Photo Courtesy: India Today Group
Guwahati: India suffers from a major creative drought. Writer and journalist Manoj Kumar Goswami flagged this issue on November 13 at a book fair in Jorhat. The Assam Publication Board and the Publishers Guild hosted the event. Goswami argued that the nation is losing its edge in storytelling despite deep historical roots.
Thinkers once drew from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the works of Premchand. Now, bookstores favor political texts, biographies, and self-help guides. Classics like The God of Small Things feel like ghosts from another era. This shift marks a wider move toward mediocrity in science and cinema.
Readers demand more. "Younger readers could not be attracted by shallow, repetitive and superficial content," Goswami warned. Today, internet access and artificial intelligence allow people to compare local works against global standards. Writers must evolve or face obsolescence. If human creators fail to innovate, Goswami claims that, "artificial intelligence could eventually surpass human creativity in certain areas."
He suggested that writers should adopt new, neurodivergent perspectives to stay relevant. Fresh thinking is the only way to avoid the trap of uninspired, recycled output. Modern literature requires bold experimentation to compete on the world stage.
Updated at 14th November 2026 at 2:00am
Goswami added that the shortage of imagination cuts deep into fields beyond just literature, hitting science, innovation, and general culture. He specifically called out the absence of the Puranas and Burhi Aair Xadhu from the modern canon, noting these works alongside Malgudi Days as essential touchstones that are being pushed to the wayside.
He noted that the current market shift toward motivational books and biographies is squeezing out poetry, short stories, and fiction entirely.
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