Youth seeks spirituality in books

A reflection of our society’s changing relationship with spirituality and religion is being seen at this year’s Delhi Book Fair as well. Stalls selling books on world religi­o­ns, their history, teachings and spiritual leaders are dotting the fair. What’s more, publishers say that young readers are buying them more.

Lucknow-based Darul-Uloom-Deoband is participating in the Fair for the first time. A regular at DBF –She­i­kh Mubarak Ali from Pakistan is here with books on Islam. Other exhibitors of religious and spiritual literature incl­u­de: Urdu Academy, Madhur Sandesh, Geetapress Gorakhpur, International Goudiya Vedanta Trust, Vivekanand Yog­a­s­h­r­am, Ramakrishna Mission, Chinmaya Mission, Buddha Light Art and Living, Sai Baba Educational Trust, Kabir Gyan Prakashan, Osho Darshan and even Religious Foundation of Scientology.

These are, of course, only some of the publishers selling religious literature exclusively. Almost all other stalls have devoted a section to religious literature too.
Shakti Malik, director Delhi Book Fair, explains, “There has been a notable rise in the number of such exhibitors in the past few years. What is exciting is that readers in the under-35 age group are also taking interest. While 70 per cent browse through, at least 30 per cent are purchasing them.”

“I feel it is a result of our fast-paced, cosmopolitan lives today that the youth is forced to look inwards to search for values, guidelines and solace in religion. Worldwide too, the struggle between religions has resulted in people wanting to know about faiths other than their own.”

Exhibitors couldn’t agree more. Mohd. Faizan of Darul-Uloom-Deoband says, “Our copies of Quran, biographies of Prophet Muhammad, books on Islamic history, fatwas, the place of women in Islam etc. are selling very well. Other than Muslims, a lot of non-Muslims are also buying them. As a result we had to order in translations in English and Hindi, though, initially, we had books only in Urdu, Arabic and Persian only.”
At Geetapress Gorakhpur Prakashan, the exhibitors are surprised at the surge in demand for Shiv Puran. Ram Murat Singh, manager here, says,

“We have had to bring in more copies from Gorakhpur. We also ordered more copies of Bhagwad Gita, the Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayan and Mahabharat are also selling. The youth is more into pocket-size copies of Geeta, Hanuman Chalisa and Durga
Chalisa.”

At Osho Darshan, books on meditation are flying off the shelves. CDs are doing even better. Stall manager Durgesh Kumar says, “There is no subject that Osho has not touched upon – religions, spiritual leaders, emergent socio-political topics etc. Books concerning youth like Bharat ke jalte prashn; Shiksha mein kranti; Nari aur kranti and Sambhog se Samadhi on meditation are being especially favoured by the young.”

Evidently, young readers are taking to these books to evade certain problems and finding answers to the rest. A young man at the Osho stall, who didn’t wish to be named, says, “I lost my job during recession. That is when I took to reading spiritual books and it helped me cope with the situation. Today, I am in a good job but whenever I am stressed, I come back to these books. They are a lifeline now.”