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| Jagrauti Pad dangal in progress |
Started with an objective to
promote Indian languages and highlight its authors and their literature, IHC
Indian Languages Festival – Samanvay entered the 02nd year with the theme-
Boli, Bani, Bhasa: Gaon, Kasba, Shehar in an attempt to to highlight and
discover the heritage of Indian languages. Gnanpeeth awardee Kannada author
Chandrasekhar Kambar and eminent theatre activist Ratan Thiyam stressed on the
need to use boli in every walk of life in order to keep our culture and
heritage intact, while inaugurating the festival. As announced last year, the
First Samanvay Bhasa Samman started this year and it was
conferred to Gnanpeeth awardee renowned Oriya author Shri Sitakant Mahapatra
while the first Samanvay Bhasa Patrkarita Samman went to Shri
Kishor Bharti who largely writes on Dalit issues and topics. In his address
after the receiving award, Shri Kishor Bharti underlined the reality of Dalit
society by highlighting that that the members of the society forget the woes of
the society after getting into the corridors of power.
In his
opening remark Festival Director Shri Raj Liberhan said of this initiative-
“IHC’s annual Indian languages’ festival is one platform that is reaching out
to focus on the intrinsic beauty of verbal and printed exchange, its
philosophical ethos and its embedded roots in different regions of the
country.”
Inauguration
was followed by a session- Purani Boli Naya Daur; Boli is Back! examining
the return of dialects into the ‘mainstream’, Where Chandrasekhar Kambar, Ratan
Thiyam, Kashinath Singh, Gillian Wright, Neelesh Mishra and Gurvinder Singh
shared their views and ideas. English languages author and grandson of
Premchand, Alok Rai moderated the discussion session. During this session
Gillian Wright shared her experience of time spent in Uttar Pradesh to
understand local dialects whereas Kannada author Chandrasekhar Kambar warned
that English is increasingly becoming our primary language of communication
which is detrimental for the growth of Indian literature who reflects our
culture and heritage.
The next
session of poetry recitation – Had- Anhad- Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Udaya Narayan
Singh, Mamang Dai and famous folk singer of Uttaranchal - Narendra Singh Negi
mesmerized the audience with their native languages poetry. The day ended with
performance of Kathak Guru Shovana Narayan on the presentation based on
Maithili poet Vidyapati’s life.
The 02nd day
of the IHC Indian Languages Festival – Samanvay focused on the various shades
of rich Indian literary heritage. The day began with a session on Manipuri
language discussion the theme – The Idea of a nation, where language authors –
Yumlembam Ibomcha, Robin S Ngangom, Tayenjam Bijoykumar Singh and Dr Dhanbir
Laisham shared their dilemma over the dual identity of state and nation.
Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer Yumlembam Ibomcha said that the
traditional Manipuri literature developed without the influence of any other
languages until the 18th century, when Hinduism came to the state.
This
followed the prose reading session – Mapping Cities- Shehar Dar Shehar by
Kashinath Singh, Laxman Gaikwad and Om Thanvi. The Maithili language session
focused on the theme – Love’s own language where Maithili authors highlighted
the heritage of the languages which is filled with literature n love including
Vidyapati, whose first writing was themed around love. Maithili language author
Vibha Rani shared her experience of a festival in Chennai where they translate
all unpublished literature in Maithili and thus the languages is spreading
across the country. She also stressed that the Maithili people use their own
language wherever they go. So it is not a dying language.
The Kannada
session focused around theme- Tales of Modernities: Small Spaces, Big Idea
where participating authors Gopalkrishna Pai, Banu Mushtaq, BT Jahnavi, and
Mamta Sagar shared their views and experiences of richness of the Kannada
language and how it has highlighted larger issues of society. The session on
English – Where is my reader had intense discussion where one of the
participating authors “Losing My Virginity” fame Madhuri Banarjee stressed on
need of differentiating writing to promote literature. She said it will help
attract reader to the select books.
