupt bureaucracy.
Even, a semi-automatic body like the Sahitya Akademi has to serve any purpose because it is also in the grip of Left-oriented individuals. But the Akademi, as it subsists now, is a cocktail of corrupt bureaucratic gloves and sick left-thinkers under the ministry of culture, and penetrating with barren politicking. The dreary books it publishes in Indian languages mostly collect mould in the Akademi’s godown.
Most of the people associated with the Academy have no idea about its dawn command which was to encourage and prize original Indian language writings. A few years back, a function was held to celebrate goldenly
 I was present, some years ago, at a function in Delhi to celebrate the golden jubilee of the Akademi. The then secretary of the Academy and himself an eminent Malayalam writer Satchidanandan, conducted the programme in English, the minister present also spoke in English, Sunil Gangopadhyay, a famous Bengali writer and the vice-president of the Academy also spoke in English. Invitation, the lettering of the new stamp to be issued to commemorate the occasion, all were in English. The invitation for tea was in English. So was the lettering of a new stamp to be issued on that occasion.
Most of the writers present consisted of mainly, the writers of the Indian languages, almost unknown nationally, that strangely supports only a few who write in English too. Everything there was in English. Here too, Hindi was completely ignored. In such a scenario, even those authors, who don’t know English, want to be in print in English. But what we truly need to deliberate about is our Hindi-Sanskrit writers, destined to a limited reader, and in the grip of typically amateurish publishers, who neither encourage the book, nor commonly pay royalties.