Indian Journal of Science Communication (Volume 2/ Number 2/ July – December 2003)

 << Back  


Annotated Bibliography of Popular S&T Books in Indian Languages : A Review

T.K. Mandal and Indu Puri
National Council for Science and Technology Communication,
Deptt. of Science and Technology, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi - 110 016

Abstract

Publication of popular science and technology books for common man, students, and others is one of the major means of communication and popularisation of S&T in the country. India has a long tradition of publishing popular S&T books. But no record was available on such books so far. Similarly, year of their publication, present day availability, number of editions, illustrations, pages, various such other relevant elements are not available. Without having all such facts and figures it may not be possible to plan commissioning of writing S&T books, especially in the gap areas. To have an assessment, what is available in various Indian languages, the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC), in 1994 launched a study 'Annotated Bibliography of Popular Science and Technology Books' in some major languages. Under this, 14 languages were taken up for a period covering till 1997 and beginning way back as far as possible in the pre-independence period. Under this study a total 25,590 S&T popular titles have been reported. In this paper an attempt has been made to analyse various information that are recorded in 14 separate reports for these languages.

Key Words

Popular S&T books, Indian languages, Scientific temper, Annotated bibliography, Gap areas in science writing

Introduction

The increasing role of science and technology in our daily life underlines the enormous importance for S&T communication and popularisation. Effective S&T communication and popularisation depends upon various elements, including, availability of correct information, adequate number of skilled communicators, software for different media, etc. National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) since its inception in 1982, for the achievements of its objectives of S&T popularisation and stimulation of scientific temper, has been working through its various programmes and schemes to provide inputs necessary for effective S&T communication and popularisation. An important component of these programmes is development of S&T software in regional languages. These included films, video and audio-cassettes, books, magazines, posters, slide-sets and computer software for different audiences, etc. Simultaneous efforts were also made to compile the information on softwares, which already existed in different languages. The efforts of promoting new material on popular science subjects, however cannot be optimised in the absence of such a compilation. A long-term, phased, systematic programme to compile information on different S&T softwares available in different Indian languages, including popular science books in various regional languages, was catalysed at various intervals by the Council.

India has a much long tradition of bringing out popular books in different areas of science and technology in regional languages. These have, however, not been systematically documented nor have information about their existence and availability been disseminated widely. To have a look on what is available, in 1994, NCSTC launched a project entitled `Preparation of Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography on Popular Science and Technology Books' in all major Indian languages.

Methodology

As the first step to formulate this programme, a meeting of selected S&T based organisations and agencies was organised in 1994 to discuss and define the scope of the project. Various other aspects like defining popular science literature to be included in the bibliography, how and what information to be collected, the format for collecting the information and methodology for documenting, it was discussed at length. The meeting adopted a common format, so that uniformity was ensured in a complex study of this magnitude. The guidelines adopted were :

1. A popular science book would mean a book that is not a text book, a guide book for students, a publicity pamphlet, a conference report, proceeding of a seminar or public relations material issued by an organisation. Newspaper articles on science and technology were also excluded from the proposed bibliography.

2. The title of the book would be entered in the language it is written (in Roman script) and all other information would be in English.

3. The annotation per entry would not exceed 20 words.

4. The format to be adopted was : subject, title, original or translated, edition, author, version, name and place of publication, publisher and distributor, date of publication, number of pages, number of illustrations, size, cost, annotation and keywords and availability, etc.

5. The project was to be completed in two phases, First phase containing information during period 1981 till date and second phase to comprise information prior to 1980 since pre-independence period, going as far back as possible.

Follow up and outcome

Under this programme, projects were supported for 14 regional languages. To review the progress and ensure uniformity among the reports, a two-day review meeting of all the investigators involved in this project, was organised in September 1996. The meeting was designed to take stock of the strengths and weaknesses in the implementation of this project. The exercise gave an opportunity for the various groups to exchange information and learn from each other's experience. Experts were specially invited to monitor progress and also to suggest mid-term corrections wherever necessary. The meeting took note of the progress made by different groups and suggested various measures and guidelines like format, broad subject classification, etc., so that the reports are uniform.

The study continued for over a year and recorded a total of 25,590 S&T popular science books in 14 major languages, - Assamese (384), Bengali (2502), Gujarati (5010), Hindi (2165), Kannada (3448), Malayalam (1028), Manipuri (128), Nepali (193), Oriya (668), Punjabi (324), Sanskrit (1200), Telugu (1568), Tamil (4302) and Urdu (1670).

Brief analysis of the reports

Each bibliography consists of computerised records in English. Looking into the documents finally received in NCSTC, to some extent, Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Sanskrit, and Urdu have been able to do some justice to their responsibilities by providing some analysis of the collected records. Rest of the reports are just plain compilation of the data on the format evolved in the meeting held during 1994, without any proper analysis. There is neither any observation/suggestion nor any conclusion/remarks made by the authors in the report.

