1. Ajmer Rode
2. Nadir Ali
3. Mansha Yaad
4. Amrita Pritam
5. Roop Dhillon
6. Najm Hosain Syed
7. Surjeet Kalsey
8. Mazhar Tirmazi
9. Shivcharan Jaggi Kussa
10. Vaikom Mohammed Basheer
11. Govind Mishra
12. Kiran Desai
13. Vikram Seth
14. Sadhu Binning
15. Mohammed Hanif
16. Amarjit Chandan

V.V.– please check out Shishir Kurup’s “Merchant on Venice” –> bad ass & critically-acclaimed stuff! http://www.srtp.org/blog/2007/12/23/merchant-sweeps-the-top-ten-lists/

killer list– thanks, Amardeep!

I guess that makes all the rest of the above English language list crap

The decade began with a bang for India when Indian-American Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for her book Interpreter of Maladies.

V S Naipaul, who is of Indo-Trinidadian descent, was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature. Even so, Indian writing or ‘India’ was not the focus of publishing in the last decade, though another Booker came in 2008 for an Indian author — Arvind Adiga for The White Tiger. We take a look at the some of the major trends in international and national publishing since the turn of the millennium.

The Fantasy Genre

When the first book in the boy-magician series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, hit the book stands in 1997, it was a quiet affair. But, by the time the fourth book, The Goblet of Fire, was published in 2005, the publishing blitzkrieg was in full force. By then, author J K Rowling’s books had been on the bestseller list for 79 weeks. Bookshops opened at midnight to serpentine queues on the day of publication.

The latest book, Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows, broke records with 11 million copies sold in the first 24 hours. The Potter phenomenon gave a boost to the dormant fantasy genre. Not only did J R Tolkien and C S Lewis’ books get a fresh lease of life — with loads of help from Hollywood — new authors cashed in on the growing thirst for books on fantasy and science fiction.

Irish writer Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series, first published in 2001, became an instant bestseller. Even India had its own version of modern-day fantasy novels in Samit Basu’s The Simoqin Prophecies.

9/11 and terrorism

Never before had so many books on terror or Islam been written as after the 9/11 attacks. Within a year of the event, bookstores were flooded with titles offering various theories and probabilities behind the terror strike. Gore Vidal’s Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, Noam Chomsky’s 9-11, Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 were among the many books that adorned the shelves in bookstores.

Similarly, terrorism and Islam became hot topics for publishers. Inside Terrorism by Bruce Hoffman, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid, Holy War, Inc: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden by Peter L Bergen became some of the runaway bestsellers. Thomas Abraham, managing director, Hachette India, however, doesn’t think this was a dominant trend. He calls them “just topical non-fiction” and believes that had something else been the focus of political life, that would have become the trend.

Pakistani Literature What the late 80s and 90s were for Anglo-Indian fiction, the last decade has been for Pakistani writing in English. Younger writers such as Mohsin Hamid, Kamila Shamsie, Nadeem Aslam, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Mohammad Hanif are some of the writers whose books present a portrayal of the Pakistani way of life, that few outsiders know about. Diya Kar Hazra, editorial and rights director, Penguin India, says that “there is a lot of interest in writing from Pakistan, and media attention is on Pakistani writers too.”

Indian chick-lit

Blame it on Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’ Diary or even the television show Sex and the City. The urban, single, independent, fun-loving females caught the fancy of the younger generation, who could identify with the characters. Advaita Kala’s Almost Single, Anuja Chauhan’s The Zoya Factor and Swati Kaushal’s A Piece of Cake have been some notable titles in this sub-genre. Hazra, however, maintains that “the term ‘chick-lit’ is sort of passé now. Writers are doing so much within the genre, that there is great variety in ‘chick-lit’ today”.

Yet, never before have so many books — written by young women about their peers — been published. Many, however, would like to argue that the biggest trend in Indian publishing has been the rise of commercial fiction. Abraham explains, “A fully mature market should be measured by the evolution of its commercial fiction. We’re just seeing the beginnings of this and have some way to go. There are many factors — first and the most important being the emergence of writers willing to write for these genres and for local audiences. Then there’s the blurring of lines between good and bad books (like cinema today) — rather than the traditional viewpoints of ‘literary’ and ‘non-literary’, with the accompanying snootiness about the latter. There’s also the growth of a middle class and the modernizing of publishing and bookselling.”

Smart picks

What you might have read this decade about India — but probably didn’t.

In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India –by Edward Luce A sympathetic narrative about a rising economic and geopolitical giant

The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us –by Robyn Meredith Why the US should not fear the two rising Asian economic powers

India’s Global Wealth Club: The Stunning Rise of its Billionaires and their Secrets of Success –by Geoff Hiscock How a few Indian entrepreneurs transformed their businesses into global companies

Speaking of India: Bridging the Communication Gap When Working With Indians –by Craig Storti Self-explanatory guide to a better working relationship between Westerners and Indians in a flat world

Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India –by Rob Jenkins A critical analysis of the relationship between democracy and economic liberalization and how democracy survives through political manoeuvring

Not Dog-eared

Decade of harry potter? | Author of the Harry Potter series, J K Rowling leads the ‘best-selling author of the decade’ list of online retailer Amazon.com. Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, is at the sixth position and William Shakespeare at the 10th position. Rowling’s books also rank high on the best-selling books list. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince are placed first and second respectively.

The ‘O’ factor fades | Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club turned 34 titles into best-sellers during the decade. But the phenomenon has waned, with the club making only one selection this year. Her show ends in 2011.

Free books online | The biggest development in the book world this decade was undoubtedly the development of ebooks. Long before e-readers arrived, websites brought thousands of books to people for free. Suddenly, classics and modern literature were available, at no cost.

The ones that didn’t make it | A report in the Guardian newspaper says that some of the best books of the decade that never made the best-seller list were — The Spare Room by Helen Garner, The Secrets of the Chess Machine by Robert Lohr, Barefoot Soldier by Johnson Beharry VC, War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres, Black Juice by Margo Lanagan, Journal by Hélène Berr, Boy A by Jonathan Trigell, The Three of Us by Julia Blackburn and The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson.

Happy reading to all in 2010.