VILLUPURAM: A photograph sent a man travelling across five districts. He was looking for the face of communist leader Singaravelar, a picture he needed for the wrapper of a book. Back in the 80s, there was no Google to search, no archive to open on a screen, no WhatsApp group to ask for help. There were only people to meet, places to visit and leads to chase.
The photograph was eventually found. The book was published. And the man who went looking for that one image would spend the next four decades doing much the same thing: overcoming one obstacle after another to put books into the hands of readers.
Today, at 76, S Chandrasekharan has published around 40 titles, covering politics, caste, communism, Periyar, fiction and poetry. He built the publishing venture alongside a career in government colleges and banking, poured his savings into books and once sold them through letters and money orders. For him, publishing was not a business that happened to carry an ideology. The ideology was the reason he published.
An ardent reader, Chandrasekharan began publishing in 1988, largely because of his close friend, writer and Marxist scholar Ko Kesavan who had faced rejection from popular Tamil publications for his research on Marxism and left-wing politics. The experience deeply affected Chandrasekharan, who decided to create a platform where such work could find a place. Naming the venture after his sons, he started Saravana Balu Publications and initially focused on bringing out Kesavan’s work.
“Kesavan was the only reason why I started this venture. I even built two rooms in my house for him and other friends to stay and write. Similarly, I also introduced writer Rajendra Cholan alias Ashwagosh, another prominent writer,” he said. Ashwagosh went on to win the Sahitya Akademi Award for translation.
In the pre-internet era, reaching readers was another challenge. Chandrasekharan would write to them individually whenever a new book was released. “I used to write a brief note about the new book – its content and context, about the author along with the need for the book. I would print them in inland letters bought from the post office and send them to my readers’ addresses. They would then send money through money order and I would mail the book to them,” he said.
The effort, he said, was worthwhile because books were not merely a source of entertainment. They could introduce progressive ideas and influence people’s ambitions, family structures and their understanding of society. Even in his seventies, Chandrasekharan remains a strong supporter of socialism and communism despite the consumer culture surrounding society.
His love for books began in his childhood. His parents sent him to a government school and encouraged his education. As a teenager, he began reading Tamil magazines, though getting hold of them was difficult in his remote village.
“There were no shops that used to sell magazines in remote villages like mine. So, I would reach out to bus drivers from my village who plied between Thuraiyur, Tiruchy and my village,” he said. He would give the drivers a few pennies to buy for him magazines from town.
His decision to concentrate on political works at a time when fiction dominated Tamil literature was rooted in his association with the Revolutionary Cultural Movement (Puratchi Panpattu Iyakkam). He believed books addressing caste, discrimination and atrocities were necessary at a time when speaking against such issues could itself be viewed as a challenge to social norms.
Publishing continued alongside his career. Chandrasekharan began as a librarian at government arts colleges in Kumbakonam, Villupuram, Vridhachalam, Chennai, Dharmapuri and Tiruchy before moving to banking. He retired as a bank manager in 2010. He used Provident Fund and arrear amounts to print books, while his wife, a schoolteacher, contributed to the family’s finances. “My wife was a school teacher. So, together our incomes would be spent for the family while my spare income would be spent on books. Moreover, every title we released got sold out within a few weeks of publishing, making the profit an investment for the next books,” he said.
After decades of publishing, Chandrasekharan is concerned about the way people consume information today. The shift towards screens and short-form content, he feels, has affected Tamil society’s collective engagement with humanity, politics and progress. He is also critical of the influence of money and networks in literary recognition. “Even literature is not spared from politics. Awards are influenced by affluent people while original, people-centric works are sidelined by this lobby. This must change,” Chandrasekharan said.
For someone who once depended on bus drivers to bring him a magazine from the nearest town, the worry today is not about finding something to read. There is more to read than ever before. What troubles him is whether people will still make the time to sit with a book, follow an idea and let it alter the way they see the world.
