Literary Colonialism: Books in the Third World

The text tries to explore the prevailing inequality of publication and distribution of books in the world. It highlights the gap between industrialized (developed) countries and the Third World (developing countries). It presents the hegemony of powers of the world like USA, UK, France, Russia, Germany, etc. in production and distribution of books and other scholarly productions like journals, magazines, films and television programmes.

There are not enough books to meet the rapidly growing needs of the developing countries. It's due to the lack of technical facilities for mass production of books and indigenous authors to write on subjects of national concerns. At present, there's a shortage of books for 70 per cent of the globe. The writer mentions Barker and Escarpit's term 'The Third World Book Hunger'. Thirty four industrialized countries with only 30 per cent of population produce 81 per cent of the world's book titles. Figures of Asia dramatically illustrate the book gap. In 1967, the eighteen developing countries of the region with 28 per cent of the World's population accounted for only 7.3 per cent of the total number of book titles and 2.6 per cent of the total number of copies produced per year, and half of these were text books (UNESCO 1987).

Industrialized countries are at the centre of scientific research and scholarly productivity. They control the scholarly production like books, magazines, films, Tv programmes, etc. which the Third World consumes. They impose colonial languages for the production and many developing countries use colonial languages as a means of national unification despite little population has access to it. The colonial languages have also been the medium for scholarship and even indigenous writers tend to write books in European languages. For the prestige and bigger market, the developing countries neglect publishing in indigenous languages and use foreign languages. Publication abroad may bring money and the opportunity to communicate with other third world intellectuals.

Low literacy rates, low per capita purchasing power and a diversity of languages in the third world countries contribute to a limited market for books. Total costs of publication of books in the third world are high because print runs are small and distribution is difficult. The actual demand for books, the network of distribution and the means of conveying information about books affect the book production and distribution. Low reader density, great distances between settlements and poor transportation facilities make book distribution in developing countries particularly difficult. Foreign aid programs on intellectual productivity continue to dominate educational system in the third world. The branches of American and British publishing houses in the developing countries dominate the publishing scene. Another serious obstacle is copyright regulations. It's difficult and expensive for the third world countries to translate and publish materials originally appearing in the west. Western publishers have often preferred to export their own books rather than to license reprinting in developing nations because larger profits could be realized.

The author suggests some ways to ameliorate the situation and lessen western hegemony. The third world countries should have direct communication for the improvement of their common problems. They must create viable means of book distribution among themselves and between themselves and the industrialized countries. The third world intellectuals shouldn't publish their work abroad. Foreign scholars working in developing nations should publish their findings in the countries where they conduct their research. The intellectual infrastructure in the third world countries should be strengthened and the government should support indigenous publishers.