Kozhikode submits bid for Unesco’s ‘City of Literature’ status

Kozhikode has officially submitted its final bid for Unesco’s ‘City of Literature’ status with the approval of the Union government.

Kozhikode has officially submitted its final bid for Unesco’s ‘City of Literature’ status with the approval of the Union government. Mayor Beena Philip met with representatives of the Union Ministry for Education and Culture as well as the Sahitya Akademi in Delhi recently to facilitate the approval of the Indian National Commission for Cooperation with Unesco so as to bid for the tag.

Kozhikode has been making preparations for the bid for the last two years. It was the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) that proposed the move as part of its plan to develop six cities in the State as ‘Creative Cities’. The Kozhikode Corporation soon sprung into action and contacted the authorities of the world cities that have already won the tag such as Prague in Czech Republic, Krakow in Poland, and Edinburgh in Scotland to study their activities and preparations.

Ludmila Kolouchova, a research scholar from the Prague University who came down to Kozhikode to study the probabilities, found that Kozhikode had more than 500 libraries and over 70 publishers which provided the city a firm ground to apply. Being a permanent venue for the annual Kerala Literature Festival and several book fests has added value to the city’s claim.

Recently, Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan met with the students of Architecture and Planning from National Institute of Technology, Calicut, who had conducted a study on the possibilities. They submitted a report to the Minister, who helped the Corporation make the right moves. The Corporation also requested him to be one of the patrons of the project while the Chief Minister of the State will be the Chief patron.

If all goes well, Kozhikode will soon be the first ‘City of Literature’ in the country. A bid from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh for ‘City of Music’ has also been approved by the Centre this year.

UNESCO started awarding ‘City of Literature’ tags in 2004, Edinburgh being the first city to get the title. So far, 39 cities across the globe have earned the title.

The number of institutions taking care of literary life in the city, and its ability and experience to organise different kinds of literary events, and an appropriate level of literary education, besides quality, quantity and diversity of literary activities are key for any city to be awarded the ‘City of Literature’ status.