'No vernacular market for military literature'

LUCKNOW: Former Army chief, General Shankar Roy Chowdhary said we need more writers in vernacular language for military writing even though English has become de facto Indian language.
He was in the city for a session on Military Writing in India with Lt Gen P C Katoch, Maj Gen Ravi Arora and Maj Gen G D Bakshi at the Lucknow Literature Carnival.
The officer, who was Army chief from 1994-1997, said "India has history of armed struggle, the fight for Independence being the biggest case in point but politicians have not acknowledged this fact, hence not many publishers show much interest in military writing."
He added that books like 'I Hanuman' and 'Singh's Choice' which gave accurate account of the act of valour of Indian soldiers were written and published by foreign entities.
According to Maj Gen Ravi Arora, "Military Headquarter is now giving clearance to books by service men but Ministry of Defence still discourages this practice." He said another problem with military writing is that publishers want controversial writing to make it sell.
Maj Gen G D Bakshi conveyed "a need to eulogise modern military heroes to teach ethics and values to young growing children". He mooted the idea of Indian war comics, which was endorsed by Anupam Sinha, creator of comics like 'Commando Dhruv', in a workshop on writing cartoons.
He said, graphics novel or comics are another form of communication between text and films which are easy to grasp but have strong impact.
Later, in the afternoon session, a panel discussion, 'Aanchal Se Parcham Tak': Women in writing', was held in which panelists R R Verma, Noor Zaheer and Salim Arif traced contribution of eminent women writers like Qurratulain Hyder and many others.