Why does India read more non-fiction than fiction?

From a need to read more history in a world replete with censorship to the rise of self-help and aspirational books, the allure of non-fiction is aplenty. The Established speaks with those in the publishing industry to understand why, as a country, we tend to gravitate more towards non-fiction when it comes to reading choices.

In Kolkata, where I live currently, there is a bookstore at Park Street that I frequent–both for serious book-shopping as well as for browsing or killing time between social engagements. I end up going there so often that I observe changes in their display of books from close quarters and they seem to comprise mostly non-fiction ones, with a few new and bestselling Indian fiction writers thrown in. In fact, the first big section right opposite the entrance features non-fiction titles prominently, even as fiction there seems to be treated with a revolving-door policy.

While my job as a culture editor ensures that I often get to match the non-fiction names with those on lists of new releases that land in my inbox, I often find the fiction ones missing. Upon asking one of the staff members at the store, I was told: “You will be amazed to see the kind of demand non-fiction has amongst readers. Demand for fiction by Indian writers? Not so much.” A recent conversation with top Indian translator Arunava Sinha for a separate story also echoed the same thoughts as he said, “Forget people reading translations–how many people read fiction these days?” The Nielsen BookScan seems to agree as they found that the adult non-fiction trade continued to be the biggest genre in 2021. But why?

A changing world order

Viewed in the context of a world in flux with a lot of people unable to differentiate between the real and the fabricated–both online and in the news cycle–the increased interest in non-fiction writing covering various genres seems to be natural. “Take, for example, the Ukraine War. With so much news about it, sales of books on world history, especially those on Ukraine, Russia and [Russian president Vladimir] Putin have gone up substantially. Even with the political situation in India and abroad, people have started reading more about history and politics,” points out Touseef Mirza of the New Delhi-based Midland Bookshop.

Teesta Guha Sarkar, editorial director of Pan Macmillan India, attributes the popularity of non-fiction to the wide spectrum of topics it can include. “There's something for nearly everyone under the non-fiction umbrella so it's no surprise that altogether, it sells more than fiction. But if one were to compare like for like–a gripping police or political memoir vis-à-vis a detective or political novel, for example–it does appear that non-fiction has found greater favour among readers in recent times,” she explains.

The recent time’s tendency towards the erasure or re-writing of history might also have something to do with it. More and more people are now inclined towards picking up a book on history to know more on a topic than believe the primetime news anchor or a wily WhatsApp forward. As Priya Kapoor, director, Roli Books, says: “We have always had scholarship but it’s now combined with an engaging style of writing on subjects that are interesting, close to people’s lives and help us make sense of the world around us. It has gone through tremendous shifts in the past few years–be it climate change, political movements, a global pandemic, gender identity and the importance of mental health. Never has there been a better time to examine how and why things happen. History is sexy right now, especially with historical revisionism and the resurrection of certain icons.”

Young-adult, fantasy and international fiction versus Indian fiction

Talking about what determines the display of books at his stores, Mirza said that non-fiction was not always the clear winner as young-adult and fantasy genres from within fiction have also become widely popular among certain age groups. “We have so many people coming to us to buy these books that we have also started stocking more in these categories,” he says.

Kapoor also makes an important distinction between Indian and international fiction. “Because I am sure if you consult sales data, you will find that fiction by international authors–whose books are imported into India–sell in large numbers.” Leading literary agent Kanishka Gupta of Writer’s Side echoes her thoughts. “While young-adult and fantasy have a huge market in India, not many people seem to want to read Indian fiction writers,” says Gupta over a quick phone call.

Meanwhile, Sayantan Ghosh, senior commissioning editor of Simon & Schuster India, is of the opinion that more avenues of entertainment also contribute towards the Indian fiction genre getting affected. “People are accustomed to various other mediums to engage with fiction content now, be it an OTT series or podcast, especially in the post-COVID-19 world. Hence, fiction titles have to often directly compete with such content readily available at one’s fingertips,” he points out.