Assamese : Assam Science Society (ASS), Guwahati executed the work and reported 384 books. Only 51 books were recorded for pre-independence period, earliest being, one each during1897 and 1898. In some cases the authors are also the publishers. The price varies from a few Annas to Rs. 50. Maximum books are original writings, covering all common subject areas.

As a follow up to this project and as part of its golden jubilee publication during year 2003, the ASS has agreed to publish the report in Assamese language.

Bengali : The project was awarded to the Science Association of Bengal (SAB), Kolkata. The report lists 2502 popular S&T books in 43 subject areas. Some important observations are :

  • The year reported against each entry indicate that the most are from post-independence period and large numbers are from 1980 onwards.
  • Medical Science, with 647 entries, recorded the highest number followed by Health & Nutrition, General Science, Biography and History of Science, having over 100 records each.
  • Ecology, Oceanography, Forensic Science, Computers, Nuclear and Space Science, which are comparatively new areas of S&T, have sufficient number of entries, along with classical subjects like Agriculture, Astronomy, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Horticulture, Zoology, etc.
  • Mathematics, Forestry, Energy, Natural Resources, Statistics, Fisheries though being day to day utility areas of S&T, do not have many records.
  • No book is reported under Biotechnology, Electronics, Science Commication, Science Policy Management and Wild Life Conservation.
  • Study indicated that presently the books are located either with the publisher or at the National Library, Kolkata or with the SAB. Only a few are recorded from other libraries of Kolkata, 24 Parganas, Serampur, etc. Apart from West Bengal, there are pockets of Bengali population and culture at Tripura, parts of Assam, Bihar and Orissa, but no record is reported from these centres.
  • As a test case, analysis was made for some subjects. Of the 55 books on Agriculture, during 1980 onwards the number was 25, between 1872 (earliest record reported) to 1979 it is 22 and no dates available for 8 books. Similarly, of the 37 books in Animal Husbandry, 15 are from 1980 onwards, 15 between 1888 (earliest reported) to 1979 and no dates available for 7 books. Medical Science having highest record of 647 books, 193 during 1980 onwards, 342 between 1176 (earliest available record) to 1979 and 112 without any date.
  • Some authors have written more than one book and most cases have one author for one book. Joint authorships are not rare, but very few in numbers.

Hindi : The project was assigned to Vigyan Parishad, Prayag, Allahabad which reported about 2165 books. Highest number, 662 titles are recorded under Medical Sciences including Ayurveda, Health and Sanitation, followed by Agriculture, having 231. Biographies occupy an important place with a total of 74 entries. Pure sciences, Astronomy and Mathematics occupy a prominent place, a total of 120 titles.

  • The number of books during the period 1850-1900 is only 21, found at some limited libraries only. Similarly 129 books are reported during 1901-1925 and 347 during 1926-1950. Thus, during pre-independence, hardly 500 popular S&T books could be traced, which is only 25% of the total books listed in the report.

  • There is a sudden jump in the number of books 1950 onwards, indicating an increasing interest in popular scientific books in Hindi, a welcome trend.

  • About 300 book are translated from other languages namely English, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi and others.

  • A number of books contain fewer pages whereas others had numerous pages and were printed in several parts.

  • Number of copies printed is very often mentioned and so are the number of editions printed.

  • The prices of books before 1950 were very low as compared to high prices of books at present. This is probably due to steep rise in paper and printing costs.

  • Books with illustrations are very few in number.

  • About 134 books of general topics are having 16-32 pages, illustrated ones are mostly marked for children.

  • Some prominent publishers are : Indian Press, Kitab Mahal, Vigyan Parishad (all from Allahabad); Medical Hall and Chaukhamba Series (both from Varanasi); Dehati Pustak Bhandar and Raj Kamal Prakashan (both from Delhi); Laharia Sarai (Patna); Eastern Trading Company (Calcutta); Vora and Company (Bombay); etc.

The author has admitted that an intensive search in different libraries of Hindi speaking states could not be conducted hence, more popular books could still be brought to light.

Gujarati : Institute of Social Action and Research, from Ahmedabad compiled the report and identified 5010 popular S&T books. Earliest book reported was from 1885, but not more than 150 books are reported during pre-independence period. Subjects covered almost all areas of science and technology, but maximum number were on Astronomy and Biographies. Usha Joshi had written maximum number of books during 1977 to 1991, about 30, mostly biographies of our scientists like Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, C.V. Raman, etc. Gajjar Dhirajlal also contributed over 15 books. Some of the books are authored by more than four writers. Maximum number of books are original writing, though many translated are also there. Price of books vary from less than a rupee to Rs. 80. Target groups are mostly the students and general public, some books are for farmers too.

