Digitisation may helped the Hindi book market gain pace, but Dr Biharilal Jalandhari, who hails from Uttarakhand and has authored around 25 books in Hindi, is concerned about the flip side of the success story. He says the translation of Hindi to English diverts readers to the latter, thus limiting exposure to the original text.
“Only novels and story books are popular nowadays,” Dr Jalandhari says. Hindi readership has surely declined, he says, referring to the “less-preferred reference books” which are richer in historical and political information.
Hindi books, however, made their presence felt at the New Delhi World Book Fair 2025, with 365 stalls and around 170 exhibitors this year, according to Amit Singh, the public relations head of National Book Trust (NBT).
Bringing publishers together under one roof at #ndwbf2025!
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The New Delhi Rights Table fostered meaningful collaborations, rights exchanges and new opportunities at the grand festival of books.#nbtindia #ministryofeducation #ndwbf2025 #ndwbf #newdelhirightstable pic.twitter.com/0Rx5bwndvU
Singh says that authors aged 25-30, from across India, have recently gained significant popularity through social media. Digitisation has helped Hindi books market regain pace. “Even publishers like Manjul, and others have launched audiobooks and podcasts,” Singh says.
However, for most readers, the much-adored paperbacks cannot be replaced. Rajvinder, a Hindi student of Kurukshetra University in Haryana, is fond of Hindi literature and the book, Shekhar: Ek Jivani by Agyeya. “When you listen to an audiobook, it doesn’t give you time and space to ponder over each sentence,” he says, skimming through the book shelf at one of the stalls. “But, when you read while holding the book in hand, you pause and think.” He also points out the severely affected attention span due to social media.
Regional language publishing is generally on the rise. Ganesh Khushgal, a Garhwali publisher of Winsar Publishing House in Uttarakhand, recalls that there was once a significant shortage of text in local languages. “The market lacked books in regional languages like Garhwali and Kumaoni, which is no longer the case,” he says.
To promote reading, writing and book culture in India, NBT’s YUVA 2.0 scheme has been running an author mentorship programme. “A total of 75 students are selected through an All India Contest,” Singh says, adding that these students then submit manuscripts. The winners, decided upon evaluation of their proposals, are trained by eminent authors across the country. NBT then prepares books and also translates them into different languages.
