By; Dr. Rajbir Samal, Assistant Professor, Department of Literature and Languages, SRM University -AP& Executive Committee Member, Amaravati Literature Fest 2025
Reading gives wings to thought, and thought gives wings to action.
—From the philosophy of Swami Vivekanand
In an age where information is just a click away and headlines and thumbnails incessantly flash across screens, reading is a lost art. It is an age where youth do not lack access to information, but they are losing the critical capacities to engage with the information. American author and educator Neil Postman once warned that the real danger is not that we will have too little information, but that we will be drowned in so much that we cannot make sense of it. Further, if we take India’s case, the trend also continues. According to a survey conducted by the National Literary Trust (NLT) in 2024, only 34.6% of children aged 8 to 18 in India enjoy reading in their free time. The data not only underscores the decline of readers but also alludes to a deeper problem: the inability to patiently engage with a book or any reading source, per se. The change has been gradual, but it is surely palpable. In such a context, reading no longer remains a luxury; it becomes a dire necessity. Now the central question comes, why do the youth grind themselves with reading when they have easy access to all the information possible? The reason remains not one, but many.
When a young individual involves himself/herself in reading, his/her perspective changes radically. Reading as a pedagogic activity not only leaves the person with information but also inculcates qualities like patience, empathy, and critical thinking. A person who chooses to read chooses reflection over reaction, depth over superficiality. When young people read, they do more than just absorb words; they gain perspectives, challenge assumptions, and imagine new possibilities. Reading fosters imagination. Every page demands the reader to engage, interpret, and envision. Unlike the consumption of passive media, reading requires active mental engagement, which nurtures imagination and creativity. It is like a fertile soil on which a critical and creative mind grows.
Reading as an activity enables individuals to challenge norms, solve complex problems, and envision answers that others may overlook. History has been a testament to the fact. It reminds us that every transformative leader and reformer has been an avid reader. It teaches us an important lesson: readers have propelled every phase of progress and change. Reformers who fought injustice, scientists who discovered natural principles, and writers who gave voice to marginalised communities – all were influenced by their proclivity for extensive reading. A Gandhi, a Bhabha, an Ambedkar, and a Tagore were not born as great leaders, scientists, and statesmen. They read their way to become visionary change-makers. It is Ambedkar’s intransigent passion for reading that led him to Columbia University to study law and come back to India to fight against the caste system. It is Gandhi’s reading and praxis of the Indian philosophy that propelled his Non-violence resistance against the British. It is Homi J Bhabha’s intractable passion for knowledge that made him the father of India’s nuclear programme. Similarly, Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel-winning collection, Gitanjali, is the learning confluence of eastern and western cultures and philosophies.The path-breaking work of these visionary individuals is rooted in the act of reading. Their journeys testify that reading nurtures imagination, creativity, and critical thinking.It enables young people to explore worlds other than their own, to encounter ideas that question their assumptions, and to imagine alternatives to the current situation.
As a matter of fact, reading not only impacts growth and change at the individual level but also initiates impact at the societal level. Across the planet, there are heartening examples of how reading movements can transform societies. Post-genocide rebuilding in Rwanda used community reading projects as a way of healing and promoting conversation. Reading can indeed affectively heal individual and collective trauma. In India, similarly, the “Human Library” initiative at IIT Palakkad, an inspiration drawn from the Human Library Movement in Denmark, underscores the human need to share and read stories. In these cases, reading transpires as a cathartic process that revitalizes both individual and community life and memory. Moreover, reading inspires resilience in individuals. Engaging with stories of survival enkindles hope and soothes the heart.If it comes to reading literature particularly, reading stories provides strength, engenders compassion, and spawns ethical thinking. Be it reading holocaust literature like Elie Wiesel’s Night and John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas or reading partition literature like Khushwant Singh’s The Train to Pakistan and Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Manor reading women’s writing like Mahasweta Devi’s short stories or Pratibha Ray’s Yajnaseni, reading fosters hope, will, and resilience like nothing else does.
The youth of today are set to confront challenges unlike any before. Climate change demands not only scientific solutions but also moral imagination. Artificial intelligence requires not merely technical expertise but ethical foresight. Global inequality calls for more than economic strategies; it calls for deep moral empathy.In this context, India, with its extraordinary and unique literary heritage, from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata to the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand, and Volga, holds both the potential and the responsibility to lead this global transformation. Our literary heritage nurtures compassion, resilience, and critical thinking, essential for confronting the problems of the 21st century.By fostering a culture of reading that spans across languages, genres, and traditions, India can empowerits youth to engage withnational and global problems thoughtfully, creatively, and compassionately.In this direction, promoting reading through public readings, mobile libraries, and literary festivals can play a significant role in stimulating the youth’s curiosity and interest. Then, organizingthese kinds of literary initiativesfor the promotion of reading in both academic and civic spacesis not simplyabout knowledge acquisition, but it is about shaping thinkers, innovators, and leaders capable of contributing to justice, peace, and progress on a national and global scale.
