The third edition of the South India Writers’ Ensemble got off to a vibrant start here with a dynamic discussion on identity and language, with regional language writers ruing the pre-eminence given to English and eminent bilingual writer and academic Ambai (C.S. Lakshmi), who inaugurated the three-day fest, reasoning the new identity of English as an Indian language.
“In Independent India, post the division of States on the basis of language, there was a movement to assert the identity of language. It was then that I wondered if language was going to define our identity,” she said.
“When we talk about languages in India, we speak of regional languages and English is seen as a foreign language. I think English has become a language of India and needs to be seen as just another language of India.”
The question, ‘what’s India’ was going to steer the course of the discussions at the writers’ meet now and in the years to come, she said.
And, the first post-inaugural session had the discussants Jahnavi Barua, Mitra Phukan and Dhruba Hazarika analysing threadbare what it meant to be from the North Eastern part of India, which the meet is focusing on.
Festival director and Malayalam writer T.P. Rajeevan said while Kerala had writers and publishers aplenty, the literary fest scene did not reflect that enthusiasm. On the national scene, most literary fests were tailored for those writing in English.
SIWE, organised by the People for Performing Arts and More (PAMPA), with the support of Kerala Youth Welfare Board, gained significance in this context, he said. Writer Bennyamin, too, mourned the lack of literature festivals in the State. “Besides allowing readers to interact with writers, they also opened up avenues to appreciate language and culture from outside the writers’ immediate circle,” he said.
For P.C. Vishnunadh, MLA, it was an occasion to demystify the otherwise exotic North East.
