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Independent Publishing in India – The Story of Tulika Books
25 years of publishing excellence
Tulika (meaning a painter’s brush or writer’s quill in Sanskrit) was a venture started in the late 1980s by Radhika Menon and Indira (Indu) Chandrasekhar. In the early years, besides running a DTP unit providing publishing services, Tulika functioned as the editorial and subscription office of the journals Social Scientist and Journal of Arts & Ideas. It published its first book, China: Issues in Development, a volume of essays edited by (the late) Ashok Mitra, in 1989. The move into regular publishing came a few years later, with Indu setting up the imprint Tulika Books in 1995, while Radhika moved to Chennai and founded Tulika Publishers in 1996, publishing children’s books.
Opening of the Tulika Bookstore at Shahpur Jat, Delhi, 2002
(Left to right) Rajendra Prasad, Geeta Kapur and C.P. Chandrasekhar at the opening of the Tulika Bookstore at Shahpur Jat, Delhi, 2002
Tulika Books published Essays in Indian History: Towards a Marxist Perception, a collection of seminal essays by the renowned historian Professor Irfan Habib of Aligarh Muslim University in the summer of 1995 – and we celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2020 as a marker of as many years since the publication of that volume (which remains in print even today, running into its fourteenth edition). Essays was followed by six more ‘author-led’ volumes of essays, where, going against existing publishing conventions, the name of the author rather than the title of the book was creatively highlighted by designer-artist Ram Rahman’s cover designs. These books served to make visible the fledgling publishing house as well as establish Tulika’s impressive author base: Whatever Happened to Imperialism and other essays by Prabhat Patnaik, Culture, Ideology, Hegemony: Intellectuals and Social Consciousness in Colonial India by K.N. Panikkar, Lineages of the Present: Political Essays by Aijaz Ahmad, The Long Transition: Essays on Political Economy by Utsa Patnaik, Politics of the Possible: Essays on Gender, History, Narratives, Colonial English by Kumkum Sangari, When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary Cultural Politics in India by Geeta Kapur.
Tulika Books is committed to publishing from a broad left and democratic perspective. Our authors include some of India’s best-known academics and intellectuals as well as young researchers and scholars, all committed to advancing a progressive agenda. We have been fortunate in building long-standing relationships with our authors, with many of them choosing to come back to us with new and appropriate book projects. To cite but one instance, Professor Irfan Habib is the General Editor of the prestigious multi-volume People’s History of India series and the author of several monographs in the ongoing series, besides authoring/editing at least eight other volumes for Tulika. Over the last 25 years, we have published more than 200 new titles, a majority of which continue to be in circulation through reprints and updated/revised editions. Tulika’s vibrant list includes cutting-edge scholarship in archaeology, architecture, art, critical theory, cultural studies, development studies, economics, film studies, history, literary theory, political theory, philosophy and sociology. We have received acclaim and awards for the design and production standards of our books, especially our arts-related list. Tulika collaborates with institutions and organizations such as the Aligarh Historians Society, Social Scientist Trust, Association of Indian Labour Historians, Foundation for Agrarian Studies and the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation to develop book series in select subject areas and disciplinary fields.
Irfan Habib and Kitty Menon at the book launch of The Making of History: Essays Presented to Irfan Habib (edited by K.N. Panikkar, Terence J. Byres and Utsa Patnaik), Delhi, August 2000
At the book launch of The Making of History: Essays Presented to Irfan Habib (edited by K.N. Panikkar, Terence J. Byres and Utsa Patnaik), Delhi, August 2000: (seated, left to right) Indira Chandrasekhar, N. Ram, Irfan Habib, Kitty Menon, Utsa Patnaik, K.N. Panikkar
Irfan Habib and Amartya Sen at the Tulika Books stall, World Book Fair, Delhi
Over the last decade and more, the publishing scene in India has grown manifold with several conglomerates and multinationals making their entry. Simultaneously, there has been a mushrooming of small and independent publishers, most of whom do remarkable work from defined socio-political positions, pushing the boundaries of conventional publishing and venturing into radically new areas. An early member of this community, Tulika Books is actively involved in collectives and networks of independent publishers, such as the Delhi-based Independent Publishers’ Group and Independent Publishers’ Distribution Alternatives, and the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.
