For 2010, the
Programmes that have been lined up are :
1.
‘SAARC CONFERENCE ON EMERGING VOICES OF WOMEN’ in Kathmandu, Nepal, in
September 2010.
EMERGING
VOICES OF WOMEN
NEPAL AND
INDIA
With focus on
Nepali and Indian Women
SHARING THEIR
CREATIVE, SOCIAL, POLITICAL VISION POETRY AND FICTION, THEATRE, MUSIC, AND DANCE
THEME
INTRODUCTION
The last
three-four decades have been the age of women’s awakening in the world.
This
awakening has been very slow and hiccupped in South Asia and Middle East.
Inspite of
the slow awakening, in India particularly, women of all social segments are
becoming aware of their rights : demanding their rightful place in the
community, in history, in knowledge, in politics, in law, in industry, in
medical profession, in media, in social struggles, in academics, and in
literature and creative arts.
The awakening
has given rise to hundreds of significant women writers and scholars, women
politicians with exemplary statesmanship, besides showing and underlining their
excellence in all other fields mentioned above, in all the South Asian Countries
who are rebelling against patriarchal ideology in all its incarnations, revising
the literary canons, revisioning phallocentric myths, rewriting history from
women’s point of view, and try to forge a creative sisterhood of writers and
intellectuals unveiling the hidden mysteries of existence; and women historians,
media persons, activists fighting for gender equality.
This struggle
is part of a larger struggle for fuller democracy and human rights, complemented
by awakenings in other social sections like the unskilled workers, landless
labourers, dalits, adivasis, tribals, minorities, etc.
Women’s
writings in South Asia are directly reflective of the evolution of the social
fabric in their countries. They are a poignant reflection of the ethos of their
countries, marked by its social, religious and political milieu.
It is
primarily since the 20th century that women have penned writings in
their own name. They are now emerging as a major voice in literature, probing
the multi-dimensional layers of existence and telling nothing but the truth.
The world seen from the eyes of women, oppressed since centuries of patriarchal
anarchy, looks a lot different and reveals all those unexplored layers of life
which have remained invisible so far.
The SAARC
region, now comprising eight countries, has seen many wars, conflicts, communal
disarray, puppet regimes, martial laws and suppression of democratic rights and
struggle for human rights, in which the most poignant sufferings are inflicted
on women and children, which have the potential of moulding and giving shape to
creative writings.
What binds
together the women of South Asia is the common thread of a new awakening about
their rights,
and a common struggle for breaking out of the shackles of strangulating
patriarchal systems.
Being
sensitive to their own condition, their writings exhibit a deep concern for the
degradation seeping through society. The suffering of women in the SAARC
countries is embedded in the male attitudes, in the worship of power, the
contempt they have for all that is creative, life-giving and gentle.
Women suffer unconcealed sexual harassment at home and at work place, in
addition to relentless downgrading of the women intellectuals. Thus, the entire
female population is forced to accept a restricted existence. No metaphor can
communicate the disgraceful realities more forcefully than what the reality
itself is. They need not be metaphorized. They need only to be changed.
Eminent women writers and activists
of all the SAARC countries have efficiently internalized their independent
movements, the anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian struggles,
subaltern uprisings, and progressive cultural movements and writings.
They have absorbed the ironies of present realities on a psychological plane,
basically because they are wise enough to realize that psychological and strong
protest is the only way out of the cruel world of private and public
tribulations.
A VERY RARE AND VERY SHINING EXAMPLE
OF THIS SUBALTERN UPRISING AND POLITICAL AWARENESS AND EMERGING POWER OF WOMEN
BECAME EVIDENT WITH SMT. INDIRA GANDHI BECOMING THE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA, AND
NOW A WOMAN PRESIDENT OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY, BESIDES VARIOUS WOMEN GOVERNORS,
CHIEF MINISTERS, AND MINISTERS, BUSINESS MAGNATES, EDUCATIONISTS, MEDICAL
SPECIALISTS, PAINTERS, THEATRE AND FILM DIRECTORS-ACTORS, WRITERS SOCIOLOGISTS,
HISTORIANS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL ACTIVISTS, BANKERS AND ECONOMISTS,
SCIENTISTS, HIGH-POSITIONED BUREAUCRATS AND DECISION MAKERS, PAVING WAY AND
SHOWING LIGHT TO MANY SUCH REVOLUTIONS IN THE SAARC REGION.
SAME HAS BEEN TRUE OF NEPAL.
Besides, there are women Sarpanchs
of village panchayats bringing in a complete but silent revolution in the rural
areas, which are otherwise considered extremely backward.
It is with this perspective and background that the Foundation of SAARC Writers
and Literature considers the presentation of this new
‘FESTIVAL OF VOICE
OF WOMEN OF INDIA AND NEPAL’.
It is this latent force of aware women who are gender rights activists and human
rights activists, which can be instrumental in highlighting the commonalities
which exist in the cultures of India and Nepal, and the common wounds, common
pain and anguish of the women who are the worst sufferers in all wars and
war-like conflicts, political turmoils and upheavals, communal riots and ethnic
pogroms, internal displacements and mass exoduses, and as homeless refugees as a
result of multi-layered communal and ethnic conflicts. Getting together these
women from India and Nepal will help understand each other’s anguish, and share
a vision for peaceful future, helping to bring the people of the two close
neighbours closer through the meeting of minds.
