A cultural bouquet

The South Asian literary conference is themed on cultural hegemony

Preserving cultural identity has been one of the Sahitya Akademi's principal aims through the five decades of its existence.

So it isn't surprising that as part of its 50-year celebrations, India's National Academy of Letters is organising a South Asian literary conference with the theme "One Sky, Many Worlds"  to examine and discuss the subsuming of Asian culture and languages.

"The developed world tries to bulldoze cultures to create one consolidated global culture," says Prof K Satchidanandan, secretary, Sahitya Akademi.

"What this results in is the undermining of languages other than English." Accordingly, one of the topics of discussion is "Globalisation, Culture and Identity", which aims at challenging the cultural hegemony imposed on Asian countries.

Thirty of the 90 writers attending the conference, being held between February 18-20, are from outside India. The inauguration was done by the Pakistani poet Ahmad Faraz and participants include Shashi Tharoor, Gulzar and Amit Chaudhuri.

Jnanpith-award winner Indira Goswami is a little pragmatic about the issues to be raised at the conference.

"I personally feel every writer needs to be bilingual " proficient in English as well as in their own mother tongue," she says. "This may be a controversial topic but one has to be practical and accept the widespread use of English."

Goswami, who will be reading one of her short stories at the conference, points to her own dialect, Kamrupi " "there are so few people who know it that I have to translate my own stories".

Another of the topics is "South Asian Literatures: Challenges and Responses", where authors from around the region will meet to discuss ways of preserving cultures.

"The benefit of such seminars," says Padma Sachdev, "is that one gets to listen to people from other languages."

Reclining in her south Delhi flat " in a room that has books lining an entire wall from floor to ceiling " Sachdev, who won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1970 and is considered the first poet in the Dogri language, says, "The people of all countries are of one mind, but express their thoughts in different languages.

It's only when they meet at such seminars that there can be true understanding of other cultures."

Each language has a separate fragrance, says Sachdev; "but when they are brought together you get a bouquet that is much more than the sum of its parts."