The Digital
publishing session highlighted the need of adopting digital technology in
current scenario to strengthen the literature and keep the languages’ heritage
intact. The session was attended by Nikhil Chandra of Handygo Technology, Shiva
Kumar of Google Books and Kinshu Sinha of FlipKart. Audience' question on
existence of library culture halted the session for a moment before speakers
assured that the digitalization will help taking books and literature beyond
geographical boundaries and thus helping promote the book reading culture.
The day also
saw poetry recitation session- Kavi ke Ilake me by Gujarati
author Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Hindi author Arun Kamal, Rajasthani author- Arjun
Deo Charan and Kannada author Mamta Sagar.
The day
ended with performance of Kashmiri Sufiana Kalam performance by Gulzar Ahmad
Ganie.
First
session on the 03rd and last day at Samanvay was dedicated
to Oriya language session Reclaiming Language, Space and Body:
Women writing in Oriya where speakers Pratibha Ray, Sarojini Sahoo,
Yashodhara Mishra, Aparna Mohanty and Paramita Satpathy highlighted women
writings in Oriya languages on different topics. Authors insisted that there is
no need to differentiate the men and women writing.
Next was the
Jagrauti Pad Dangal- a rich Rajasthani folk group song where famous duo of
Dhawale and Jagan mesmerized the audience with their lovely presentation.
Session on Marathi language discussed the topic “Mumbai: The city of No
outsiders” a blazing aspect of the Marathi society today. During
this session, Laxman Gaikwad said “Mumbai is such a busy city where
fathers meet their children only on Sundays which shows it has no time to
ponder over issues like- whose city is this. Thus any question on Mumbai being
called- ‘a city of no outsiders’ doesn’t hold any ground. It is a city of
multiple cultures and languages.” Other participants of the Marathi session
were Hemant Divate, Neeraja and Prakash Bhatambrekar. Participating in the
discussion as an audience, Maithili author described Mumbai as “Sahson
ka Shehar not hadson ka shehar”, because of its tendency to comeback
strongly from each disaster.
Kashmiri
language session- My Reality, My language was attended by Kashmiri languages
authors- Shahnaz Rasheed, Gulshan Badrani, Elyas Azad and moderated by Nisar
Azam where one participating author highlighted one masked reality of the
Kashmiri language that the language is not being promoted in the state in order
to thwart any possibility of rise of extremism and terrorism. He said the
situation is pinching but this is the reality of the Kashmiri languages. This
session was followed by a round of discussion on topic- Cine-lit-
Crosscurrents where Mamta Sagar discussed the use of literature in the
script writing for movies with Girish Kasarawalli, who made a movie on other
participant- Banu Mushtaq’s script.
In the Hindi
Session- Culture & Power: A tale of seven cities (Allahabad, Benaras,
Bhopal, Delhi, Kolkata, Lahore and Patna) Ashok Vajpeyi, Kashinath Singh, Arun
Kamal, Alka Saraogi and Neelabh Ashk discussed transition of the Hindi language
from Kolkata where first centre for translation of English literature to Hindi
literature was set-up, to Lahore. During the session all authors agreed that
small cities are no longer a centre of literature and culture and that Delhi
has become a political and cultural centre of India. Renowned author Ashok
Vajpeyi reiterated that if we don’t learn out language we will be deprived of
our culture and heritage and thus loose our identity in due course.
The
highlight of the last day was "Popular Culture: Mind Your
language, Zaban Sambhal ke" session which was attended by Oye
Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Gangs of Wasseypur fame music
director Sneha Khanwalkar, Tanu Weds Manu fame lyricist Raj
Shekhar, Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo serial fame Ratan
Rajput and RJ Simran Kohli. In this session the use of double-meaning words in
TV shows and cinema was widely discussed where Ratan Rajput accepted that it is
right to use them if it makes the shows and movies commercially successful. She
said there are enough programs for purists. The concluding session of the day
and festival was Rabbi Acoustic Live- a performance by Rabbi Shergill. In this
fitting end to the grand event Shergill enthralled audience with famous numbers
like- Bulla ki jana.
