Letters: Worthy biographies

In the article, “Barbarians at the Gate” (January 10), T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan makes the argument, with some merit, that there is a lack of decently written biographies by Indian writers. His argument rests on the following two points. I disagree on both points, the reasons for which are cited below. 

1) The reason for biographies: The writer says there is limited interest in reading biographies of living Indians written by Indians and that publishing houses churn these out with a commercial agenda.

India is a melange of cultures, interests and passions. There cannot be a unanimous judgement of the appreciation of any work of art. This is a country that gobbles up Fyodor Dostoevsky and Chetan Bhagat, Barkha Dutt and Charlie Rose, in equal measure. I have seen shelves lined with books by all these authors. In a way it speaks to the diversity of readers. The same is true for the multitude of genres that an average Indian reader appreciates. Sports, gossip, journalism, classic literature, biographies and fantasy are just a few of the genres that I have in my modest collection.

Hence, to state that nobody wants to read books written by one person about another seems far-fetched. I look forward to reading Rishi Kapoor’s biography by Meena Iyer. Granted, there are publishers who release books like periodicals, but condemning the industry for a few bad apples is akin to condemning a religion for the existence of terrorists. 

2) Non-existence of well-written biographies by Indian writers: Srinivasa-Raghavan states in the penultimate paragraph of his article that there are few biographies written by Indians about Indians that would meet the test of scholarship. In my limited knowledge, I can think of at least three writers, who have written meticulously researched books about Indian giants. I would want the writer to read these books and then ask him if he would reverse his judgement. These books are Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha (pictured), The Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Raja Rao, R D Burman: The Man, The Music by Balaji Vittal and Anirudha Bhattacharjee, Worshipping False Gods (B R Amedkar) by Arun Shourie.

Ganesh Iyer  Mumbai

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