By IB Arena
Introduction
India has a diverse cultural and social heritage, thriving on principles that include both modern and traditional outlooks of 1.2 billion people, who speak about 110 different languages and thousands of dialects. Books play an important role in meeting the literary and educational needs of the world’s second-most-populated country and in maintaining the rich and varied cultural and social traditions of India.
English has the status of an official language in India, with approximately 270 million speakers. As a result, a major part of the Indian book trade comprises English fiction and non-fiction books. In this article, I will outline the various options available for buying English books in India.
Until recently, bookstores and shops were highly disorganized in India, with a few exceptions. Most of the Indian population depended on the local bookshop or local hawkers for buying books. These local bookshops and hawkers depended on wholesalers and publishers for acquiring books, as a result of which their scope and titles were limited to very few.
Another big hindrance for the proliferation of bookstores in India was that the costs of books were high compared to the per capita income of the general Indian household. (This condition often led to piracy of famous book titles.) As a result, bookstores in India were limited to selling relatively cheap educational books, mostly in local languages.
But with rising literacy among the Indian people, improvement in economic conditions, the emphasis of English as the major international language, and the popularity of English language fiction books, many book chains have now entered the Indian market, increasing their emphasis on English titles, and stocking a wide and popular range of books. The entry into the market of these book chains has, in turn, forced existing book stores in India to reorganize themselves in order to cater for the needs of a larger Indian book-buying population.
1. Railway Stations
Railway is considered the lifeline of the Indian subcontinent. Hundreds of millions of people catch trains in India every day. Sometimes, a journey might take more than a day, which means many passengers rely on books as a way to pass the time.
Due to the high demand, railway stations have for a long time served as a popular place from which the Indian booklover purchases books. As well as regular hawkers, who acquire the books from local distributors and then sell the books at the station, AH Wheeler & Co, a bookstore chain, has dominated the railway scene in India for almost a century.
AH Wheeler & Co
AH Wheeler & Co was formed by Arthur Henry Wheeler with Emile Edouard Moreau in 1879 to meet the needs of passengers in the growing Indian railway network. It is easy to find an AH Wheeler & Co bookstore chain today, due to its formidable presence at almost every major Indian railway station. The bookstore offers a wide selection of books from various genres. The company still has as its main purpose the selling of English books at the Indian railway stations and has more than 60 titles on learning English.
2. Bookstore Chains
Many business conglomerates and bookstores sensing the growing demand for books in India have created bookstore chains, by opening shops in various locations all over the country, with a wide range of books. These bookstore chains are essentially located in the shopping malls and high footfall areas in the major cities of the country, dealing mostly in English language books.
(a) HigginBotham’s Pvt Ltd
HigginBotham’s Pvt Ltd is a highly popular bookstore chain in India, with its flagship store located in Mount Road, Chennai. Considered the oldest bookstore chain in India, it has an overwhelming presence in the southern Indian States, with more than 22 outlets.
The main bookstore, which used to be known as Weslyan Book Shop, got its present name from Abel Higginbotham, who bought the bookshop in 1840. The bookstore chain since then has won many distinctions and accolades for the quality and range of books it sells. The store has a wide range of titles, including many books on learning and teaching English.
(b) Crossword Bookstores
http://www.crosswordbookstores.com/
Crossword Bookstores has a chain of about 54 stores located across 11 cities, including at airports and hotels. Crossword Bookstores is the fastest growing chain of bookstores in India. Crossword Bookstores makes an effort to differentiate itself from the traditional bookstores by infusing modern technology and designs at its stores. The company also offers an option to buy books directly from the Internet through its web portal. The bookstore chain, owing to its diverse nature and modern outlook, has a huge collection of books on learning English.
(c) Landmark Bookshops
http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/
Landmark Bookshops is a bookstore chain that started in 1987 at Chennai. The bookstore chain has now spread to more than 17 locations, including hotel bookstores and airport bookstores. Landmark Bookshops also maintains an online bookshop that stocks most titles available in the Indian market, including learning English books.
(d) Oxford Bookstores
http://www.oxfordbookstore.com/
Established in 1920, Oxford Bookstore Company is one of the oldest bookstore companies still functioning in India. The company has no link with Oxford University Press. Over the years, Oxford Bookstores has positioned itself in the market by attracting crowds to three types of chain stores — namely, “express”, “junior”, and “uber”, depending on the type and location of the bookstore and range of books available. The bookstore chain has more than 24 bookstores located in 15 cities across India with almost every store offering books on learning English.
(e) Odyssey Bookstores
http://www.odyssey.in/
Odyssey Bookstores is a chain of 56 bookstores located in 13 cities across India, headquartered in Chennai. An admirable feature of this Indian bookstore is its separate Online Bookstore http://www.odyssey360.com/, which offers exclusive deals and access to a wide variety of books, including books on learning and improving English.
3. Online Bookstores
The Internet has eased our life to an extent that we no longer have to travel all the way to a bookstore to purchase a new book. Instead, we can order a copy of the book from the Internet to be delivered at our doorstep or buy an e-version of our favorite book. Similar to other western countries, India has many online bookstores that offer the facility of buying books at our fingertips.
(a) Pustak
http://www.pustak.co.in
Pustak has more than 12 million books to search from. Pustak offers a powerful search engine. Pustak sells both ebooks and hard copy books.
(b) Flipkart
http://www.flipkart.com
Flipkart is a fine web-based bookshop that, as well as its large catalogue of books, also offers free delivery of books within India.
(c) Bookshopofindia
http://www.bookshopofindia.com
The bookshopofindia has been designed to make it simpler and easier for a person to select a book according to their topic. The online shop has a useful index of subjects. Bookshopofindia has been selling books online since 2004.
(d) Simplybooks
http://www.simplybooks.in
Simplybooks is another Indian online bookstore that offers discounts on most books, with a nominal delivery charge for delivery anywhere in India and abroad. The bookshop has an excellent team that can assist you buy a book over the phone or online.
4. Convenience Stores
Convenience stores have emerged as a suitable location for book buyers in India while they shop for other items, such as groceries, household items, electronic goods, and clothes. The concept of the convenience store, though relatively new to India, has catapulted its way into the hearts of the Indian people by offering almost every retail service under a single roof.
Few superstore chains that have created a niche in the field of selling English books are Future Group’s Pantaloons & Big Bazaar, Reliance Retails, and Spencer’s. These convenience stores have an extensive presence all over India in almost every city and town. But unlike the specialized bookstore chains, the titles here are limited to the bestselling books, and in limited numbers. Most of the books in the convenience stores are books relating to learning English, since the consumers that visit convenience stores are not limited to booklovers.