Indian Thought Publications

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}

{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Indian Thought Publications

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| foundation = 1942

| location_city = Chennai

| location_country = India

| area_served =

| founder = R. K. Narayan

| key_people =

| industry = Publishing

| products = Books

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| net_income =

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}}

Indian Thought Publications is a publisher founded in 1942, in Mysore by R. K. Narayan. 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 Days, in 1943. The publishing company followed a short-lived journal that he founded, of the same name.{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/10/08/stories/2006100800050100.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061114235430/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/10/08/stories/2006100800050100.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 November 2006|title=Reluctant centenarian|last=Ram|first=N|date=8 October 2006|newspaper=The Hindu|accessdate=2009-08-30}}{{cite book|last=Walsh|first=William|title=R.K. Narayan: a critical appreciation|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1982|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rknarayancritica00wals/page/25 25, 172]|isbn=978-0-226-87213-1|oclc=220091125|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/rknarayancritica00wals/page/25}} The company is currently managed from a tiny home-office in Chennai by Narayan's granddaughter Bhuvaneswari (Minnie).{{cite news|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/325169.html|title=Rencontres avec R. K. Narayan Nocturnes indiens|date=14 May 1994|publisher=Le Monde|language=French|accessdate=2009-08-30}}

Although the company was started as an effort in self-publishing, it is far from being a vanity press. The war and other factors meant that 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 House who convinced him to hand over the distribution function to them. India Book House continues to be the company's sole distributor.{{cite news|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?235866|title=Vanity As Necessity|date=29 October 2007 |publisher=Outlook|accessdate=2009-08-30}}

In 2006, on Narayan's birth centenary, Indian Thought Publications issued a commemorative coffee table edition of his 1974 autobiography, My Days, with an introduction by his long-time admirer Alexander McCall Smith.{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/06/01/stories/2008060150140500.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603102043/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/06/01/stories/2008060150140500.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 June 2008|title=Memories of Malgudi Man |date=1 June 2008|newspaper=The Hindu|accessdate=2009-08-30}}{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/06/stories/2006110603370300.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020171054/http://hindu.com/2006/11/06/stories/2006110603370300.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 October 2007|title=Fans assemble to celebrate the creator of Malgudi Days |date=6 November 2006|newspaper=The Hindu|accessdate=2009-08-30}}