All art forms confront the onslaughts of prying eyes and illegal predators to lift bits and pieces from here and there and piece it with something, somewhere else. Barely a fortnight after the 33rd International Kolkata Book Fair, the cultural wing of the Publishers & Booksellers’ Guild of world’s one of the largest book fests stands face-to-face with the issue.

“There’s unarguably a wide market of booklovers to be tapped and catered to. But we are ignorant about the basic dynamics of a book market. Barring the publishing houses, where are the agents at the book fair ground? What steps are we taking to protect the copyright issues of an author? How are we tackling the menace of plagiarism? We never even lend a thought to adopt strict measures in containing the crime of rampant literary rip-offs,” rues Kalyan Shah, the general secretary of the Consortium for Books and Culture, India.

While the guild formulates plans and strategies to oversee the commercial aspects of the fair, the consortium on the other hand wishes to execute the cultural affairs of the world’s one of the enormous book fests. From hosting inter-state cultural exchanges and forum discussions to maintaining a database of translators, editors and right experts, the consortium is eager to put a special emphasis on its interaction with the northeast “seven sisters” zone, by drafting in a horde of publishers from Orissa, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Bihar and Assam. The seven sisters of this belt will have to be co-ordinated with the mainstream culture. The publishing associates of these eastern states, besides West Bengal, will be contacted for the purpose of this cultural integration.

While the consortium unanimously feels that the verbal versions of the folk tales and folk literature should be brought and popularised through publications, the 14-member coterie has also decided to involve themselves to promote books and culture nationally and internationally.

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