Pankaj Mishra's beef with Penguin

Pankaj Mishra writes in the LRB- 

In recent weeks, as smoke from mass funeral pyres rose across India, Penguin Random House India cranked up the publicity machinery for their most famous “author”, Narendra Modi.

Few in India have heard of Penguin or Random House. Everybody has heard of Modi. Whatever 'publicity machinery' Penguin possesses, it registers as zero compared to the publicity machinery commanded by Modi's party.

Mishra appears unaware of this fact.  Why did he not protest when Penguin published 'Exam Warriors' by Modi in 2018? At that time, Modi seemed weak. Few thought he'd increase his majority. 

In India people like Mishra are called 'tube light'. You flick the switch but it takes a long time for the light to come on. Still, three years is quite a record!

The cruelty and callousness of powerful men have been at the centre of many spirited recent debates within publishing houses across Europe and America.

Publishing houses may have a little power and prestige in Europe and America. They have none in India.  

Norton withdrew its bestselling biography of Philip Roth after sexual abuse claims against its author, Blake Bailey, came to light.

Mishra may find this highly significant. But nobody in India has heard of Roth or Norton or Bailey.  

In France, Gallimard pulled all the books by one of their most cherished authors, Gabriel Matzneff.

Never heard of him- or her. 

Most recently, Jonathan Karp, the chief executive of Simon & Schuster, has been engaged in a vigorous conversation with his staff over plans to publish a book by Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s white supremacist consigliere. In an open letter, staff accused him of “legitimising bigotry”.

Pence is a former Veep. I have heard of him. But he isn't Trump's 'consigliere'. Giuliani, maybe. But Trump is angry with Pence. The question is whether anyone will buy Pence's book. Why give him a 2 or 3 million advance? On the other hand, Kellyanne Conway's book might have some salacious details. 

It’s fair to say that Karp, who dropped a planned book by the Republican senator Josh Hawley after the assault on the US Capitol in January, and has promised never to publish Donald Trump, is engaged in a difficult manoeuvre: to redefine, after several decades in which the pursuit of profit appeared the supreme good, the ethical responsibilities of publishers. As a recent headline in the New Republic put it, “What does book publishing stand for?”

The article reveals that the CEO of Simon & Shuster said 'When it comes to the right of unfettered discourse we should not, we cannot, accept dissent-quashing tyranny from any side of the political spectrum.” Still, a particular company may be forced to pick a side. Currently, big publishers have different imprints for different market segments. The younger generation within such companies may be able to force the entire company to adopt a partisan position. Who would gain by this? Amazon. 

This is an especially urgent question in India, where the mainstream media have earned the epithet “North Korean” for their devotion to Modi, and even social media companies based in Silicon Valley have assisted the Hindu nationalist assault on minorities and dissenters.

This is nonsense. India is a big country. It is the Chief Minister, not the Prime Minister, that the local publishers have to fear. It is more than likely that India will go down the Chinese road re. Social Media. Our hate speech laws are much stronger and Indian Courts want more control in this regard. 

In this context, I was curious to know if the decision by Penguin Random House India to publish and promote Modi had been preceded by any internal discussion about the company’s role in defending the moral and intellectual values of their society.

Mishra was wondering whether there was a 'woke' younger generation in Indian publishing. The answer is- no. Mishra's own oeuvre had put them to sleep long ago. The Indian Left has disappeared except in Kerala. But even there the C.M is not afraid to call himself the Deng Xiaoping of India.  

Certainly, Modi is an author like no other with his bloodstained and globally recognised record as chief Hindu supremacist.

This canard was helpful to Modi. Indeed, people like Mishra continue to help the BJP because they remind us that, if we aren't already settled in Europe or America, we have to ensure that India remains governable. The alternative is chaos.

My correspondence with the CEO of Penguin Random House India appears below. His response, or non-response, exemplifies a pattern of obfuscation and lack of responsibility that was seen initially in all the cases mentioned above, and has compelled me to make this exchange public.

Mishra should have kept quiet. He has made himself a laughing stock. A native Hindi speaker who ran away to London to publish worthless shite in English is an utter nonentity compared to a Gujarati who has made his mark as a Hindi orator and writer and who seems set to be a three term P.M just as he was a three term C.M. 

Dear Gaurav Shrinagesh,

I hope you are well. I am writing because I came across last week, in the midst of the unfolding disaster in India, some extensive media coverage for PRH’s reissue of Narendra Modi’s Exam Warriors. Quoting from a press release issued by your office, reports describe the book as a “wholesome and inspirational guide”.

Mishra has to rely on 'media coverage'. He is deracinated and out of the loop as far as Indian politics is concerned. If I were writing to an Indian publisher, I'd be sure to refer to someone well known and influential in India so as to show I wasn't a deracinated cunt with no knowledge of or influence in my home country. 

 He doesn't appear to have read 'Exam Warriors' which came out in 2018. He does not understand that Modi has been making a pitch directly to kids by things like his Akshay Kumar interview. What Modi is doing is promoting the RSS own chain of schools. He is saying 'rather than exam success, kids should learn team spirit and develop their character.' This is because everybody now knows that even if you cram and get into a good College, at the end of the day, if your English is not already good, you will be unemployable. By contrast, if you work with others to build up an enterprise or organisation, then your productivity and thus your wage continually rises. Indeed, even a 'chai-wallah' can become Prime Minister. 