Javeed Alam speaking at the book launch of Marx, Gandhi and Modernity: Essays Presented to Javeed Alam (edited by Akeel Bilgrami), Delhi, July 2014
Prabhat Patnaik speaking at the book launch of Marx, Gandhi and Modernity: Essays presented to Javeed Alam (edited by Akeel Bilgrami), Delhi, July 2014; (seated, left to right) Aijaz Ahmad, Javeed Alam and Gopal Guru
At the book launch of Kumar Shahani: The Shock of Desire and Other Essays (edited by Ashish Rajadhyaksha), Delhi, September 2015: (seated on the dais, left to right) Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Kumar Shahani, Sashi Kumar, Udayan Vajpeyi, Madan Gopal Singh
(Left to right) Ashok Vajpeyi, Kumar Shahani, Ashish Rajadhyaksha at the book launch of Kumar Shahani: The Shock of Desire and other essays (edited by Ashish Rajadhyaksha), Delhi, September 2015
Like most independents in India, Tulika Books has remained small by design. As Indu says, “Most of us cannot compete with the bigger players in terms of volume of output, or the number and spread of titles. Yet we continue to grow, sometimes flourish even, despite and amidst the struggles this involves. Many of us are small not because we are forced to remain so but because we choose to. Staying small helps us to maintain the quality of our content and production, and also to nourish and retain our authors by being able to work closely with them . . . authors, we believe, are the spine of our work.”
Syeda Hameed (second from left) and Amitabh Bachchan (extreme right) at the Mumbai book launch of Bread Beauty Revolution: Khwaja Ahmad Abbas 1914–1987 (edited by Iffat Fatima and Syeda Hameeda), November 2015
Javed Akhtar speaking at the Delhi book launch of Bread Beauty Revolution: Khwaja Ahmad Abbas 1914–1987 (edited by Iffat Fatima and Syeda Hameeda), December 2015; D.P. Tripathi and Shabana Azmi are seated on the dais
Also like most independent publishers, Tulika is committed to innovation and believes in taking risks. “We don’t baulk at publishing ideas and authors who are often viewed as ‘controversial’ by conservative publishing houses. We play a significant role in ensuring that debate and dissent and difference, and heterodox ideas and thinking, are kept alive through the kind of books we choose to publish . . . with rigorous editorial processes in place and out-of-the-box thinking where formats and production values are concerned,” reiterates Indu.
(Left to right) Nandini Sundar, Sukumar Muralidharan, Indira Jaising and Achin Vanaik, at the book launch of Hindutva Rising, Delhi, October 2017
Gulammohammed Sheikh speaking at the book launch of At Home in the World: The Art and Life of Gulammohammed Sheikh (edited by Chaitanya Sambrani), Mumbai, March 2019
(Left to right) Chaitanya Sambrani, Sudhir Patwardhan, Gulammohammed Sheikh and Gieve Patel at the book launch of At Home in the World: The Art and Life of Gulammohammed Sheikh (edited by Chaitanya Sambrani), Mumbai, March 2019
Book display at the launch of Vivan Sundaram Is Not a Photographer: The Photographic Work of Vivan Sundaram (by Ruth Rosengarten), Delhi, March 2019
Krishen Khanna (standing) and Vivan Sundaram (seated) at the book launch of Vivan Sundaram Is Not a Photographer: The Photographic Work of Vivan Sundaram (by Ruth Rosengarten), Delhi, March 2019
(Left to right) Sunil Choudhary, Madhu Sahni, Ayesha Kidwai at the launch of Displacement and Citizenship: Histories and Memories of Exclusion (edited by Vijaya Rao, Shambhavi Prakash, Mallarika Sinha Roy, Papori Bora), Delhi, March 2020
25 years and counting . . . as we grow from strength to strength.
To mark the occasion of completing its 25-year journey in publishing, Tulika Books pays tribute to the author of its first book, and many books since, Professor Irfan Habib. All the books in the People’s History of India series will be available to readers at a special discount of 20 percent until August 31, 2020. Use coupon code Tulika20 at checkout.
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