Acclaimed novelist’s technology critique ignores publishing realities and excludes potential readers

The 14th Dibrugarh Book Fair, which opened this weekend with nearly 100 exhibitors, should have celebrated literature’s expanding reach.

Instead, inaugural speaker Anuradha Sharma Pujari framed technology as literature’s adversary – a stance increasingly out of step with contemporary publishing practice across South Asia.

The Old Guard’s Persistent Technology Luddism

Pujari’s assertion that “technology has hindered both the human heart and mind” and her claim that “technology does not facilitate thinking, but books do” echo a familiar elitism.

This perspective, common among influential literary figures in the region, fetishises the physical object while ignoring that the printing press, binding machines, and distribution networks are themselves technologies.

It also overlooks how digital formats democratise access – particularly in India, where audiobooks could reach millions who remain functionally illiterate.

The contradiction is stark: Pujari’s print titles sell on Amazon India, a platform powered by the very technology she decries. Her absence from digital formats appears deliberate rather than commercial.

A Regional Pattern of Exclusionary Thinking

This is not an isolated incident. Across South Asia, establishment literary figures have resisted digital evolution, often romanticising print while benefitting from technological distribution.

Numerous surveys suggest Indians prefer print, and likely they do, but a) this represents choice – not a case against digital formats as complementary channels, and b) I use the word “choice” hesitantly, because as we see with Pujari herself, if print is the only option, where exactly is the choice?

For publishers, refusing digital distribution means abandoning younger, tech-savvy demographics and readers with visual impairments or limited physical access to bookshops, not to mention folk who simply prefer ebooks and audiobooks.

Publishing Professionals Must Challenge This Narrative

Pujari’s claim that “by reading each book, a reader attains a new life” becomes problematic when her philosophy denies that life to those who cannot access print.

Her investment metaphor – knowledge accumulating like bank interest -reveals a transactional view of reading that dismisses fiction and fantasy where knowledge accrues differently, if at all.

The publishing industry cannot afford such romanticised gatekeeping. Digital formats, audiobooks, and online retail are not corruptions but extensions of Gutenberg’s legacy. They represent publishing’s best opportunity to reach India’s 1.4 billion potential readers.

Professionals must recognise these anti-technology pronouncements for what they are: privileged nostalgia that limits market growth and excludes the very audiences publishers should be cultivating.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.