Navayana (publishing house)

Navayana

Founded	2003
Founder	S. Anand
Country of origin	India
Official website	navayana.org

Navayana is an independent anti-caste Indian publishing house based in New Delhi, strongly influenced by Ambedkarite ideas. It was founded by S. Anand and D. Ravikumar in 2003. The first book it published was Ambedkar: Autobiographical Notes priced at Rs 40 (about $1 at that time). Since then it has published acclaimed fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels and poetry anthologies. From 2009 onwards, Navayana broadened its publishing outlook to include social issues other than caste because ‘the struggle against caste cannot happen in isolation from other struggles for justice and equality’ as a statement on the website reads.^[1]

The word ‘navayana’ means ‘new vehicle’, after B.R. Ambedkar’s interpretation of Buddhism.

In 2014, Navayana brought out the annotated, critical edition of Annihilation of Caste by B.R. Ambedkar, with an introductory essay by Arundhati Roy titled, “The Doctor and the Saint”. It also published the critically acclaimed graphic biography of Ambedkar titled Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability in 2011 which has been translated into nine languages.^[2]

The Navayana logo

The logo of the publishing house is an ink sketch of two buffaloes kissing. The publisher S. Anand explains that the iconography comes from an excerpt from Aravind Malagatti’s autobiography in Kannada, Government Brahmana. It is a story about how the ideology of caste does not allow a dalit-owned she-buffalo in heat to mate with a he-buffalo owned by a landlord. For the cover art of the April 2003 issue of The Dalit, a journal run by the Dalit Media Network, Chennai, Anand approached the artist Chandru (G. Chandrasekaran) with this story. The logo is a close-up of the artist’s interpretation.^[3]

Founders

S. Anand

Anand has worked as a journalist with Deccan Chronicle, Indian Express, The Hindu and Outlook. At the time of the launch of Navayana, he was working for Outlook in Chennai. In 2007, he left his day job as a journalist and turned full-time to publishing. Today, he is the publisher of Navayana Publishing Pvt Ltd based in New Delhi.

D. Ravikumar

Ravikumar is an intellectual and activist in the civil rights movement in Tamil Nadu. At the time of the launch of Navayana, he was a bank employee. In 2006, he turned full-time to politics and became a member of the party Viduthalai Chiruthaigal, and was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

Annual Lectures

2010

Navayana hosted its first annual lecture where the Slovenian Marxist philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, spoke in New Delhi, Kochi and Hyderabad to packed audiences. The lecture delivered in Delhi can be viewed on Youtube.

2011

The American feminist thinker and former Black Panther, Angela Yvonne Davis, delivered lectures in New Delhi and Pune.

2015

The aboriginal writer from Australia, Ali Cobby Eckermann, delivered the lectures in New Delhi and in Kolkata

Awards

The founder of Navayana, S. Anand, won the International Young Publishing Entrepreneur Award in 2007.^[4]

Titles Published by Navayana

Full list of titles published

Controversy

• Navayana found itself in the midst of a controversy when it chose to publish a critical annotated edition of B.R. Ambedkar’s classic work Annihilation of Caste appended with a long introduction called “The Doctor and the Saint” by Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy. The debate was started after excerpts from Roy’s introduction were published in the magazines Caravan and Outlook. Navayana and Roy were criticized by some Dalit activists and intellectuals on a number of issues which were articulated in an open letter to Roy ^[5] by Round Table India, a Dalit-Bahujan, forum to which she then replied and a debate ensued.^[6]

• In 2014, Navayana was embroiled in controversy again when it announced that it shall not publish a novel by the award-winning Tamil writer Joe D’Cruz. Navayana was to publish the English translation of D’Cruz’s 2005 novel Aazhi Soozh Ulagu (Ocean Ringed World) but both Anand and the translator V. Geetha criticized D’Cruz’s public praise and endorsement of the then-prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Narendra Modi. D’Cruz endorsod Mr Modi two days after signing an agreement with Navayana. In a statement on the Navayana website Anand said, ‘It is both appalling and disturbing that D’Cruz, who captured the rich and unique history of the seafaring community of Tamil Nadu in an epic tale spanning three generations, should call a fascist like Modi a “dynamic visionary”. There cannot be a place for such an author in a political publishing house like Navayana … we are glad we came to know Joe’s stand before the novel was published.’ ^[7]

Navayana was attacked for this action on the grounds that the ideological disposition of the author should not be taken to dilute the literary value of a book and was accused of censorship and ‘intellectual bullying’. However, it stood by its decision with Anand explaining in a statement that ‘publishers every day take decisions on what to publish and what not. To publish is to decide to make something you believe in public. A decision not to publish does not prejudice or preempt the publication of a book by others. This, therefore, cannot be called censorship.’ ^[8]

References

External links

navayana.org