The first issue of Guftugu (www.guftugu.in), a counter cultural quarterly e-journal on the arts and literature edited by writers K. Satchidanandan and Githa Hariharan, opens with the inspiring lines of Berthold Brecht: “In the dark times / Will there also be singing? / Yes, there will also be singing / About the dark times.”
The journal, and a related website,www.indianculturalforum.inhave their content fortified around the theme of cultural resistance against myriad forms for suppression.
Launched by the Indian Writers’ Forum (IWF), the platforms will bring together disparate voices to forge a national network of public intellectuals and institutions that believe in freedom of expression and secular values, says Mr. Satchidanandan. The IWF is a trust formed by Ms. Hariharan and Mr. Satchidanandan, historian Romila Thapar and lawyer Indira Jaising.
Dark times
Talking to The Hindu a day after the platforms went live, he says these are indeed dark times that demand collective action by public intellectuals and writers.
Look at the way the government has been intervening in our cultural and history institutions over a year-and-a-half now. Centres that were supposed to be autonomous have now become ideological tools. Not that there was zero intervention earlier, but even during the Vajpayee-government, a sense of fairness was at work. Now, besides a single ideology running roughshod over all other ideologies and outlooks, there’s abominable loss of quality as well, he points out, citing the erosion of merit commandeered by the government in top appoints at several national institutions.
Also, it is frightening to see annihilation replacing argument, he says.
“The fringe organisations creating an environment of terror aren’t lunatic groups. They are extremely-well planned, and bent on smothering opposition and dissent. The ban culture that has been clamped down on food, books and the like renders their claims to democracy debatable,” says the writer.
While there have been sporadic voices of dissent, it’s time the public intellectuals, writers, journalists, artists, historians and scientists got together to work collectively.
The Indian Cultural Forum, he says, will partner like-minded institutions to hold seminars and symposiums across the country on issues straddling all spheres of art and culture.
It has an advisory board comprising eminent writers and cultural activists.
