This year’s milling crowds at the BMICH for the Colombo International BookFair (CIBF) were even more of a phenomenon than in previous years. By all accounts, people had run short of extra petty cash. This was a direct result of rising costs in the midst of last year’s economic meltdown.
But the book fair showed no sign of losing the crowds. This went to show that Sri Lankans continue to cherish their love affair with books. This time it seems the authorities had to make some concessions such as providing free transportation from the suburban areas for those who wanted a ride.
Of course people had a problem with money, and that’s counting a majority of fair attendees. Did a lot of them consider the occasion a chance to browse, and no more? Probably not, considering that people walked out carrying loads of books in both hands in most cases. But either way, the event has for long been an indication that Sri Lankans are the reading type.
Does that reading and learning streak show up in their behaviour out on the streets and at the queues or at Government offices? If Sri Lankans are well read, their road manners aren’t an indication of it. Could it be that car drivers that constantly honk and make a din, all the while not respecting the right of way of others, are from a different cross section to those who formed the milling crowds at the International book fair?
POPULATE
None of this is to detract from the mammoth efforts of the Book Publishers Association (PBA) that is responsible for putting on the event each year. They have got used to expecting massive crowds, and for catering to them in various novel ways.
But from a sociological perspective, are they educating the boorish uneducated, or informing the already erudite? Maybe a bit of both. But it’s worth wondering why there is a mismatch between the apparent desire among the common man to be educated on the one hand, and behave badly on the streets on the other?
Perhaps there is a desire to worship the written word, or to be associated with the general pursuits of those who are thought to be learned. A great many of the worst traffic offenders on the streets are those who have a small figurine of a religious figure fixed atop the dashboard, come to think of it.
This shows that outward piety and making a show of being religiously inclined doesn’t necessarily go with being civic conscious and sensitive to the needs of others.
Things may be the same with at least some of those who want to be associated with the idea of reading books. They take pride in being the book reading type. But there is a sort of cognitive dissonance somewhere there. Maybe there should be more of a different type of book being sold in general and at the book fair. Books on say, spirituality or anger-management. It’s just a thought. By the way, judging by their behaviour in Parliament or elsewhere it’s moot to ask if some of those who populate those spaces read anything at all. But at least a great many of the MPs are at least somewhat educated.
It seems considering all of the above that the reading habit ought to be encouraged. But it’s not for the same reason that people keep milling at the gates of the book fair, or at least not necessarily for those reasons, perhaps.
People want books perhaps as a source of information. But books should also be a source for making men and women out of oversized children.
Books should be about learning empathy, and about tolerance, compassion and the art of self fulfillment tempered by the desire not to harm others. The last thing books should be, of course, is a source of misinformation for dubious causes.
That’s not to say that the books at the fair are of that category. An entire culture of inquiry has been woven around the chief activity at the CIBF, which is to exhibit and sell books.
There are active discussion forums and cultural events that have sprung up around the festival. People attend these side-events and continue the intellectual discussion at the food court that has sprung up at the event venue.
Or we think they do. But it’s just as possible that those who gawk at performing artistes and lecturing authors come back and discuss how they could best be aggressive behind the wheel on the ride back home. Just a thought, that too.
There is the other aspect in all of this, which is of people being too book learned, for the good of society or of themselves. But while ruminating on that, it’s noteworthy that the book fair is also a significant international event, with publishers from around the world participating.
The event is also a major platform for international publishers to enter the Sri Lankan market. In 2022, over 100 international publishers participated.
A children’s section with a wide range of books and activities for children of all ages, begs the question whether the book fair is primarily aspirational for patrons who want to educate their children.
Free education has seen to it that parents do consider education as the primary avenue for social mobility. In other words they feel if their children are educated, in turn at some point in their lives, they could climb a notch in the social ladder too.
It may seem to be a cynical calculation that’s antithetical to book learning and academic pursuits. But that’s part of the urgent contemporary trend of commodification of learning. Higher education is already more of a consumer item than a passage to a more tolerant and compassionate world.
The growing number of higher educational institutions are all about channeling the socially competitive instincts of parents to good effect. That observation is not entirely cynical, though. Young people feel left out and are most times, in fact left out of the larger job market if they do not possess the requisite paper qualifications.
Well, maybe there are other aspects of the CIBF that engender solid hope even though things have often to be viewed with at least a small dose of cynicism.
The fair has become undoubtedly, a major event in the Sri Lankan cultural calendar, which is in and of itself an achievement. It is a time, no doubt, for people to come together to celebrate their love of books and literature. May be the qualifier ‘some people’ is necessary there, in formulating that sentence.
VENERATION
It is also a time for Sri Lankan publishers to showcase their books while international publishers enter the Sri Lankan market. Well, that’s a transactional aspect, but it ought not to be ignored amidst all the talk of the intellectual and spiritual value of book learning, and reading.
After all the CIBF is a non-profit event. All proceeds from the fair go towards supporting the Sri Lankan Book Publishers’ Association and its programs, which includes of course the book fair.
The CIBF is a popular event for both young and old. In 2022, over 30 percent of visitors to the event were under the age of 18.It is also a popular event for families.
In 2022, over 50 percent of visitors to the fair came along with their immediate family members.
That means the culture of book reading is very much alive and would probably be very much alive into the future. Maybe in the near future more young people would do their reading on their kindle devices, but that will not do anything to dent the culture of book veneration.
The CIBF is a major economic-driver for Sri Lanka, and that’s a fact too. In 2022, the fair generated over $10 million in revenue for the Sri Lankan economy. On hearing that someone may want to add, now you are talking. They may say it’s not about books it’s about something else.
But that’s not cynicism. If at least there is an effort to put on the show, and there is more than an effort — considering the commendable exertions of organisers — there will undoubtedly be positive repercussions on society, though some of the cynicism that was alluded to in this article is not entirely unfounded.
