In any discourse on globalisation, there is a lamentable absence of discussion on knowledge being globalised through books. History has taught us how books, both in manuscript and printed forms, have spread knowledge across political and geographical boundaries. Globalisation of knowledge is perhaps one of the oldest instances of globalisation in human history. History is replete with examples. Early technological innovations of paper, printing, gunpowder and magnetic compass, mathematical inventions of zero and decimal system, and Renaissance and Enlightenment that ushered in the modern world, all happened in discrete, segmented territories, but spread across the world. The Bible, with the coming of the printing press, could reach all parts of Europe, and then wherever colonial masters travelled. The same was true of masterpieces of literature and other outstanding works. But knowledge without having a wider/universal relevance and resonance remains localised — books cannot make inroads to the outside world. In other words, knowledge gets selectively globalised, depending upon its relevance and scope of outreach. Globalisation of knowledge has always been an important contributory factor to the evolution of human civilisation. Perhaps that is why, the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen observes, our global civilisation is a world heritage — not just a collection of disparate local cultures. So knowledge does not remain a monopoly of the few nor does it become hostage to the whims of others. Book, ever since the print form was invented, has been the single most important and reliable means of globalisation of knowledge. It is the least realised fact that globalisation of knowledge through books creates on its own market economy conditions in which it thrives and grows. Some may discard it as commercialisation of knowledge, but the very basic tenet of market economy, supply and demand unhampered by government interference, regulates the spread of knowledge. For example, knowledge about India and its history, philosophy and culture, as contained in A.L. Basham’s The Wonder That Was India or Romila Thapar’s A History of India, or for that matter in any modern classic on India, gets marketised in other countries only because of the demand of readership. Similarly, a particular work done and published in any part of the world soon spreads to other parts if it has wider implication and relevance. Copies of the book or its translation become available at the demand of readers. In this, governments have very little scope for interference. This has been precisely the case of spread of all our brilliant philosophies and ideas, including dialectical materialism, Marxism, existentialism, structuralism, and post-modern theories, although many of them were originally written in languages other than English. Rousseau’s writing on “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”, Marx’s ideas on historical materialism and class struggle, and Foucault’s post-modernism theories would not have caught everyone’s imagination were they not relevant and contextual to the wider world! But the globalisation of knowledge is not an either/or issue but a matter of degree, given its relevance, contextuality and scope of implication. This also does not fall within the purview of the dubious discourse on gaining If knowledge reaches, you either embrace or discard it! During the last 25 years or so, globalisation of knowledge has been so overwhelming that its impact cannot be grasped without some examples. Edward Said’s Orientalism, Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man and Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilisations have been bestsellers in many countries because of their wider thematic relevance and contextuality. Orientalism has changed the entire thinking of the West on the Orient and its subjects. The argument in The End of History that liberal democracy constitutes the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the final form of government, and as such the ‘‘end of history’’, is no less a challenge to all the civilised nations of the world. Then comes Huntington’s most controversial but still convincing Clash of Civilisations which argues that civilisational identities shape patterns of cohesion, disintegration and conflict in the post-Cold War world. In other words, “the fault lines between civilisations will be the battle lines of the future”. As conceded by foreign policy experts, post-September 11, Huntington came to be hailed as a prophet; his ideas and theories came to be debated, commented upon and applied in innumerable analyses of inter-faith, international and inter-racial relations. Geographical distance, language, form of government and socio-economic factors have not been obstacles to the spread of these books throughout the world. Everywhere, intellectuals and educated classes have tried to make sense of these great works, in the context of the country, region and society where they live. Now when we talk of globalisation, we refer mostly to economic goods and services, unmindful of ideas and knowledge. But we should not lose sight of the fact that knowledge is perhaps the earliest commodity (if it can be called so) to be globalised, and that in the process it has enriched human civilisation as a whole. We cannot even think of how poor our humankind would have been without such a dynamic interactive process! The book has not only facilitated this process but also made knowledge easily accessible in whichever part of the world one may be. More importantly, books as economic commodities also get globalised and are bought and sold very quickly under market conditions of demand and supply across the world. But economics does not undermine the very basic principle of globalisation of knowledge — that is, its wider implication, relevance and contextuality. So one need not be surprised to find a New York or London publication in the Kolkata or Orissa market at a cheaper price, although in an Indian reprint, of course, if it has relevance and implication for India. In other words, books being transmuted into economic commodities have commercially globalised knowledge to everybody’s advantage. This is gradually closing the gap between haves and have-nots in knowledge-capital throughout the world. The writer is a director in the Ministry of External Affairs
