Dusty ties: At Mohammed Ali Road’s Naaz Book Depot, old journals from Pakistan speak of a lost connect

"After 2019, no one comes to enquire about Pakistani newspapers or magazines," says Mohammed Asif, owner and manager of Naaz Book Depot at South Mumbai's Mohammed Ali road. "It is for the better only. There is no ban, but we cannot afford to buy them anymore and there is no demand either," he reasons. His bookshop had made news after the 2019 Pulwama attack, in the aftermath of which the Indian government hiked the import duty on goods from Pakistan by 200 percent, as per reports.

Established over 75 years ago by Haji Ali Mohammed, Asif's grandfather, as a small newspaper and tape-recorder shop, the place grew into a full-fledged book depot when Asif's father took over the management. Presently, the shop provides religious books, government textbooks for undergraduate students, school books and basic stationary materials. Prior to 2019, the shop was known for harbouring collections of Pakistani newspapers such as ‘Dawn', ‘Jang', digests like ‘Khawateen', ‘Pakeeza' and weekly magazine ‘Akbar-e-Jahaan' - otherwise only available at hotels like Taj and Oberoi for foreign visitors - cookbooks and Unani health books.

In 2022, as the sight of popular Noor Mohammadi and Shalimar restaurants overshadow the presence of Naaz Book Depot, hidden away on a street swamped with people and vehicles, the age-old bookshop presents a trace of history and nostalgia in a digitally advanced city. The objects on display, such as a name-plate with Arabic inscription, traditional Islamic wall-hangings, wooden book stands and embellished multi-lingual hard copies of the holy book of Quran, speak of a trade rooted in religious offerings alongside educational books.

The shop sells Quran in the English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Malayalam and Telugu languages, among others. These translations, Asif says, attract customers across the city and from other states, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Amanullah Zainuddin Hadaddi, a regular visitor since over a decade confirms, "We always purchase our religious texts from here. Sometimes we send stocks of books to Raigad for orphan kids and for madrasas. We know that we will get all our religious texts from here."

The shop regularly engages in local trade of religious texts, mainly with Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Muzaffarpur, among others. Back in the day, such trade of printed works extended across the border, into Pakistan. An old copy of a cookbook ‘Handi' by Zubaida Tariq, a well-known chef from Pakistan, displayed at the shop's entry gives a hint of the shop's once-prominent connection with literature from the neighbouring country.

‘Everybody has forgotten Pakistan now'

While piles of old and outdated copies of Khawateen and Pakeeza from Pakistan are still preserved at Naaz, there have been no takers for them in recent years. Many of these copies are from 2017 or before and were either returned to the seller by customers once they had read the books, or remained unsold. These readers included anyone who was curious about books and newspapers in general and even those who were studying Urdu literature or doing some research on Pakistan-based subjects. After Pulwama, all of this has stopped.

"Everybody has forgotten Pakistan now. No one does any research on it and there's a complete boycott. We need books and literature for some in-depth research, but that's not there. There are many other things to research about, so they do that," says Asif, whose bookshop was the only local centre where newspapers from Pakistan were available.

Mohammed Asif, owner and manager of Naaz Book Depot. Photo Credit: Manjit Thakur

In 2019, the book depot brought in the last set of newspapers from Pakistan. Though there was no direct ban, the hiked import duty indirectly banned local sellers from accessing these newspapers and weeklies. Besides, since people can now easily read the same papers and magazines online, the bookstore knew the end was coming.

Tariq's ‘Handi' now remains the only book from Pakistan that receives inquiry once in a while during the month of Ramzan.

"It's like if you are willing to pay 200 percent more, then purchase it at your own strength and will. But, who is going to buy a paper worth Rs 10 for Rs 50? The import has also stopped. And people are reading it directly online. While Pakistani masalas and suits are being imported and are being sold regularly, printed works have stopped coming in," says the shop owner.

‘Quran sales will never stop'

At a time when the double whammy of Covid-19 lockdown and a digital revolution hurt several businesses, including publishers and bookshops, Asif says Naaz Book Depot saw minimal impact on sales.

Though the shop was closed for most part of the last two years, according to Asif, there was greater interest in buying religious books and those did well in terms of sales during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the sales of educational books plunged given the boost in online learning and virtual classes. This, Asif says, increased the challenges for students, who wanted to purchase physical government textbooks. The book depot suffered a loss of around Rs 2.5 lakhs during the pandemic.

"Books were catching dust and worms, as the shop was closed for a long time. Additionally, after reopening, schools were profiting by selling the same notebooks and textbooks at their premises for a higher amount," says Asif. This rampant practice, he says, has led to a severe exploitation of the children's resources.

The habit of digital reading is definitely a factor eating up on the profits of the book depot. However, selling school and college textbooks and religious books, where print still remains a preferred choice, work in the favour of the shop.

"This shop will continue to run on religious texts, essentially the Quran. The same goes for government education text books," he says. "Though everything is going digital, people would read ‘Quran sharif' only in print."