Kannada : Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishad (KRVP), Bangalore makes the Kannada compilation, which listed a total of 3448 books. Medical Science having 913, recorded the highest number followed by General Sciences 440, Agriculture 415, Physics 214, Biographies 211, Zoology 195, Botany 115, Mathematics 110 and so on. Record of 16 books was available before 1880 and 438 books during 1881-1950. Rest of the books are between 1951-1995. Publication years for 79 books could not be traced. Most of the collections are made from three centres of Kannada language publications, namely, Bangalore, Mysore and Dharwad.

Malayalam : The project was supported to Thiruvananthapuram based Vakkom Moulavi Foundation Trust. Of the total 1028 titles reported, only nine are from pre-independence period, earliest being 1911. Some salient features are :

  • The highest number of 79 books were published during 1979 followed by 61 during1974, 54 in 1980 and so on.

  • 307 were belonging to the General Sciences category, 68 each on Science & Society and Appropriate Technologies, 53 Medical Sciences and 48 on Mathematics.

  • A vast majority, about 81.6% of the books are original, rest translated.

  • Two major publishers are the State Institute of Languages, Kerala (SILK) with 319 (31%), followed by Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) with 312 (30.4%); STEPS, a Cooperative Society, published 77 titles (7.5%), followed by State Institute of Children's Literature (SICL) having 68 titles (6.6%) to their credit.

  • About 22% of the titles are meant for school children, the rest are for general public.

  • About 43 titles have gone through more than one edition.

  • 70 percent (716) books are illustrated, which makes it easy for understanding. However, the illustrations are not up to the mark.

    • Manipuri : The report was compiled by the Manipur Science Association, Imphal, which identified 128 books, mostly from Central Library and Manipur Public Library both at Imphal and also from the National Library, Kolkata. The books were written under two categories, general and applied, mostly for children and general reader. The prices of these books are between Rs.1.50 and Rs. 25., except one, costing Rs. 120. All the books are original and carry less than 50 pages. Majority of the books are on Nature, Agriculture and Astronomy and were written during 1960-69 (32); 1970-79 (14); 1980-89(27) and 1990-96 (51). Only four books, one each from 1948, 1950, 1956 and 1959 were reported.

    Nepali : Recorded only 193 books under 15 categories, highest being in Medicine with 68 titles followed by 25 and 24 in Anthropology and Agriculture respectively. These books have been recorded from 13 libraries spanning from Kathmandu (Nepal) to Kolkata, Shillong, Gangtok, Siliguri and Darjeeling. Most of the books were written during seventies to nineties, the earlier records found, one each in 1932, 1948 and 1956.

    Oriya : Srujanika, an NGO from Bhubaneswar, compiled the report, which identified 668 popular science books in Oriya language, of which only 12 are reported from pre-independence period, earliest being one from 1927, followed by two books from 1929. General Science having 113 records, reported the highest number of books followed by Biography 109, Medical 101, Biology 75, Physics 58, Animal Husbandry 53. A total of 252 authors have contributed individually and jointly. Costs of books vary from Rs. 4 to Rs. 75. The collection has been recorded from
    13 libraries located at Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri
    and the National Library, Kolkata. But maximum
    data has been recorded from Srujanika`s own collection.

    Punjabi : The project was executed by the Society for Community Service and Promotion of Science & Technology, a Delhi based NGO. The report listed 324 books, of which 241 are original and 83 translated from various other languages including English and Russian. Notable features are :

  • Most of the books are below 100 pages, some even less then 50. Only few are above 200 pages.
  • The prices of books were in the range between a few Annas to Rs. 110.
  • Large number of books are on Agriculture and Medicine.
  • Most of the books are for general readers, next large percentages for farmers and students.

    • Sanskrit : The project was carried out by the Department of Sanskrit, University of Delhi. The report could list 1200 books in 20 subjects. Medicine being highest in number reported 523, followed by Astronomy 215, Chemistry 90, Architecture 88, Mathematics 57 and others with very small numbers. Following are the observations :

  • Sanskrit is the mother language of most of the Indian languages. The report indicated that only 35-40% books were written during pre-independence years.

  • The earliest book reported is on Mathematics, from 1872.

  • A large percentage of books are reported from libraries of Delhi and a good number from V.V.R.I. Hoshiarpur (Punjab).

  • Lakshmi Venkateshwar Press, Bombay published at least 21 books during the year 1925 on Architecture alone.

  • Being one of the oldest languages, the number of books reported is not sufficient to justify the popularity and use of Sanskrit.

    •

    The author has made the following notable remarks :

  • There existed a relationship between Sanskrit texts not only with the other ancient Indian languages but also with those of other countries. Popular Sanskrit treatises were translated in various regional languages.

