The 86th Akhila Bharatiya Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, to be held from January 6 to 8, 2023, is now facing allegations by some quarters of “neglecting” Muslim writers and women writers in the main inaugural and closing ceremonies and key sessions. Some have decided to organise an alternative Sahitya Smmelana on January 8 at Bengaluru as a mark of protest.
Speaking to The Hindu, scholar Prof. Purushottama Bilimale said, “Exclusion of Muslim writers and gender disparity is undemocratic. Therefore, progressive writers have decided to organise an alternative Sahitya Sammelana on January 8, at Bengaluru. We organising it through crowd funding and it will be inclusive.”
Kannada Sahitya Parishath (KSP) has organised the annual Sammelana at Haveri. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will inaugurate it, and many elected representatives and thousand of writers will participate.
Meanwhile, an allegation has emerged that among the 40 speakers in various sessions, there is no representation for minority writers or subject experts in key sessions on the main stages. KSP is felicitating 83 achievers in the different fields, but there are no Muslims among them, it is being alleged. Beary language, spoken by a sub-sect of Muslims in coastal Karnataka, is excluded in the discussion on “diversity of languages.”
B.M. Haneef, senior journalist, said, “This year, a Muslim writer like Dadapir Jaiman has got central awards. Senior writers like Boluvaru Muhammad Kunhi, Sara Abubakar, Hasan Naeem Surakoda, Rahmat Tarikare, and others have been ignored.”
It is also being alleged that compared to previous years, women writers have been neglected in inaugural and closing ceremonies. Prof. Bilimale, in a Facebook post, argued that these “exclusions” at the Sammelana are not accidental but a “RSS mentality” has worked behind them.
KSP belongs to no ideology: Mahesh Joshi
However, responding to allegations, president of KSP Mahesh Joshi said the Parishath belongs to “no ideology, either left, right or even centre.”
“We have not descriminated against any writers on the basis of caste, community, or religion. Kannada language is our caste and religion. A 14-member selection committee has decided all these seminars, guests, and others programmes. This year, we have given importance to fresh faces in all seminars and programmes. We dedicated the prime stage to saint poets Kanaka-Shishunal Sharif-Sarvajna. For the first time in the history of KSP, we launched the Kannada chariot across the State. The chief architecture this chariot is Shah Jahan Mudakavi and its supervisor is Nabi Sab Kushtagi. Therefore, there is no question of discrimination on the basis of caste and discrimination,” he said.
