Goa Governor inaugurates two-day Kumaon Literary Festival
~ Art and Literature can assure unity and integrity – Pillai
~ Goa best suited to host literary event – Sumant Batra
Goa, May 14, 2022: Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai on Saturday inaugurated the two-day ‘Kumaon Literary Festival’, the country’s coveted and first traveling literary festival, while stating that art and literature play a yeoman’s role in ensuring unity and integrity within the country.
“My firm opinion is that through the means of art and literature, we can assure unity and integrity…” Pillai said at the inaugural function held in Panaji, which was also attended by Mr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, noted filmmaker Mr. Rahul Rawail and the festival’s founder Mr. Sumant Batra.
The KLF is supported by Shyam Metallics and Lakshmi Kuppuswami Trust and is scheduled to feature interesting and informative sessions on art, cinema and literature.
“The simple purpose of language is to convey ideas… Ram Manohar Lohia looks at this importantly. He told his party workers that whatever the case at that time, that you should opt for the language of the heart,” Pillai also said, underlining the significance of language as an integral element in the philosophy of communication. Lohia, a late Socialist leader, is credited with sowing the seeds of revolution against Portuguese colonial rule in Goa in 1946.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, the festival’s founder Sumant Batra said that Goa was the best suited location outside of Uttarakhand to host the travelling literature festival, adding that he was also in the process of setting up the Indian Cinema Heritage Foundation in the coastal state.
“Goa is still a place where people still take out time to read, to spend time with the family, to attend events… It has such a rich language of its own, in which such great literature has been written which of course needs to be translated more, to be able to make it more accessible for the people,” Batra said. “I’m trying to do my little bit by bringing together people to discuss, ideate about subjects, ideate about literature, ideate other parts of art and try and contribute to the building of the soft power of this country,” he added. Batra also urged youngsters to shed their constant obsession with mobile phones and redevelop the habit of reading.
“There’s nothing wrong about using the technology constructively, positively, but books, books in your hand, books by your bedside table, book reading under the night lamp is all a nostalgic experience, a feeling which has no comparison,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, Debroy said that the KLF has expanded its footprint across India over the years. Debroy said that the principle of ‘soft power’ was linked to the notion of culture. “A word for culture would be ‘sanskriti’. A related word is Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a language I’m particularly interested in, which is part of the reason I’m here,” Debroy said. Founded in the year 2014, the not-for-profit Kumaon Literary festival has held many successful editions attended by hundreds of literary luminaries and thinkers from around the world, and many Constitutional office holders. KLF is produced by Indian Cinema Heritage Foundation, a public charitable trust registered in Diwar, Goa.
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