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Indian Thought Publications

Overview

Indian Thought Publications is an Indian publishing company best known as the principal publisher of the works of the English-language novelist R. K. Narayan. The firm has long been associated with the imprint that brought Narayan's Malgudi novels and short story collections to readers in India.

Key facts

Name Indian Thought Publications
Type Publishing company
Country India
Notable association R. K. Narayan

Background

Indian Thought Publications was established by the writer R. K. Narayan, who used the imprint to publish and reissue his own fiction and selected non-fiction. The press emerged from Narayan's earlier venture, Indian Thought, a literary journal he had attempted to launch in the 1940s. After the journal did not sustain itself, the name was retained for the book-publishing operation.

Through this imprint, several of Narayan's titles set in the fictional town of Malgudi — including novels and story collections — were issued in Indian editions, often alongside international editions brought out by publishers in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Significance

The imprint occupies a small but distinctive place in the history of Indian English publishing. By controlling the Indian rights to his own work, Narayan ensured continued availability of his books within India, particularly during decades when foreign editions of Indian English fiction were not always easily accessible to local readers. After Narayan's death in 2001, the imprint continued under the stewardship of his family, keeping his catalogue in print.

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