This unique
‘FESTIVAL OF WOMEN’
will be spearheaded by women writers and scholars, taking in its fold gender and
peace activists, historians, policy makers,
WITH THE ACTIVE COLLABORATION OF G.P. KOIRALA FOUNDATION and managed by INDIAN
EMBASSY IN NEPAL.
The Seminar – Festival will address
issues of :
§
VOICES OF
WOMEN IN INDIA AND NEPAL
§
THE GREAT
WOMEN ACHIEVERS OF INDIA AND NEPAL
§
REVISING AND
REDEFINING HISTORY : FROM WOMEN’S VIEW-POINT.
§
CONCERNS OF
WOMEN WRITERS, HOW THEY REDEFINE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF INDIA AND NEPAL.
§
WOMEN’S
WRITINGS IN NEPAL AND INDIA : IDENTITY AND STRUGGLES
§
WOMEN IN THE
PUBLIC SPACE : WOMEN IN POLITICS, THREATRE, CINEMA, VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS,
ACADEMICS, RESEARCH SCHOLARS, HISTORIANS AND SCIENTISTS.
§
ROLE OF WOMEN
AS SOCIAL ACTIVISTS AND PEACE ACTIVISTS.
§
WOMEN’S
FICTION
§
WOMEN’S
POETRY
§
WOMEN’S
THEATRE
§
WOMEN’S
CINEMA
OBJECTIVES
§
The Seminar –
Festival will have a wide-ranging impact and create long-term human
relationships and linkages among women of India and Nepal.
§
It will help
to promote Indo-Nepal cooperation, as at the heart of such cooperation lies the
important role which women politicians, social and political activists, and
creative writers of the region can play in engendering better understanding by
promoting non-official initiatives, particularly for peace and human dignity.
§
It will
strengthen democratic values and will promote socio-cultural cooperation within
Nepal and India, through an understanding of the position of women in our
societies.
§
It would be a
milestone event and would help peace activists and human rights activists
working for the protection and promotion of women’s rights in Nepal and India.
§
It would help
elicit genuine admiration for women in Nepal and India, who are the silent
sufferers of gender bias and discrimination and are yet committed to positive
goals of peace and harmony.
MODALITIES OF
THE SEMINAR - FESTIVAL
1. It
will be our endeavour to ensure the widest participation of women achievers from
Nepal and India.
2.
In the
evenings, the delegates would participate in cultural programmes : theatre
performances, and films, folk songs, poetry and fiction readings, open
discussions.
3.
Jalabala
Vaidya will stage choreographed ‘Ramayan’.
4.
We will try
to show a women-centric film.
5.
A play
directed by Prof. Abhi Subedi, if he kindly lends his helping hand.
.
2.
‘UN PEACE DAY’, IN DELHI, ON SEPTEMBER 21, 2010.
Will be
celebrated at Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, 4/6, Siri Fort Institutional
Area .
3.
‘SAARC FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE WITH FOCUS ON TAGORE AND NAZRUL ISLAM’,in
Dhaka,
in November.
CELEBRATING TAGORE AND
NAZRUL
ISLAM
FESTIVAL IN DHAKA
§
CELEBRATING
TAGORE : THE POET OF BENGAL,
THE POET OF THE WORLD
§
TAGORE : THE
SINGING VOICE OF ‘SHONAR BANGLA’
§
NAZRUL ISLAM : THE
‘AGNIVEENA’
§
TAGORE AND NAZRUL :
the Renaissance men
of their times
§
TAGORE AND NAZRUL :
the Singing Revolutionaries, who ignited the imagination of one and all.
§
TAGORE AND NAZRUL :
Common legacy of both Bengals : of both India and Bangladesh
§
AFTER TAGORE AND
NAZRUL
MAJOR LITERARY
EVENT OF FOSWAL
CELEBRATING TAGORE
AND
NAZRUL ISLAM
THE PRIDE OF BENGAL
A 5-Day Festival in Dhaka
§
Readings and Deliberations and Discussions by Contemporary Writers and Scholars
from SAARC countries who have worked on different aspects of the Literary Genius
of Tagore and Nazrul Islam
§
Presenting Plays by Tagore
§
Showing films based on Tagore’s Stories
§
Dancers from Shantiniketan
§
Eminent Singers of Rabindrasangeet
§
Eminent Nazrulgeeti Singers
The
CONSULTANTS
of the Festival are giant littérateurs and scholars of India and Bangladesh :
§
Dr. Namwar Singh, India
§
Mahasveta Devi, India
§
Dr. Selina Hossain, Bangladesh
§
Dr. Reba Som, India
§
Prof. Kaiser Haq, Bangladesh
§
Prof. K. Satchidanandan, India
§
Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra, India
§
Dr. Ashok Vajpeyi, India
§
Prof. Manabendra Bandopadhyay, India
§
Dr. Shamsuzzaman Khan, Bangladesh
§
Mr. Khademul Islam, Bangladesh
§
Mr. Ramendu Majumdar, Bangladesh
OUR ‘FOSWAL’ HAS HAD LOT OF EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH BANGLADESH AND OTHER SAARC
COUNTRIES.
