AN INCORRIGIBLE STRAIGHT SHOOTER
Mohiuddin Ahmed means business and a ship steering wheel hangs on a wall in his living room.
Okay, that was a bizarre expression but I wanted to get it out there before it gets lost in the issues that will follow.
On a recent morning, with dark, bright eyes behind black-framed glasses, he seems more eager to listen than talk. Sitting in his spacious living room, as he clutches a small glass containing medication, from which he sips with a straw, it's easy to imagine him as a 10-year-old kid.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. That was about the age that Mohiuddin Ahmed began to show the power of his imagination.
At the Saint Scholastica's Convent in Chittagong, his first school, he used his fecund imagination to make up a story. “We boys used to play marbles. Girls used the same space for playing seven stones. I wanted the place all to us. So I told them it was haunted. It worked—not a trace of a girl the next day. Our little adventure did not last long, though. I was made to apologise to the entire student body.”
The playful kid has been the publisher and managing director of the University Press Limited (UPL) since 1974 —a social enterprise that has published about 2000 educational, academic and scholarly titles, mostly in English. “My background in the study of English literature has been of great help.”
Born in Parshuram, Feni, in 1944, the son of a high ranking officer in the British Indian Postal Service, he has become a force that has challenged and tried to change book publishing in Bangladesh in deep and lasting ways. Under his leadership, UPL has bagged the National Book Centre award 16 times since 1981; he won a gold medal in 1991. He was once one of seventeen publishers from around the globe to be invited by the Norwegian Prime Minister in recognition of his work on environmental issues. In May 1988, he was conferred a Cultural Doctorate in Publishing Management by the World University's international secretariat at Benson, Arizona.
In a July ceremony that featured a host of literary luminaries as well as VIPs, Bangladesh Academic and Creative Publishers' Association awarded him the title of emeritus publisher.
“Unfortunately, the conditions of publishing remain the same as in 1970,” he says matter-of-factly.
Shocked, I ask, “What do you mean?”
“We don't even know how many books are published each year. Most publishers do not meet the criteria of a proper publishing house. There are some newly emerged publishers who have started doing some professional work and are showing promise. However, we do not have a single organisation that represents all the publishers. Copyright and Intellectual Property Right are not honoured properly. The 1950 Unesco treaty known as the Florence Agreement ensures free flow of knowledge and information. That means you cannot impose tariff on the import of books. But we have imposed almost 28 percent tax in various forms on the import of books.”
At this point, he suggests tea. We carry the conversation to the dining table. “Please have it before it gets cold,” Dr Mehtab Khanam, his wife, a well known psychology Professor, affectionately says. We keep talking. Suddenly, he says with a low voice, “Do as the Professor says. You don't want to make her mad.”
Laughter ensues.
One of the founders of the Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela, Mohiuddin Ahmed helped draft the National Book Policy for book development in Bangladesh, making 27 recommendations including infrastructure development, training, and library development.“But it never came into being although approved by the cabinet. In the proposal itself it said that there should be an implementation committee which was never formed.”
Hurdles like this only made him fiercer. He published books written not only by Bangladeshi authors but also by well-known academics and scholars from other countries, among them Eirik G Jansen, Beth Roy, Betsy Hartmann, Clarence Maloney, Thérèse Blanchet, Kirsten Westergaard, Mary Francis Durham, Rob Gallagher, Ellen Bal and Yasuhiro Takami. He then exported some of these books to the UK, putting the one-way trade of books between the two countries into reverse. Today, UPL exports a significant share of the total national export of books from Bangladesh by catering to academic destinations around the world.
In the early nineties, at an academic conference in Europe, organised by the European Network for Bangladesh Studies, he saw a couple of Bangladeshi young scholars expressing their dissatisfaction with varying versions of Bangladesh's history. After coming back he envisioned and published the ROAD TO BANGLADESH series, a collection of books that present a well-rounded narrative of events of 1971. The series is a gem to students and scholars interested in South Asian affairs.
He has been an active campaigner against any form of copyright infringement, that takes place anywhere in the creative industry. When he saw a telecom company using a song by a famed singer in a TV commercial without the permission of the singer, he arranged for a top lawyer for the singer to sue the company. He wanted to set a precedent. Much to his disappointment, they settled outside court.
The ardent publisher started taking interest in publishing and editing from his student days at the Notre Dame College where he was the managing editor of Blue and Gold, the college magazine. Later, while studying journalism at the University of Punjab under the Pakistan Council Scholarship, he edited the Punjab University Chronicle. He was also a student leader, getting elected the general secretary of the Punjab University Central Students Union. “By then students were getting into real politics which was dominated by the Muslim League and Jamaat-e Islami who called me too progressive.”
Upon finishing MA, he joined the department of journalism as an assistant professor teaching Mass Communication and Public Relations. Celebrated Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir's father, Waris Mir, also a journalist and intellectual was a colleague.
But his true calling was publishing. So in 1969 when the Oxford University Press (OUP), Pakistan Branch offered him the editorial position, he gladly accepted it. After independence, following a two year stint as the chief executive of OUP, Dhaka Branch, he established the University Press Limited in 1975.
Mohiuddin Ahmed is not interested in cosmetic changes. He is the real deal. “We talk about democracy. How can we achieve democracy without education? And what is education without good books? We have to respect copyright and Intellectual Property Right in order to encourage creativity. Newspapers have to be more responsible. The population is growing but readership is not. ”
UPL is probably the only university press in the world which is not attached to any particular university. Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press are departments of these universities and are governed by a conference of delegates. “International publishers are surprised at how we have survived all these years without publishing popular books.”
So what's the secret behind UPL's survival as a publisher of academic books?
“I could not have made it had I not been trained by my guru Martin Pick at the Oxford University Press in Karachi. I am grateful to people like Dr Muhammad Yunus, Professor Rehman Sobhan, National Professor Anisuzzaman, National Professor Sufia Ahmed, Professor Kaiser Haq, Prof Syed Manzoorul Islam, Dr Debapriyo Bhattacharya, late Professor Muzaffar Ahmed, Professor Rounaq Jahan, late National Professor Salauddin Ahmed, late Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman, late Professor Enaytur Rahim and his wife Joyce Rahim for their support.”
I point out that the rise of digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read. Is UPL ready for it? “We are launching about 150 e-books. But I don't think e-books have overtaken print books nor will they overtake to the extent that print books will be extinct. How many people in our country have access to these technologies?”
Mohiuddin Ahmed turned 70 last week. His health is not at its peak. His determination to keep on publishing great books still is. “I am glad my eldest daughter Mahrukh has taken over some responsibilities.”
The steering wheel on the wall is a gift from his elder brother who was a sailor—a ship captain. “It is used for guiding the ship,” he softly says.
We hope his ship—now sailing through troubled waters—soon will find the shore.
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