Sahitya Akademi's Festival of letters promotes vernacular literature while providing recognition to the authors. Divya Kaushik reports
In the last few years, a lot of emphasis has been paid to vernacular literature. There are festivals promoting literature in regional languages and many events recognising its importance. To provide recognition to writers in various Indian languages, Sahitya Akademi, came up with the Festival of letters. The ongoing festival is an annual event where awards for the best book published in 24 recognised Indian languages, including English, are presented. Various literary programmes are also held, including the Akademi Exhibition, wherein, all the award winning titles from all the 24 languages since 1954 are exhibited. K Sreenivasarao, secretary, Sahitya Akademi, shares details about the inception of the idea and says, “Prior to the institution of Akademi Awards and launch of Festival of letters, there was nothing to secure the all-India recognition to writers in various Indian languages. The awards and the Festival of letters have filled this gap. They have enabled writers, whose reputation has hitherto been confined to their own regions, to become known all over the country. In some cases, they have paved the way for their international recognition. Few had known Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai outside Kerala before 1957. The Akademi Award made him known throughout India. His novels were soon translated into many languages, some outside India too. For a long time, he remained the most widely translated Indian novelist. Amrita Pritam received the Akademi Award when she was only 37 and the award catapulted her to international recognition overnight. The seminars and various functions during the festival give ample opportunities to the aspiring and young writers.”
Of late the festival has attracted international attention too. literary seminars on wide range of subjects, Face to Face — a programme where award-winning authors express and share their views with eminent scholars and writers, children’s programmes and competitions are some of the new elements introduced to make the festival more interesting. “Not much of activity is visible in India to promote literature in all the languages. The focus is often on English and few flashes in regional languages. A festival like this brings much desired energy and focus to the literature as available in all the regional languages. They not only popularise the literature but also is an attempt to preserve a dying literary traditions,” says Sreenivasarao. For the selection of best literature to be awarded, there are advisory bodies for each of the recognised language with a convener.
Those bodies nominate a jury of eminent litterateurs in each language and along with the convener, and after going through all the books presented before them, they decide upon the final list and from that list the best book is chosen. The process is three-tiered and highly transparent.
“Festival of letters is one place where all the regional language literature gets maximum exposure and coverage. The festival also gives opportunity to writers of every Indian language to know more and learn about the writings in languages other than their own. This promotes organic growth of regional literature and helps in preservation of otherwise unrecognised genres within a given language,” states Sreenivasarao and adds that hordes of young writers, both men and women, are surging forward in various vernacular languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Telugu and Tamil, to name a few.
A photo exhibition displaying photos covering the poignant moments of Sahitya Akademi’s is also a part of the event. “Akademi’s Exhibition marks the beginning of Festival of
letters. So far, we used to showcase our activities and achievements in the form of photographs, our publications, photographs of Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writers, along with write-ups on them, but this year, you will see a change; this year, being a Diamond Jubilee year, the annual exhibition is showcasing the history, milestones, seminal events, achievements in the last 60 years of the Akademi. This will possibly enable the literary connoisseurs as well as the readers to
get a clear picture of our activities and the Akademi’s change and growth in the last 60 years,” informs Sreenivasarao.