Jana Sahitya Sammelanas in Bengaluru on January 8 and 29 to counter Kannada Sahitya Sammelana of KSP in Haveri

A section of writers and intellectuals allege that Muslim writers and women writers have not been given their due at the event organised by Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) in Haveri on January 6-8

The stage is being set for two Jana Sahitya Sammelanas in Bengaluru. The events are being organised by a section of writers and intellectuals who are unhappy with the manner in which Kannada Sahitya Sammelana is being organised by Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) in Haveri on January 6-8. They allege that Muslim writers and women writers have not been given their due in the main sessions of the Haveri event.

The first Jana Sahitya Sammelana will be organised on January 8 at Alumni Hall, K.R. Circle, Bengaluru. The second, on a larger scale, is being planned at Palace Ground in Bengaluru on January 29.

According to the organisers, the two events are not an alternative to the Sahitya Sammelan, but ‘a form of resistance’.

Scholar Prof. Purushottama Bilimale told The Hindu, “Up to a point, Kannada Sahitya Parishat worked to fulfil the needs of Kannadigas. A great writer of Kannada could also be its president. But now, it has exhausted its possibilities and is sluggish. It does not know how to understand the effects of globalisation and communalism, that have grown since 1992, on Kannada language, literature and culture. It has been reduced to an event management organisation that organises a conference once a year with government funding.”

He said that the two Sammelanas in Bengaluru will be organised through crowd-funding.