New Delhi, April 25 -- If you are looking for easy rage-bait on social media, look no further than the English-language publishing ecosystem in India. Writers, publishers, festival regulars, and a ragtag assembly of stakeholders recently revealed their thin skin when it comes to less than laudatory, cynical, and (largely) misplaced hot takes on the state of the literary establishment.

In February, an article in The Guardian left the literati fuming because it made the unpopular point that despite the proliferation of literary events, "India does not have a great book-reading tradition." It was a tall claim, considering the robust reading cultures in Indian languages, but English-language publishing in India is a different story. Other th...