Sahitya Akademi should do extensive publicity to make Sahityotsav popular: Writers

Young new delhi, As to the highest degree chairs at Sahitya Akademi's 'Festival of Letters' remained untenanted for the larger portion of the annual literature festival, senior writers and scholars expressed disappointment over the sparse audience with fewer youth and blamed the academy for its lack of publicity. While T V Kattimani, vice chancellor of Andhra Pradesh' Central Tribal University, said that students and researchers should have taken advantage of the festival but there was a negligible presence of audience during sessions. "It was disappointing to see the negligible presence of audience and literature lovers in Sahityotsav. Delhi University has more than 70 colleges and their students, teachers and researchers should have taken advantage of the festival but there was no one," Kattimani told PTI. The writer-translator added that even though the academy spent huge amounts of money on the festival, literature lovers did not join it in that proportion. "For this, the academy should promote it properly in the universities of the capital so that people with literary interests can benefit from it as much as possible," he said. The Sahitya Akademi organised 'Sahityotsav: Festival of Letters' from March 7-12 at Ravindra Bhavan here. More than 700 famous writers and scholars from different states of the country participated in over 100 sessions. During some of the sessions, the number of speakers on the stage was more than the audience present in the auditorium. In the session 'Challenges in translating literary works in culturally different languages', there were not even ten spectators in the auditorium as compared to the seven speakers present on the stage. A publisher present there said that even among the ten spectators, most were those who had come from outside Delhi to participate in Sahityotsav. The presence of local spectators was negligible. Marathi, Hindi, and Kannada professor and translator Kirti Ramachandra termed the negligible presence of listeners as "unfortunate" and said that the festival should be promoted by targeting the youth through the literature departments of universities. "The main beneficiaries of such events are the students and the young generation and if they do not join it, then the purpose of the event is lost," Ramachandra said. On the question of negligible presence of audience, a top official associated with the Sahitya Akademi said, "The condition is very pathetic. Delhi has many big technical institutes including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University and Jamia Millia University where the academy should have properly promoted the Sahityotsav". "Efforts have to be made to connect the common people with literature. The academy has been suggested many times to organize programs outside the capital, but they do not want to go," he told PTI Bhasha on the condition of anonymity. "In the session of children's literature, there were only ten people in the auditorium including the cameraman. We do not come just to give empty speeches, if there is a good audience, the speaker also feels the significance of speaking. It was exactly like 'who saw the peacock dance in the jungle'," he added. A publisher who has been participating in the Sahityotsav for the last several years said on the condition of anonymity that "if the Sahitya Akademi does not do proper publicity, how will people come?" "This is not a popular literary festival where celebrities or famous writers are invited. To make it popular, the Akademi should use social media platforms as much as possible." Another young litterateur said that the basic work of the Sahitya Akademi is to award the works of the best litterateurs and to make them reach all Indian languages. "It is fulfilling its responsibility very well but from the point of view of the audience, especially the new generation has not been able to connect with such a big event," he said. A listener present in a session on the topic 'Aasmita: Feminism in Indian Novels / Stories' said that "the level of discussion in the sessions here is more academic, perhaps this is also a reason why the audience could not connect with it as expected". Renowned poet and Sahitya Akademi Award winner Anamika said that Indian literature has so many dimensions that the audience gets divided into different sessions and "we should focus on its positive aspects instead of criticising it". Attempts were made to contact the Sahitya Akademi several times to get the data of visitors who participated in the six-day Sahityotsav but no response was received. Sahityotsav featured about 100 sessions on topics including 'literary works of Indian LGBTQ writers in the 21st century', 'Indian literature in the global literary scenario', 'creation myth in tribal literary works', and 'challenges before the writers of children's books'. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.