Indian Thought Publications is a publisher founded in 1942, in
Mysore by
R. K. NarayanR. K. Narayan , shortened from Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami Tamil: ) , Madras Presidency, British India. His father was a school headmaster, and Narayan did some of his studies at his father's school...
. Narayan founded the company as he was cut off from England owing to the war and needed an outlet for his works. The first book to be published by the company was
Malgudi DaysMalgudi Days is a collection of short stories by R. K. Narayan published in 1943 by Indian Thought Publications.The book was republished outside India in 1982. The book includes 19 stories, all set in the fictional town of Malgudi, located in South India. Each of the stories portrays a facet of...
, in 1943. The publishing company followed a short-lived journal that he founded, of the same name. The company is currently managed from a tiny home-office in
ChennaiChennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
by Narayan's granddaughter Bhuvaneswari (Minnie).
Although the company was started as an effort in self-publishing, it is far from being a vanity press. The
warWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and other factors meant that the his British publishers did not stock their Indian warehouses and Indian readers had no access to his books resulting in Narayan starting the company. Most of the work was done by Narayan himself including distribution and collecting delinquent bills. During one such task, he met with the proprietor of
India Book HouseIndia Book House Pvt. Limited is an importer, distributor and publisher of books and magazines in India.Formed in 1952, India Book House published paperback editions of children's authors such as Enid Blyton and Frederick Forsyth, as well as magazines such as Tintin and Asterix, often in Indian...
who convinced him to hand over the distribution function to them. India Book House continues to be the company's sole distributor.
In 2006, on Narayan's birth centenary, the company came out with a commemorative
coffee table editionA coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...
of his 1974 autobiography,
My DaysMy Days is an autobiography of R. K. Narayan....
, with an introduction by his long time admirer
Alexander McCall SmithAlexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a Rhodesian-born Scottish writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees...
.