Book Boom: Why is there a publishing explosion on Modi's life and vision?

Publishers say Modi is becoming a contemporary political persona like Nehru which explains the growing literature on Modi's life

Even as former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to PM Narendra Modi to refrain from tinkering with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), a silent transformation of sorts, inconceivable during the Congress rule, is underway at the historic library located in Lutyens Delhi’s Teen Murti road.

An analysis of the Nehru Memorial Library’s catalogue by Business Standard shows that there are at least 81 books on India’s present PM, Narendra Damodardas Modi, excluding compilations of his fortnightly Mann Ki Baat radio programme. And it’s not just the Nehru Library. India’s official library of record, the National Library in Kolkata has over 55 books on Modi – and at least 30 of them unique titles not found at the Nehru Library. Many of the books at the National Library of India are in Assamese, Bengali and translations of English books in these languages. With most of them published after 2014, these are impressive figures for India’s PM who has close to 150 books written on his life, achievements, vision and literary achievements. And these are unofficial estimates since no conclusive study has been done on the volume of literature produced on him after he became India’s PM.

“Love him or hate him. There is no denying the fact that the wave in the country is about Modi. Everyone wants a piece of the Modi pie. Publicity is one of the key agendas behind this book boom. Modi is keen and is doing it the right way. All these books build into a public image of Modi – that the intellectual is the new sexy,” says Arunima Roy, consulting editor, Asian Literary Review.

“Every political party has a machinery for promoting leaders. Either you can name airports or roads after them or write books on them. In his times, Nehru was also very popular; there were poems and books written on him and he was referred to as ‘Chacha Nehru’. What is happening now is something similar and Modi is a contemporary persona who fits that bill. It’s a combination of both these factors that is driving the increasing number of books on Modi,” explains Prasun Chatterjee, editorial director of Pan Macmillan India.

In particular, the boom in the books on Modi in public institutions is an aberration for the Nehru Memorial Library, where non-Gandhi family leaders usually get little shelf space. Former Congress PM P V Narasimha Rao, for instance, who served a full five-year term from 1991 to 1996, has just about 30 books on his life, times and achievements in the catalogues of the Nehru Memorial Library. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of BJP’s tallest leaders who died on August 16 this year and served as India’s PM thrice, including a full five-year term from 1998 to 2004, is probably the only non-Gandhi family PM who has more books on his life than Modi.

“We are emphasising all aspects of modern history of India and publications on lives of all PMs of the country should be part of our library. All books that come to our library have to be approved by the members of the Library Committee. This approval is necessary for every book – whether it is on PM Modi or on any other PM,” says Ajit Kumar, chief librarian of the Nehru Memorial Library.

An overwhelming majority of the books – at least 51 of them are about Modi's life, struggles, achievements, vision, philosophy, leadership and his persona as a transformational leader of India. At least 18 books are on Modi’s foreign policy and the ‘Modi doctrine’ that capture his foreign policy achievements, security triumphs and accomplishments during his numerous international visits. At least five books deal with politics, elections and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) transformation into an election-winning machine under Modi’s leadership. Then there are a handful of books that deal with issues like Hindu activism and the opinion of Muslims of Gujarat. Quite naturally, there are thousands of books on India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, including many of Nehru’s own works. There are hundreds of books on former PMs Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi in the Nehru Memorial Library.

Two aspects catch the eye as you browse through the books on Modi in Nehru Memorial Library. Only three of these books were published before 2014. These include Narendra Modi – The Architect Of A Modern State and Vikas Shilpi – Narendra Modi by journalist and former Prasar Bharati chairman M V Kamath, who died in 2014. Another one, Narendra Modi – The Man, The Times written by Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay was published in 2013. It is not clear when these books were inducted in the library. Another aspect that catches the eye is the sheer dominance of books on Modi’s personal life and achievements during his four-year tenure as India’s most powerful leader. An overwhelming majority of the books are biographies, most of them published from 2015 to 2017.

Books in the Nehru Memorial Library published in 2015 include 21 Leadership Lessons from Narendra Modi by Vijay Jindal, Game Changer Narendra Modi: Yug Pravartak by Sudesh Verma, Prime Minister Narendra Modi: A Transformational Leader by S K Mehra, Modi: Common man's PM by Kishor Makwana, Narendra Modi: The son of soil by S C Pipal and Being Modi by Paavani Sinha. The number of books in the Nehru Memorial Library on Modi’s life increased substantially the following year as more biographies and material regarding his achievements in office began to be published. In fact a lot more books on Modi in the Hindi language were published and subsequently kept in the library. Among Hindi language books published in 2016 that can now be found in the Nehru Memorial Library include Narendra Modi Ka Sarvodaya Darshan by Manoj Chaturvedi, Modi ka Vikasnaama by Sarvanan and Brand Modi ka tilism: Badlav ki banagi by Dharmendra Singh.

But it was 2017 when books on India’s PM started flooding the Indian market and subsequently found their way in the Nehru Memorial Library as well. A look at the catalogue shows that almost a third of all books were published in 2017. Among these, the one that catches the eye is India @70: Capturing India's Transformation Under Narendra Modi edited by Bibek Debroy, chairman of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC), and Ashok Malik, press secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind. In 2018, the Nehru Memorial Library has received five books, the most prominent of which is written by BJP Vice-President Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and is titled Innovation Republic: Governance innovations in India under Narendra Modi.

In addition to Modi’s personal life, a significant attention in Nehru Memorial Library is also being paid to his world view. In a short span of four years as the country’s PM, there are already several books that cover the ‘Modi doctrine’ and Modi’s foreign policy. Some of the prominent books on this subject include Modi doctrine: New Paradigms In India's Foreign Policy by Anirban Ganguly, Securing India The Modi way: Pathankot, Surgical Strikes & More by former television journalist Nitin Gokhale and Modi's world - Expanding India's Sphere of Influence by columnist C Raja Mohan. The Nehru Memorial Museum & Library is funded by taxpayers’ money and operates as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture. While its aim was primarily to keep the memory of India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru alive, the Modi government wants the museum to be more inclusive and acknowledge the achievements of other PMs in building India as well.

In India’s official library of record, the Kolkata-based National Library, there are numerous books on Modi – most of them published after 2014. The new history of an uprising: How a tea seller became India’s PM by Assamese author Hemanta Kumar Bharali and some in Hindi like Mahanayak Narendra Modi by Pankaj Kumar are some that are not present in the Nehru Memorial Library. There are many books in the Kolkata-based library written by Modi himself. These include Jyotipunj, Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat, Samajikta Samarsata, Abode of Love and Aapatkaal Mein Gujarat.

“Modi is an attractive orator which makes him interesting to people. This is the prime factor that makes him an attractive proposition for publishers”, adds Prasun Chatterjee. “There is no set formula left in publishing anymore. The business now is not about prestige and money. It’s all about the money now. Anything that can rake in the money or make a publishing house famous will be published. And Modi is on a roll, so everyone wants to cash in. I’ve never seen a similar boom for a particular leader in the past,” adds Arunima Roy.