Desi Pulp fiction created generations of readers: Yashwant Vyas

By Arun Pratap Singh
my uttarakhand news Bureau 

DEHRADUN, 13 Dec: A very engaging discussion was held on the second day of the ongoing Crime Literature Festival of India, being hosted at Hotel Hyatt Centric in Dehradun, on the influence and history of pulp fiction, particularly in Hindi. The focal point of the discussion was a book authored by a very senior journalist and presently Consulting Group Editor with Amar Ujala, Yashwant Vyas. The book is titled Begumpur Se Daryaganj: Dastan-e Desi Pulp and is written in Hindi.

Participating in the discussion were author Yashwant Vyas himself, publisher Subodh Bharatiya, bookseller Randhir Arora of Book World, while the session was moderated by journalist Sanjiv Mishra, who has himself recently authored a book on mafia don Vikas Dubey’s encounter. Vyas, through his book, has perhaps for the first time in the country chronicled the history and present situation of so-called pulp literature in Hindi, and the book also mentions pulp literature in India published in English. The participants agreed that so-called Hindi pulp fiction had been unnecessarily discredited and looked down upon.

Vyas said that writers such as Gulshan Nanda, Surendra Mohan Pathak, Om Prakash Sharma, Ved Prakash Kamboj, Prem Vajpayee and Ranu wrote a very large number of books each, were immensely popular, and have even inspired many to write what is described as genuine serious literature. He added that he got the idea of chronicling the journey of Hindi pulp literature after discussions with writer Ved Prakash Kamboj. He also mentioned that his book refers to a Hindi pulp writer who was jailed in an alleged rape case which he did not commit, and who began writing books in jail. He later went on to become a popular pulp writer, churning out several spy thrillers under the name Parshuram Sharma. He actually belonged to Uttarakhand and his original name was Parshuram Mamgain.

Publisher Subodh Bharatiya stated that although after the advent of television, OTT platforms and mobile phones the popularity of Hindi pulp fiction did decline, as these books no longer remained the sole mode of entertainment for people, particularly those travelling by trains or buses, the genre did not die. It was this conviction and belief that led him to relaunch his father’s publication business, after which he went on to publish a large number of reprints of older writers. He said these books were even sold on Amazon, indicating that the popularity of such literature and its fan following still existed even after several decades.

 Randhir Arora mentioned a book authored by Surendra Mohan Pathak titled Painsath Lakh Ki Dakaiti, of which 25 lakh copies were sold across the country and abroad, an achievement unprecedented so far for any book in the world except religious texts such as the Bible, the Ramayana or the Gita. Arora further insisted that although new modes of entertainment arrived with technological advancement, the loyalty of readers of these books has endured and continues even today.

On this occasion, Vyas’s book was also formally released, while Vyas and Mishra announced that, along with the organisers of the Crime Literature Festival of India, they would be launching awards in every category of the crime genre, covering films, serials and books, both fiction and non-fiction, which would be an annual feature.