OUR ORGANISATION IS HELD IN HIGH ESTEEM IN BANGLADESH.
A
FESTIVAL OF TAGORE AND NAZRUL ISLAM IN DHAKA IS PLANNED AS A UNIQUE ENDEAVOUR TO
BUILD CULTURAL BRIDGES BETWEEN ALL THE SENSITIVE WRITERS AND SCHOLARS, ARTISTS
AND INTELLECTUALS, PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTISTS, ACADEMICIANS AND MEDIA
PERSONS, SOCIAL AND PEACE ACTIVITS, FORMER DIPLOMATS AND OPINION MAKERS,
FOLKLORIST AND HISTORIANS, THEATRE ARTISTS AND CULTURAL ACTIVISTS OF
INDIA AND BANGLADESH.
IN CELEBRATION OF
150TH BIRTH CENTENARY OF TAGORE
111 CENTENARY OF NAZRUL ISLAM
A
unique endeavour of Track II Initiatives between India and Bangladesh.
Building Bridges through two great poets who live and sing in every Bengali
heart : in India and Bangladesh and wherever Bengalis are settled abroad.
FESTIVAL OF TAGORE AND NAZRUL ISLAM
IN DHAKA
Tagore is the
common legacy of India and Bangladesh and it will only be proper that India as
the prime heir to Tagore takes the lead in organising a mammoth Tagore event in
Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh.Celebrating Tagore in the myriad ways he lived his illustrious life. And Nazrul
Islam : his poetry and life.Both Tagore and Nazrul ignited the imagination of their generation and of the
coming generations.Both were unique in their lyricism, their sensitivity, and their revolutionary
ideas.
More than a
hundred writers, intellectuals and scholars from all over India, Bangladesh, and
from Bengali diaspora are expected to take part in the unique Festival, if
adequate funds are provided by the Tagore Celebration Committee of Government of
India.
Both Tagore and
Nazrul were no doubt complete Renaissance men as they radically innovated
poetry, fiction, painting, music, education and political and philosophical
thought in undivided India by their great legacy embracing all these diverse
fields of human culture.
For Bangladesh,
and for all sensitive literary minds of India, both Nazrul and Tagore are held
in very high esteem.
There is no
better way to touch hearts than to understand and respect the cultural
legacy of each other : of Tagore and of Nazrul Islam.
Both belong to
the Undivided India.
AFTER
GEOGRAPHICAL PARTITIONS OF LAND, PEOPLE HAVE NOT DIVIDED THEIR POETS. BOTH THE
COUNTRIES ARE EQUALLY PROUD OF TAGORE AND NAZRUL.
The event will
be called
TAGORE
FESTIVAL or
RABINDROTSAV
AND
FESTIVAL OF NAZRUL ISLAM
TAGORE FESTIVAL will focus on
covering all the dimensions of Tagore’s unique contributions to art, literature
and culture.
NAZRUL ISLAM FESTIVAL will focus on
his poetry, and the impact of his poetry on the sensitivity of Bengal.
AN INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON
TAGORE’S AND
NAZRUL ISLAM’S
CONTRIBUTIONS
TO
THE CULTURAL
RICHNESS OF
THE SUB-CONTINENT
THE LIVING
TAGORE
,
THE LIVING NAZRUL ISLAM
Tagore and Nazrul scholars from India and Bangladesh and abroad, will take part,
as well as any scholar from the neighbouring SAARC countries who has done work
on these two great Maestros.
Tagore was a
poet, an educationist, an institution-builder, a painter, a freedom-fighter, a
scholar with independent vision. Tagore was not only an eminent person, he was
an institution.
Similarly
Nazrul Islam’s poetry created and evoked a unique, revolutionary consciousness
in Bengal (the united Bangladesh, before Partition), spreading out into the
world.
In the
Academic Seminar, all these different aspects of their personalities and their
contribution will be highlighted :
·
Their Poetry
·
Their Impact on
Contemporary Writing
·
The Translations of
Tagore and Nazrul Islam
·
Impact of
their Poetry on the Languages of SAARC Countries
·
Poetry of
India, Bangladesh and SAARC Region After Tagore and Nazrul Islam
·
Tagore’s Fictional
World
·
Their World View
·
Tagore as the Pioneer
of Modern Indian Art
·
Rabindra Sangeet and
Nazrul Geeti as Integral Forms of Asian Music
·
Tagore in Plays and
Films
AND
§
A Play
written by Tagore, ‘The King of the Dark Chamber’, or any other.
§
A Film based
on Tagore’s fiction , ‘Charulata’
§
Ensemble of
Dances from Shantiniketan
§
Tagore’s
Songs by Rabindra Sangeet Experts
§
Singers of
Nazrul Islam’s Poetry : NAZRUL GITI
§
Participation
by a couple of Actors and Actresses from Films based on Tagore’s Stories /
Novels