The State Government will host the World Telugu Conference from December 15 to 19 to celebrate the language’s richness and pave the way for its patronage. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has called upon littérateurs and literature lovers to take active part in the meet.
Speaking in the Assembly, he urged Legislators to focus on the literature emanating from their respective areas and bring hitherto unknown works to the notice of the Telangana Sahitya Akademi.
He said the State Government has sanctioned ₹50 crore, with each district getting ₹ 5 lakh for preparatory meetings alone. Students would be made part of the festival with a host of literary competitions lined up for the day — essay writing, debate, poetry recitation and writing.
The CM said though Telugu language flourished in Telangana region, darkness had mostly engulfed the literary tradition elsewhere. Only a partial interpretation of the literary history was in circulation and the works of several literary wizards gathered dust and remained unknown to the world, he added.
At one point, an extremely skewed argument surfaced that Telangana never gave birth to any poet of repute, he said, but at that juncture, an eminent historian and littérateur Suravaram Pratapa Reddy published an edition of ‘Golakonda Kavulu’ consisting of 354 poets, which remains Telangana’s literary high point.
The CM said the very nativity of the likes of Vemulavada Bhima Kavi and Bammera Pothana was distorted and the works of poets like Daasaradhi and Kaloji had not received due credit.
