Jaipur: For book lovers, young and old, Chameliwala market in MI Road used to be a favourite hunt. Even a stroll in narrow alleys itself was an exercise in learning as one would come across rare Hindi translations of Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace,’ Vladimir Lenon’s essays and prominent titles of many other Russian writers.Rajasthan People’s Publishing House thrived as connoisseurs, curious readers and researchers thronged the place to get books at subsidized rates. In the heydays of its business, containers filled with books would arrive from Moscow to Jaipur, matching the demand.Cut to today, the bookshop struggles to get up on its feet as the successive governments showed little interest in a shop promoting Bolshevik ideas. “Until 2014 we used to participate in book fairs across Rajasthan. But when the new government came to power, we could not attend them as participation fees were hiked. The present political dispensation has a deep antipathy for leftist ideology and literature of any type,” said Kishore Jain, manager of the store.Established in 1978 and now a private limited company, the bookstore had close ties with USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic). USSR’s embassy in New Delhi had also helped the bookstore buy four ‘book buses’, which were used as mobile shops.“The books were heavily subsidised as they were printed by the USSR government in Moscow. There were as many as 14 Hindi translators who were stationed in Moscow to painstakingly translate the works of writers such as Maxim Gorky and Fyodor Dostoyevsky from Russian to Hindi. Due to USSR’s help, these books were sold at very cheap prices and were in great demand about till 15 years ago,” Jain said, adding that now there are hardly any readers, and the book buses have been sold.A four-volume hardcover set of ‘War and Peace’ was sold for Rs 35 each book, whereas ‘Das Kapital’ by Karl Marx was available for Rs 400. Apart from Communist thinkers such as Marx and Friedrich Engels, the books of legendary Russian authors such as Anton Chekhov and Alexander Pushkin were available at Rs 50.“‘Crime and Punishment’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a bestseller. Readers also made beeline for Maxim Gorky’s book ‘Mother,’” Jain said. Jain visited Moscow in 1983 and had realised that USSR may collapse and decided to ship books to Jaipur.“We packed all Hindi translated books into two containers and shipped them from Moscow to Mumbai port soon after USSR collapsed in 1990,” Jain said.

Stay updated with all the Latest Jaipur headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.