A political festival of literature
Hopes were high and energies were full when I received an invitation from Ajeet Caur, an imminent writer of India, to participate in the SAARC festival of literature in the city of Taj Mahal, Agra.
Literature and culture bind the societies in South Asia and its beauty lies at this diversity while still interconnecting. Literature is the showcase of culture and certain common features incorporated in South Asians add flavour to literature of this region. One may not understand another’s language but flickers of literature in the form of poems, gajals etc bring charm to faces and melody to ears.
Sadly, the eighth SAARC festival of literature was not a festival of absolute literature; it was rather a political festival of literature. Over 100 littérateurs were invited from eight member countries of SAARC along with Burmese and Bhutanese refugees, yet they spent most of the festival talking politics. There were no sentences to explain the beauty of nature, love and emotions of young people, satires on the social paradoxes or heart enthralling lines like in Muna Madan or Romeo and Juliet. No one talked about Alice, Daisy Buchanan, Cinderella, Santa Claus or any other literary characters even from oriental literature. There were no debates about hope, love, peace or romance but all were consumed by issues of hatred, violence, disgust and revulsion. To note, only three hours were secured for poetry and story recitation in the entire four-day festival.
Like in many other SAARC gatherings, terrorism was at the top of the agenda list. Additionally, the contentious political relations between India and Pakistan surrounded by terrorism, more recently in Mumbai, were much debated and discussed. Participants from Bhutan, Bangladesh or other countries who hardly understood Hindi were found mostly bored at the back benches as proceedings were dominated by Hindi language.
In over two dozen papers presented in the three-day session, terrorism was defined by the government version – those fighting against the state. For Sri Lankans, Tamils were terrorists, for Afghans, Taliban were terrorists and for Bhutanese, Bhutanese refugees were terrorists. Interestingly, Nepalese laureates found no objects to clamp that tag. They spoke on how literature can help combat terrorism and how terrorism has influenced the literary creations in Nepal.
A question from Prof Dr Abhi Subedi on basis for defining a terrorist was merely noted. His point was at political changes in Nepal where a once tagged terrorist leader is currently leading the government and if similar stories emerge in other countries as well. Most presenters from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan unraveled the history of armed conflict in their country, cross border terrorism and its impact on political and social order of the country.
Like blame game played at the state level, paper presenters charged each others’ country for promoting terrorism. Suggestions like from Jawaharlal Handoo of India, who stated violence is an ingredient of South Asian religions which today has spilled over to larger form, were debated and responded to fiercely. The debaters failed to access internal causes behind the heightening insurgencies in the region.
There were also few poets who supported violence. Amit Dahiya Badshah characterised violence as a natural phenomenon of human society to keep it in balance.
There were few from Nepal and India who linked their presentation with the festival theme. In the last few decades, literature in South Asia has passed through a rough road of conflict and these littérateurs incorporated such incidents and projected their impacts. Yet they were hardly heard nor appreciated.
It was unclear if the organisers had imposed writers to talk about politics or if writers wished to turn political critics. Arguably, if literature in this region has to be labeled or measured from this regional conference, it has lost its charm on nature, beauty of women, emotions of love, ravages in societies and victory and bravery but has rather taken the course of talking and penning terrorism.
Hopes and energies ran out when conference ended with nothing to learn on regional literature except being introduced to some prominent literary figures.
Published in Nepalnews.com