All great literature engages with contemporary events of the times: Sainath

Renowned journalist P. Sainath discusses the relevance of literature in capturing significant events and connecting with common people.

Renowned journalist and author P. Sainath said here on Sunday that all great literature captures the significant events and processes of the times and connects with the lives of common people.

He was speaking after inaugurating the Mysuru Literature Festival 2025, organised by the Mysuru Literary Association, at the Maharaja’s College Centenary Hall.

Mr. Sainath, said Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, and Bhagat Singh produced the most enduring literary material through their engagement with the great processes under way during their times.

“While Gandhi engaged with swaraj, Ambedkar engaged with the greatest battle for human dignity, and Bhagat Singh engaged with struggle against imperialism, and these struggles are still relevant,” said Mr. Sainath.

Mr. Sainath said the Kisan Andolan of 2020-21 and the reverse migration during the COVID-19 pandemic were the great processes of the present times in India, and he was critical of how the media covered them. He also touched upon the “Occupy Wall Street” movement as another great process of the present times which highlighted inequality but was initially ignored by the mainstream media in the U.S.

Describing the Kisan Andolan as the largest and greatest struggle for justice in the last few decades, Mr. Sainath said it was peaceful, constitutional, and democratic, but the media was silent on these aspects.

“It lasted 54 weeks, but the farmers did not budge even though they were attacked by the police, who used water cannons in the worst winter of Delhi in the last 40 years. The farmers’ attitude of not giving up and their unwillingness to surrender went straight back to the ideals of the freedom struggle,” Mr. Sainath added.