Mohiuddin Ahmed, managing director of University Press Limited tells Turaj Ahmad about the need to produce good editors in order to come out of the stereotypical plagiarised story patterns

UPL has played a landmark role in publishing books in English. How has the journey been so far?

   The approach I have adopted has always been that of publishing by choice. We have not solely published English books but also books in Bangla featuring essays, political history, politics, and literature. I have been trained in the fields of academic and scholarly works in English as well as on publishing educational books and have always tried to utilise my expertise by publishing material that bear relevance to Bangladesh. As a result, most of our books have been in English with the ‘thrust’ as we say or the main emphasis of our published books being on subjects such as the environment, agriculture, gender issues as well as development economics for which in some cases, we have presented some of the pertinent points put forth in support of Bangladesh by speakers at debates conducted by institutions such as the World Bank. Sixty per cent of the books that our list comprises of today are academic, discussing the breakthroughs on knowledge that is being taught while the remainder consists of scholarly works, based on research emphasising upon the output of scholarship.

   Initially, I was probably alone in the field of publishing such materials although other institutions such as BIDS and the World Bank were also coming up with a few publications of their own. Publishing in English requires a greater amount of input as we have to strive towards maintaining international standards and as such, UPL has been one of the best third world country publishers both for our quality as well as our editorials. Before publishing, we send the manuscripts over for peer reviews and we go strictly by the evaluation of the peer group in furthering our proceedings. Our in house editors then check up on the facts and figures presented to ensure that they are not erroneous. Our Bangla publications follow the same procedure. We have also provided some of our best writers in Bangla with the opportunity to be translated so that non bangla speakers can have access to their work.

   UPL are the first publishers to export books from Bangladesh and our books are also prescribed in Ivy League schools in the US, who use it as course material or include some in their reading lists. Our books are being used for lobbying by foreign officials while we have also entered an arrangement to supply books on South Asia. We have imported books for English medium schools and in some cases, taken permission from others to publish some materials.

   Do you feel that there is a lack of English publishers in the market today?

   Currently, there are about six to ten publishers as well as individuals who are publishing in English. I feel we have a good crop in that regard. However, what should worry people is not the quantity but the quality of the material that is being published in terms of it being well edited or not. We need competent editing and this is not an area English departments pay much attention to. Badly edited works are likely to bring a bad name to the country. The quality of the translations is also a cause for concern and we need to train better translators as there seems to be a lack of good quality translators in Bangladesh.

   A lot of the books published have been written by bureaucrats and people of a certain age. Why have we not seen young fiction writers in English come through?

   If you look around, you will find that there are a lot of young fiction writers coming through. For instance in the newspapers and weeklies, the average age of the writers is unlikely to exceed 45 years, which indicates that a lot of young people are writing and getting their works published. As for the bureaucrats writing in these days, I would say that it is a historic feat as they certainly have a better grasp of English now and in some cases, of both English and Bangla. Their writings also point to their apparent knack of reading which can only make for a more informed and sound piece of writing. On the other hand, the post-editorial articles or short stories published in Bangla are nothing short of pathetic in most cases. It is indicative of the fact that writers are not reading enough and I am perturbed by that. Writers must have global awareness, they must read foreign literature and I would say that there are only a handful of writers doing it. As a result, the essays and stories are stereotypes or are plagiarised. Our media seems to be thriving on plagiarism and only on a few occasions are the real authors acknowledged. All this leads to the question, does the editor actually edit? It again underscores the need to try and produce good editors.

   How has the absence of effective copyright laws affected publishers and UPL in particular?

   A copyright law is there while a taskforce had also been formed to check piracy of intellectual property and implement copyright laws in the country. This, however, is not an up-to-date law and the failure of taskforce to remain active has seen piracy and plagiarism thrive in Bangladesh. The newspapers, publishers and printers alike have not been abiding by this law. Piracy, which is turning out to be quite the menace in Bangladesh, has affected us in our publishing of school books – which is a main revenue earning source. It has also affected other publishers and has been equally detrimental to the creativity of writers. We have raised the issue of the violation of copyright in a meeting with the information minister, Abul Kalam Azad while a monitoring team I am a part of, ends in two years time.

   How does the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela help the publishing industry?

   The most important thing about the fair is that people are passionate about it. It provides the middle class with an opportunity to enjoy free speech. It has gradually evolved from a week long discussion circle with hardly eight to ten people involved to becoming such a large scale event with not enough space to accommodate the ever-increasing number of stalls. The idea was to make people book minded and to discuss the various departments in Bangla literature in the premises of the Bangla Academy with the Ekushey Chetona – a feeling of freedom and no censorship – being the theme at the helm. My approach to it is that it should be the platform where we display the state of the art work of publishers. My concern is however, regarding the quality of the books. Firstly, have the resourceful publications contributed to the production of good books? I leave that to the literary people to decide. Also, someone should define what the Ekushey Chetona is. We are now seeing some publishers wait till the time of the fair, to publish books. I personally would like to compete for and to publish a better book, with more emphasis on good editing.

   On a personal level, you have made many sacrifices to take over at UPL. Do you feel it has been a rewarding endeavour after all these years?

   I am a very happy person and I see no reason to not be. I have been in a profession that has given me the tremendous opportunity to publish freely. However, we still have to go very far. UPL is a comparatively small organisation and in some sense, I would like for it to remain small. Even if there was more money, we would not have the expertise to cope with the expansion of resources.

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