  • Some books are bilingual, with text in Sanskrit and 'Bhaashya' or 'Teekaa' are in Bengali or Tamil. These books are important to the readers since the connotation of some technical terms vary from region to region.

    • Tamil : Tamil Nadu Science Forum, Chennai, compiled the report and recorded 4302 books covering all major subject areas. During the pre-independence period, only 490 books were reported. Three earliest publications are reported from 1869. Maximum number, over 600, are reported during 1990-96.

    Telugu : Jana Vignana Vedika, Hyderabad, compiled the Telugu report, which listed 1868 books. The report was divided into two phases. First phase included titles published in 1980 to 1993 and the second, the titles published in 1980 and in the years prior to that tracing back to the pre-independence period. First phase listed 537 titles and the phase two has compiled the rest 1031 titles. Few salient features are :

  • The total record collected was from 47 libraries in districts and neighbouring areas of Andhra Pradesh, published by nine publishers. Only 35 titles are available in the State Archives at Hyderabad.

  • The total titles have been classified under 37 subject areas, of which the General Science having highest number with 288 books, followed by Medicine 158, Agriculture 73, Biography 64, Ani1mal Husbandry 58 and so on.

    •

    Urdu : The task was assigned to Urdu Secondary Schools' Mathematics and Science Centre, Malegaon (Nasik), Maharashtra, which after analysing more than 2000 books, recorded information for 1670 titles. To collect data, the team visited more than 58 libraries of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, U.P., West Bengal and other states. Highest number of books, 658 (including Unani) reported under Medical Sciences, followed by Technology 215, General Sciences 213, Physics 99, Agriculture 58, Chemistry 53 and so on.

  • Information was gathered from books printed in the year 1821 and onwards. Pre-independence period recorded over 600 books.

  • Of the total records, 1281 books are original writings and 389 translated.

  • Most of books were printed 1000 copies with repeated editions.

  • Most of the publishers did not mention number of editions. A few books were published twice or thrice.

    •

    l More than 50% books have illustrations to explain, some contained colour figures and charts as well.

  • Price of the books was in the range between a few Annas to Rs. 150. Bound books were not relatively costly.
  • Books printed recently are available for purchase. But most of the books were in rare category and out of print. Few publishers are reprinting some of them.
  • Maintenance of books at most of the libraries was not up to the mark. But the books were in excellent conditions at Khudabakhsh Oriental Public Library (Patna) and Rampur Raza Library (Rampur), U.P.
  • The printed pages of books varies from 100 to 500. Few are less than 100 pages.
  • Most of the books are for general public, few for children and women.
    •

    In more recent times poor coverage of S&T books is Urdu has been observed amongst readers. Publication in Urdu was much more in demand before Independence. Presently publishers are indeed interested in publishing books on Technology, Space Science and Computers. Books are rare on Hygiene, Food Habits and Environment.

    Conclusion

    Looking into the number of books recorded, it appears that there may be many books, which might have been left out due to various reasons (Hindi author admitted this). The reasons may be that records were not easily available, may be the investigator could not travel to all possible locations. Only 25,590 popular S&T books do poor justice to 14 major Indian languages. The authors may not have done justice to their responsibilities. Efforts might not have been made to locate the records from all possible sources.

    In spite of the offer made by the NCSTC to the State Government S&T Councils for equity participation for the publication of the reports in the respective languages, except Assam Science Society (not the State Government), no state came forward to accept the offer. Hence the record compiled shall remain in English only, may not be of any use to the masses that can communicate in regional languages only.

    Maximum entries are on Medical Science, followed by Agriculture, Mathematics, Astronomy and others. A closer analysis of the documents are necessary to identify gap areas for different target readers namely, middle school students, high school students, college level students, house wives, neo-literate, etc. The needs of the different category of readers can then be matched with the availability of literature to determine the gaps.

    To have wider exchange of the knowledge and ideas, translations of popular books from one language to other regional languages must be encouraged.

    Will this fact be adequate to give a jolt to science communicators and provide the necessary motivation for popular book writing in current issues of science and technology? Another use, which the study will be put to, is for identifying popular science writers who are active and have the potential for writing manuscripts on other popular science subjects. Vigyan Prasar, National Institute of Science Communication and International Resources National Book Trust India, NCERT and other central and state organisations working in the field of popular literature must utilise the result of this study of NCSTC. This analysis may encourage the agency concerned to consider bringing out low priced editions of manuscripts written on different popular science subjects to fill gaps identified in the NCSTC report. Such positive action is required for not only improving the poor track record as revealed in the reports, but also to stimulate interest and curiosity among public on current issues of science and technology.

    References

    1. Reports on Annotated Bibliography of Popular Science and Technology Books, each in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Manipuri, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil and Urdu, NCSTC, Dept. of Science & Technology (Govt. of India), New Delhi-110 016.

     

    << Back