In its second year, Sahitya Akademi’s Unmesha highlighted literature of the marginalised
Held in Ravindra Bhawan in Bhopal, the four-day festival saw participation from writers from 14 countries
One of the standouts of the festival was the interactions featuring various under-represented social groups such as tribal writers, Dalit writers and other national and international communities. (Source: Sahitya Akademi/Instagram) Since time immemorial, the capacity to connect people beyond boundaries lies in literature. The Sahitya Akademi’s second edition of Unmesha in Bhopal saw a coming together of around 575 writers from 14 countries, including Australia, Mauritius, Maldives, Nigeria, England, the USA, Ireland and Tibet, working in over 100 languages. Organised in collaboration with Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Madhya Pradesh government, the four-day literary meet, held between August 3 and August 6, is arguably Asia’s largest. True to the spirit of Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, the festival, inaugurated by President Droupadi Murmu, saw a close interaction between poets and writers from various regions on a variety of themes.
One of the standouts of the festival was the interactions featuring various under-represented social groups such as tribal writers, Dalit writers and other national and international communities. In fact, the tribal literary and cultural reflections formed the connecting theme and thread of the literary meet. The core narrative of empowerment was also enhanced by the cultural performances — dance and music among them — organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi under the banner of Utkarsha.
In keeping with the times, discussions were held on some of contemporary literature’s most urgent themes such as science and ecology, on translations and the importance of vernacular literature. The vimarsh (discussions) also wove in discourses around freedom, India’s poetic traditions, folklore and other important topics through its over-80 sessions.
Mexican poet Octavio Paz had said, “Literature is the expression of a feeling of deprivation, a recourse against a sense of something missing. But the contrary is also true: language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history.” This literary meet appeared as an example how language and literature work as devices to recover the various emotional losses by social communities in India and the world. Most of the writers who presented their poetry and stories, in fact, have successfully crafted their own creative idiom against deprivation. One hopes there will be many future editions of the festival to see more such creative and committed literary engagements.
(The writer is professor, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad)
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