(N Nagarajan)
Most of the British-era companies have either closed or changed hands. If we take new India, Startup India and Make in India are buzzwords now. When it comes to British-era companies even though the fundamentals were strong it was not sustained, and mismanagement led to closure or change of hands. When it comes to startups, the idea was good but poor fundamentals led many of them to fold up or pass it on to big companies.
Many of us who have studied in schools and then in colleges grew up studying books prescribed by schools and Universities rarely know who has published those books as Publishing in India was never taken seriously unlike films which have managed to get status of Industry which has helped to approach financial institutions that have helped it churn out moves good as well as trash copied from holly wood. When it comes to Book Publishing has a very long history in India it was during British rule, many several century-old publishing houses managed to enter India with Education in English. Of some best Publishing houses that entered India, Longman Green & Co UK was one of them whose origin in India dates back to 1895 when the 171-year-old Publisher landed via sea in Mumbai (Bombay then) to establish their office in the city that never sleeps followed by offices in Kolkatta (Calcutta then) and Chennai (Madras then). The beginning was a bit tough for them as most of the Books authored by the British were sold. Soon after our Independence, Longman managed to form an Indian entity named Orient Longman Limited on 7 January 1948 headquartered in Kolkatta at 17 Chittaranjan Avenue where the present Regional Office continues to function. When the Indian company was established with a majority stake in British hands, they managed to get stalwarts like Dr Zakhir Hussain (who later became President of India), Sir Dharam Vira Indian Civil Servant (ICS) who later went on to become Cabinet Secretary and served as governor of Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, and Karnataka before that he also worked closely with India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru. Over some time Company continued to have board members like Sardar Khushwant Singh, Apa Pant, Gandhian Patwardhans, former Indian President’s son Dr. S Gopal, historian Dr. Romila Thpar, Gandhian Ganga Sharan Singh (Sinha) to name a few. In the initial stages, the Indian entity did publish a few Indian school and college textbooks by Indian authors, most of the others were either imported or reprinted under license for supply to schools and colleges in India. Of course, some books turned out to be classics like “Making of Indian Constitution by Sir B N Rau, and Abul Kalam Azad: India Wins Freedom which has sold more than a million copies, and a few others. When the writer joined the company in 1976 in their headquarters by which time it moved from Kolkatta to Delhi, the company was in “RED”, but was under the Chairmanship of lifelong Gandhian and Congress leader Raja Rameshwar Rao. It was during his tenure from around the mid-1960s, he began the process of Indianising the books both for school and college students. Even before the present vocal call for locals, he managed to pursue the last descendent of the Longman Family Mark Longman to understand the ground reality to make the company truly Indian, who finally agreed to further dilute the holding in favor of Raja Rameshwar Rao whose zeal for making India was well understood by Mark Longman. So it was the real beginning of Orient Longman as an Indian company. Raja Rameshwar Rao managed to bring in some passionate individuals interested in books to bring about desired changes. With the implementation Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), Longman’s Interest in India slowly started fading which was turned into an opportunity by the Indian Chairman, and the first serious beginning was made by him bringing in experts to develop English Language Teaching content suitable for Indian school students under the banner “Gulmohar Graded English Course” a series containing 8 books of which first few grades were published in 1974 and turned out to be Golden Goose for the company as it would enter 50th year in 2024 another landmark in the Indian school textbook publishing.
What began as the Indianisation of school textbooks was also extended to higher academic books in Engineering & Technology, Medical, Social Science, and General books on contemporary subjects. It was this change that also gave another landmark title “WINGS OF FIRE” the autobiography of late President Dr. Abdul Kalam which continue to remain one of the best sellers even now not only in English but Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, etc.
Though the company stopped the import of books in the early 1990s, the parent company continued to hold 30+% shares in the Indian company and continued to earn dividends without much tangible contribution from their side. Thanks to the opening up of the Economy and easing of foreign direct investment, Longman which later came under Pearson group was keen to enter the Indian school market they saw Orient Longman as a hurdle for their growth and filed a case against the use of the registered trade mark “Longman” in mid-2000 in UK court without realizing it is a trade mark registered in India belongs to Orient Longman a company registered in India. In an out-of-court settlement, Pearson agreed to give up its 33% shareholding free of cost and compensation worth more million pounds to give up the name Longman. It was in 2008 the company was reborn from “Orient Longman” as “Orient BlackSwan”.
During his long association from 1976 until 2016, the writer has seen its ups and downs with many firsts like the establishment of the Cartography Divison, Examination, and Teacher Development which even now continues as an online program. In 1976 the company that was in “Red” when the writer left in 2016 saw its sales inching towards Rs.300 cr due to its strong fundamentals and relationship with a large number of authors. Thanks to the pandemic followed by the lockdown, like all other businesses the publishers including OBS witnessed a huge setback with the closure of educational institutions. Even in such a scenario, the company managed to take care of the staff without a huge salary or staff reduction under the stewardship of Rameshwar Rao’s family members Mr. Krishshnadev Rao and Dr. Nandini Rao who are still carrying forward the legacy.
Publishing in India has no status to seek finance from the financial institution Publishing house like Orient BlackSwan has managed to survive because of not giving up their fundamentals of business such as sales without collection is zero sales, not buying turnover by offering which they can’t afford and not involving in pricing and discount war instead focusing of quality of their books. Last heard OBS has managed to reach the pre-pandemic level as they start their 75th year on 7 January. A line “And may the Black Swan Never Pale” from a prayer note of a small Longman’s booklet “Three Centuries of Publishing Tradition” is worth quoting to end this brief history.