Modi understood that Nehru's legend was bolstered by his association with 'Children's Day'. He is ensuring his own legacy by talking directly to kids in primary schools in poorer parts of the country. He speaks of how he'd take left over pieces of chalk and use them to whiten his shoes so they looked new. He tells of how the kids in his school would sit in a circle and each would take turns to say something nice about the person sitting next to him. Mishra might well find this jejune. But poor kids find it fascinating. They understand that this man was once as badly off as they are themselves. Yet, look at him now! Team work and good character have taken him all the way to the top. 

I am sure you know of the desperation with which parents and children have been beseeching the government to postpone exams.

But Indians who live in India know that Education is a State subject. The P.M has no locus standi.  

Nor do I need to tell you of Modi’s recent record in office: the list is long, from his brutal crackdown in Kashmir to his super-spreading election rallies.

But that crackdown was popular with Hindus who comprise the vast majority of the population. Everybody was holding 'super-spreader' rallies and demonstrations. Modi went with the flow. 

I am more concerned in this context, since Modi is now a Penguin “author”, with his government’s violent persecution of writers and journalists.

So Mishra thinks Modi's being an author is what is important about him. This suggests a solipsistic cast of mind. Why does Mishra not simply say 'I won't let you publish any more of my books?'  

The media organisation, Reporters without Borders, is not exaggerating when it describes India as one of “the most dangerous countries in the world” for people who write and publish for a living.

I suppose this is why Mishra left India long ago. 

Publishers with international owners and affiliations are relatively immune to the government’s coercive tactics. And yet PRH has effectively chosen, in this bleak moment, to enlist in a flailing politician’s propaganda campaign by publishing and promoting Exam Warriors.

Is Modi 'flailing'? Nope. He will get reelected. It is the Left and Congress which has been decimated- save in Kerala where the CM is pro-growth. 

This publishing decision begs some large questions about how PRH perceives its role within the present political conjuncture?

Penguin, quite sensibly, understands it has no political role in a country where 99 % of the population don't know what it is. 

Is it planning to publish more works by members of the current regime?

As you may know, Penguin books were instrumental in the 1930s in alerting the reading public to the dangers of racial-ethnic supremacism.

Not in India. The main market was for textbooks. 

There was never any question of Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin, publishing the proponents of explicitly malign ideologies for the sake of “balance” and “diversity.”

So what? He was an Englishman concerned with British politics. Mishra misses a trick by not mentioning Krishna Menon's association with Allen Lane.  

Incidentally, Penguin publishes Winston Churchill's speeches. 

As a Penguin author, both in the UK and India, I am appalled that the imprint should put itself, during an extensive slaughter of innocent lives, at the service of Narendra Modi.

Why is Mishra not saying that he won't let Penguin publish him any more?  

I look forward to hearing from you about the editorial process that led to this publishing decision and whether any conversations are taking place internally about Penguin’s ethical responsibilities. Certainly, as Modi’s mouthpiece, PRH seems a very unwelcome home for authors who see his regime as a calamity for India.

Yours,
Pankaj Mishra 

Dear Pankaj,

Thank you for your email. I hope you and your loved ones are safe in these very difficult times.

As you know, Penguin has been in India for over 30 years now and we publish a diverse range of voices across genres- children’s, young adult fiction and non-fiction, literary fiction, romance, thrillers, memoirs, biographies, self-help, business, wellness, to name a few.

I lead a team of talented publishers and editors who make independent publishing decisions ably backed by our strong sales and marketing teams. This decentralised, independent structure enables autonomous publishing decisions as is true for all of Penguin Random House companies worldwide. During these difficult times we continue to endeavour to make all our books available to our readers. We value every author’s views and opinions, as diverse as they may be and very much appreciate your note.

My best,
Gaurav

 The only reason anybody has heard of Mishra is because of 'strong sales and marketing' by Capitalist Publishers. But they also sell David Icke and 'Romance' and 'Horror'. There is a niche market for Mishra's bile and Capitalism does not mind making a little money by serving that market. Pecunia non olet- money does not stink. 

Though Pankaj Mishra (or Arundhati Roy for that matter) did not come out of the Left establishment in India, he arrived at Leftists positions familiar to older people by his own process of self-education. However, the Left- after a false dawn under UPA 1- has disappeared completely save in Kerala where it is meritocratic and non-ideological. Indeed Communist Ministers scare up votes by blowing the 'love jihad' trumpet. 

How is it that Mishra's sacred cows- which were the Indian mainstream's sacred cows in the late Sixties and Seventies- are now considered a mark of deracination and a sure sign that those who mention them left India long ago? One answer is that the Indian Left looked to some foreign authority figure to enforce its pieties. Mishra is writing to the Indian editor of a foreign MNC because he thinks the foreigner has a duty to protect the values of an Indian Left which has run away from that country. The editor, who actually lives in India, takes pleasure in pointing out that the West is Capitalist. Editors do matter but Marketing and Sales Departments matter even more.  Globalized Capitalism has no problem with niche markets for Theologies and Ideologies of the most recondite and unpopular type. But a niche market is merely a market. The fact that it provides a living to one or two people does not mean that those people should be taken at their own valuation as Prophets or Gurus.
Why is Modi so unassailable in India? How is it that even where his party is defeated locally- as happened in Kejriwal's Delhi and Mamta's Bengal- it gains at the Center? Capitalism provides the answer. Modi has no competition as National leader. Till the Opposition parties can find a rival candidate for the top job, Modi will continue to dominate. The Democrats were able to overcome their 'circular firing squad' and get behind Biden. Sadly, in the UK as in India, no alternative to the present P.M commands widespread support.