Comments
President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday called upon authors, publishers and the Government to do their utmost to promote children’s literature.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the New Delhi World Book Fair 2014.
The theme of this year’s fair is ‘Kathasagara: Celebrating Children’s Literature’. The President said that children are the best readers of literature because they have no patience for pretence. “India has had a long and rich tradition of literature written for children as manifest in our folk and oral storytelling traditions, panchatantras, mythologies, puranas, jataka tales etc. Literary giants such as Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand, Abanindranth Tagore and Sukumar Roy have written for children.”
The President added that India is one of the top six publishing countries in the world today. In terms of English-language books, it is the third largest after the US and the UK. The number of books being published in India is estimated to be growing at 25-30 per cent every year.
“An international book fair of this magnitude is one of the best manifestations of India’s liberal, democratic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and secular society where competing ideas and ideologies have equal space. These values constitute the essence of India and that we must do everything possible to preserve, protect, promote and nurture these ideals,” he said
Book fairs such as this should remind us that our history and traditions have always celebrated the ‘argumentative’ Indian and not the ‘intolerant’ Indian, he added. “Multiple views, thoughts and philosophies have competed with each other peacefully for centuries in our country and freedom of speech is one of the most important fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution.”
Poland is the Guest of Honour Country for the nine-day book festival. Organised by the National Book Trust, Ministry of Human Resource Development and India Trade Promotion Organisation, the book festival has several special attractions including authors’ corner, Rights Table and CEO speak.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.