The inaugural function of the ‘ The Hindu Lit for Life 2018’ on Sunday, with its call to explore urgent social issues, discuss literary issues and defend the freedom of expression, set the tone for the sessions that followed.
The three-day festival was formally inaugurated by eminent historian and biographer Rajmohan Gandhi.
In his address, Mr Gandhi said the partnership between the writer and the reader must counter threats to freedom and assaults on democratic values. “There is money power, there is state power and the power of the mob on the streets. What is our counter to these threats? The pen is the counter,” he said.
Pointing to the “quality and credibility” of newspapers such as The Hindu , Mr. Gandhi said the readers should partner with writers in waging a victorious struggle to defend the freedom we have inherited.
Delivering the inaugural address, N. Ram, Chairman of The Hindu Publishing Group, said, “Our efforts seek to combine seriousness with liveliness in the widest range of literary and cultural experience.”
From left: Ananya Vajpeyi, academic and writer; Gauri Viswanathan, academic; N. Ravi, Publisher, The Hindu; Nirmala Lakshman, Director, THG Publishing Private Ltd; Indira Parthasarathy, winner, The Hindu Tamil Lifetime Achievement Award; Sebastian Faulks, author; Deepak Unnikrishnan, winner, The Hindu Prize, 2017; Chandan Gowda, academic; Jonathan Gil Harris, author; and Kamini Mahadevan in Chennai on Monday.
Nirmala Lakshman, Director of The Hindu Group and Lit for Life, said the eighth edition of the festival would offer a “fabulous literary experience” in keeping with the vision of The Hindu .
“A host of brilliant writers, novelists, artists, politicians, filmmakers, thinkers, media practitioners and many others have brought the wealth of their experience. The festival takes note of the urgent issues that confront us as a people and a nation. As in the past years, when writers have been threatened and were under assault, the festival strongly supported free speech. This year too we have consciously crafted several sessions around important subjects, like the shrinking space for dissent,” she said.
Welcoming the distinguished writers and speakers at the three-day programme, Ms. Lakshman said it was “a festival of ideas”, hosting authors of all genres and thinkers from various countries, exploring fiction, non-fiction, politics, history, arts and cinema.
Mukund Padmanabhan, Editor, The Hindu, said Lit For Life was “a natural extension of the newspaper’s interests in books and literature, and what we engage with in the newspaper.”
