Amidst great fanfare, The Great Indian Literary Festival, (TGILF), launched its 4th edition, on 9th Jan-uary 2021.
After the mega-success of its three earlier editions, despite being an online edition, this one too attracted the same hype around it. Being India’s only regional literature festival with a global footprint, the first day of the two-day event saw an array of top regional writers, thinkers, and opinion-makers grace the panel discussions.
Amit Shankar, Founder, TGILF welcomed the guests and elaborated upon the importance of regional language in stitching a new Bharat, a new nation, capable of achieving so much more. He also elucidated upon the need of writers and poets expressing more in their native languages as not only it is natural but also as it has the power to articulate region-specific stories.
Sudesh Verma, Spokesperson, BJP did the keynote and stressed the importance of every language. He stressed the need for submission, not aggression while trying to implement the will of India’s constitution-makers in having Hindi as the main national language.
Day One
The first panel, Svabhasha, Svabodh, and Svabhiman had Krishnakant Unadkat, Jyoti Unadkat, Vijay Soni from Gujarat, Prof, Madhav Hada from Rajasthan, and Yachna Arora and Shweta Singh from Delhi.
Prof Hada deliberated upon varied forms of Hindi and how languages complement each other, his casing point being Gujarati and Rajasthani. Kumar Rakesh shared his global perspective for Indian languages, especially Hindi. The panel delved into languages’ modalities; it’s nuances and explored their tried hues and implications.
The second panel was ‘Regional Languages Consortium — Growing Stronger Together had well known Odiya writer, Dr Debasis Panigrahi. Gopa Nayak, Vineeta Jerath, Ritika Acharya, and Zara Albert. The panel shared their views on the role of language in their lives and the respective state and how languages could seamless be integrated into the learning process.
Vineeta Jerath, Founder & Editor SUBURB magazine emphatically put across the need to take pride in regional languages. She said that language is a medium of expression; a culture itself meant to bond and not create fragments among people. Each language is a flower in the garland that makes Bharat.
Day two discussions
On the 10th, the 2nd day, TGILF, Season 4 had participants from Switzerland, Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary. Continuing its tradition of promoting Hindi literature and writers, the platform also had a dedicated session on Bhagwati Charan Varma, the legendary Hindi writer.
In its first session of the day which had the famous cartoonist Anupam Sinha, Kumar Rakesh, Dr Divya Tanwar, Renu Kaul and Anuradha Goyal discussed Hindi and its revival in the year 2021.
The second panel comprised of Corina Junghiatu, the famous Romanian poet, Svetlana Lavochkina, the renowned Ukrainian novelist, Ursula Altenbach, the celebrated Swiss painter, and Pál Bódogh-Szabó, Director, Cultural Affairs, Embassy of Hungary, Delhi and Yagika Madan, a regional language enthusiast, based out of Jakarta. This panel explored the importance of regional languages in creating a new world order.
Surabhi Pant Joshi impeccably moderated the sessions on both the days. The event was curated by House of Lions, content support came from Wisdom Curators, SUBURB as Media Partner, and Karma Foundation as Gujrati Content partner. All in all, an impactful event.
TGILF has planned a series of regional and international events along with global literary collaborations.