Increase in demand for self-help, business and aspirational books

Just as the wellness and self-help categories have acquired renewed interest across the spectrum, an appetite for books in the genre has also seen a rise. Go to a local bookstore or browse online and you will find the aforementioned categories replete with books by everyone from Bollywood celebrities to your favourite Indian chef and the corporate honcho of a Fortune 500 company. “Today, readers have the benefit of books based within the Indian context, using local references–especially in the case of self-help books and management books. We no longer have to rely on case studies of corporate environments which are not familiar or applicable in India,” says Kapoor.

Public relations expert Srimoyi Bhattacharya released her debut non-fiction book Pitch Perfect: How to Create a Brand People Cannot Stop Talking About in December last year that has curried favour with a lot of her industry, amongst whom are many younger professionals who have used the book as reference to navigate the waters themselves. “I wrote the book because the content was authentic to my lived experience and I think that helps readers use it as reference material for their own businesses. And I think that is the allure of non-fiction in today’s world–someone’s memoir or research helps another in their life,” she tells me. This possibly contributes towards even the pandemic having not changed India’s reading patterns much.

Gupta–who had taken on the now-famous The Heartfulness Way by Kamlesh D. Patel and Joshua Pollock that talks about heart-based meditation, when nobody else would–also represents the International Booker Prize-winning Daisy Rockwell. “Fiction by big names such as Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh and now, even Geetanjali’s [Shree’s] Tomb of Sand, are big. Otherwise, I haven’t seen much change in the interest it generates,” he adds.

Literary prizes and festivals

While the interest in non-fiction is a given, Gupta also credits the dwindling interest in Indian fiction to the lack of an ecosystem comprising things such as not many book awards and influential book clubs. Meanwhile, it turns out that literary festivals are more subject-driven in their programming than being guided by the fiction-versus-non-fiction debate. “Typically, 60 per cent of our programming is based on non-fiction, as much of our focus has also been on the sciences and the innovation, as well as on things such as climate change and gender. Most writing on these topics today is available in the academic and non-academic spheres, but both in the non-fiction space,” says Sanjoy Roy, managing director of Teamwork Arts that organises the annual Jaipur Literature Festival. While fiction, poetry and theatre are an aspect of their programming, the festival draws up their sessions based on broader topics than genres.

Though Indian literary prizes such as the JCB Prize and the Crossword Book Award help in boosting the region’s fiction sales, there is a glaring gap when it comes to other subsidiaries that exist, say, in America, in the form of reading lists released by the likes of Barack Obama or book clubs by Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon.

Balancing the tilt

But the good news is that the publishing industry continues to be on the lookout for a good book, irrespective of the genre. “We will always be on the lookout for the best stories being told, both in the English language and those we can bring into English from other languages. And certainly, the disparity in the sale figures of non-fiction and literary fiction titles has never discouraged us from doing so,” reaffirms Elizabeth Kuruvilla, executive editor, Penguin Random House India. “Sometimes the writing style can just draw you in, make you cancel all your plans and read the whole book in one sitting. That is what we look for,” adds Tarini Uppal, commissioning editor, Penguin Random House India.

Ghosh, on the other hand, also points out how both the medium of sale and the medium of consumption could help the cause of fiction. “Brick-and-mortar bookstores play a key role when it comes to the popularity of all kinds of books, but especially fiction when written by authors who aren't well-known yet. Audiobooks are slowly gaining importance in India, and that'll be critical in selling more fiction titles because the creative possibilities are going to be endless,” he shares.

But in the case of the reading order continuing its tilt towards non-fiction, there isn’t much to be disheartened about because as long as the world is reading, it will continue to be a better place. And as Kapoor puts it: “Why does the market need to be balanced? Readers will find the books they want to read. At this point, we should be talking about how to expand the market, how to publish diverse voices, to inculcate reading among children and to grow readership.”

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