Reading culture key to intellectually progressive nation: Sarbananda Sonowal at Assam Book Fair

Union Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on January 2 urged young people to build a sustained reading habit, stressing that literature remains central to intellectual growth despite changing media habits.

Addressing the Assam Book Fair, Sonowal said books continue to “illuminate minds, cleanse thought and enrich society across generations,” and described literature as a mirror of a society’s conscience and imagination. “The collective body of literature reflects the conscience, creativity and imagination of a society, and plays a vital role in building an intellectually progressive nation,” he said.

Calling book fairs “pilgrimage sites of knowledge,” Sonowal said initiatives that promote reading directly contribute to a society’s intellectual advancement. “Every step taken to promote reading is a firm step toward the intellectual advancement of a people,” he added, appealing to the younger generation to read more.

He said the strong turnout at the fair was an encouraging sign and described books as gifts that can be revisited repeatedly, each time offering fresh insight and perspective. Sonowal also recalled the legacy of Assamese cultural and literary figures who shaped the region’s identity through their ideas and writing.

Warning against replacing sustained reading with short-form digital consumption, Sonowal said, “No matter how much we consume social media feed, it is only books which can complete us. Only reading can give depth, imagination and critical thought.”

At the same time, he acknowledged that technology has altered reading habits and said digital formats such as e-books, audiobooks and online libraries can complement traditional reading by widening access. He underlined the need to modernise libraries, particularly in smaller towns, and to present Assamese literature in contemporary, reader-friendly formats to reach newer audiences.