In 2015, publishing veteran Ravi Singh was working for Aleph Book Company when American Indologist Wendy Doniger's book, 'On Hinduism', was withdrawn by the publishing house in India following backlash from fundamentalist Hindu right-wing groups in the country. Soon after, Singh left his role at Aleph and co-founded Speaking Tiger Books with Manas Saikia, formerly of Cambridge University Press India, another old hand in the publishing industry. They believed in the power of the print books — the tangible, tactile, ink and paper experience of holding a physical object, and reading a real book.
From 45 books in 2015, Speaking Tiger Books' catalogue has grown to over 700 titles today. With award-winning titles like Upamanyu Chatterjee's 2024 JCB Prize for Literature winner 'Lorenzo Searches for the Meaning of Life', Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar's 'The Adivasi Will Not Dance', Namita Gokhale's 'Life on Mars', and Enrique Vila-Matas' 'Vampire in Love', a look at Speaking Tiger's catalogue gives you a sense of the independent publisher's intent and purpose. Speaking Tiger defies conventional wisdom and ideas of what general readers want to consume and offers them books at the intersection of fiction, history, social commentary, and subjects otherwise reserved for the domain of higher academia. It is also one of the few independent publishers in India that are taking editorial risks by introducing international authors from around the world to India and promoting hard-selling genres like short fiction and poetry.
Speaking Tiger's international fiction catalogue is unlike anything else that exists in India today. With a strong roster of writers from South-East Asia and Africa, the publisher fills a significant gap across India's literary landscape — championing diverse voices from across the world. Speaking Tiger books not only enrich India's literary culture and consciousness, but also enable Indian readers to look at the lives of others, who are both like and unlike us, and allow us to look at our own lives through their eyes. And in doing so, they champion an eclectic mix of literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and reportage that would not otherwise see the light of day in an increasingly commercialised, corporatised, and conglomerated publishing scene.
As this homegrown independent publisher celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, it's important that we too celebrate their success and acknowledge their service to the universal literary canon. By platforming free and diverse voices, they're helping us grow closer and find each other.
Learn more about Speaking Tiger Books here.
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