FOUNDATION OF SAARC WRITERS AND LITERATURE

Publications of Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature

The Foundation has brought out several publications :
i) to disseminate ideas of peace and cooperation in the SAARC Region, and
ii) to highlight the latest creative works of talented writers of the Region, and to make them a part of mainstream world literature

Parabarti Sabdabali (The New Poetic Idiom" in the Making") is a collection of poems written by young Bangla poets hailing from Bangladesh and West Bengal (India), The poems were first presented by these 16 young poets at a week-long Young Bangla Poets Meet organised at Kolkata and coordinated by Dr. Ram Kumar Mukhopadhyay and Prof. Nabaneeta Dev Sen. It has been edited by Dr. Ramkumar Mukhopadhyay, eminent writer and literary scholar.

SAARC Writers Building Bridges for Cultural Harmony and Peace contains reflections of eminent writers and peace activists, academicians and policy workers, on the role of writers and intellectuals in building bridges for cultural harmony and peace. It has been edited by Ajeet Cour, eminent punjabi poet, and President of FOSWAL.

Shamsur Rahman: A Witness of His Times contains selected poetry of Shamsur Rahman, the foremost poet of Bangladesh and the recipient of the first-ever SAARC Literary Award for Lifetime Creative Excellence. It also contains research articles on Shamsur Rahman"s art and persona by a galaxy of eminent litterateurs and literary critics. It has been edited by Ajeet Cour and Dr. Pankaj Bhan.

Beyond Borders: Poetry, in the SAARC region, occupies a lot of space, both private and public. From personal anguish to social protest, from longing to loss and love, from racial ancestral memories to rude ruptures, it covers a very wide and complicated range of experiences, emotions, feelings and insights, amalgamating history, politics and myth.

Nurturing itself from the immense resources of tradition while responding deeply to the new challenges, it has been resorting to a wide range of poetic devices, formal strategies and modes of reflection and exploration. Some of the old conventions have been subverted to create space for novel and unprecedented experience and emotions and to enact the new conjunctions and dissonances.
In the various languages of the region, poetry continues to question the given, to look critically at the establishment and the state, to assert its independence against narrow ideologies, chauvinistic viewpoints, oppressive structures and soulless technologies.
This anthology puts together a selection of works from some of the most lively and active poets from SAARC countries who are present in and are shaping the poetic scene at the beginning of a new century.

An Anthology of Ideas, Poetry, Fiction contains selected critical articles, poems and short stories written by contemporary SAARC Writers, besides a detailed report of the Fourth SAARC Writers Conference, New Delhi, 13-15 December, 2001, in which many eminent writers, poets, diplomats, and scholars participated.

Voices of Asia: In consonance with the wishes of the writers of the SAARC region, expressed through numerous conferences, workshops, seminars, as also through inter-personal interactions, the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature has brought out this volume of representative short stories of writers from the ‘seven sister’ countries comprising the SAARC region. While retaining their distinctive local colour and flavour, these stories embody certain common themes and motifs highlighting the myriad aspect of life as lived by the teeming millions who inhabit the region. In their different ways, they bring out the recurrent aspects of the ‘existential’ reality like poverty, ‘feminisation’ of poverty, gender relations, women’s empowerment, political protest, social upheavals, cultural assertion, corruption, pacifism, communal cleavages, etc. as lived out by the peoples of the region. It has been edited by Ajeet Cour and
Dr. Pankaj Bhan.

Oi Banglay ("In the Other Bengal") is a creative travelogue of Bangladesh written by Dr. Ramkumar Mukhopadhyay, eminent scholar. It has been published in Bangla, and English ‘In the Other Bengal’ Translated by Ms. Jayita Sengupta.

Crying for Kurukshetra is a play written by Ms. Suryakanthi Tripathi, and presents a dialogue between the widows left behind after the epic battle of Mahabharata. The play, is about women and war. It addresses the impact that war has on the lives of women and their struggle to come to terms with its aftermath. The theme is highlighted through the experiences of women, both royal and common, who suffer devastating losses in Kurukshetra, the great battle of the Indian epic, “The Mahabharata.” It is seen that the issues that confronted those women have remarkable contemporary relevance, and are strikingly similar to those that challenge the women of today.

Our Voices is an anthology of contemporary poetry of the eminent poets of the SAARC region edited by Ajeet Cour and Nirupama Dutt. This anthology of poetry includes poems of many poets of South Asia who have been participating in several SAARC Writers Conferences organised by the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL), under the dynamic leadership of eminent Punjabi writer Ajeet Cour. A few poets who we hope, will participate in the SAARC conferences in the future, are also included in the anthology. The effort has been to include poetry that reflects the contemporary reality of the region.

Ripples of The Mahanadi, a collection of poems by Mayadhar Mansinha, the doyen of Oriya poetry, the late father of eminent diplomat and scholar Lalit Mansingh. The anthology of translations prepared by the poet himself representing but a small segment of his work should introduce to a wider circle of readership the genius of this personality who made such an impact on the cultural scene in modern Orissa.

Chasing the Clouds and Other Stories brings together eighteen exceptional short stories by prominent women writers from the SAARC region. Originally written in different languages of the region ranging from Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu, to Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Sinhalese, Nepali, Assamese, Hindi, Dzongkha, Marathi and Tamil, these stories in their highly readable English versions reflect the range, depth and diversity of the short fiction authored by South Asian women.

Cultural Connectivity For Peace in South Asia, edited by Ajeet Cour and Pankaj Bhan, is a compilation of papers presented at the 14th SAARC Writers Conference held in New Delhi. It comprehensively deals with issues of cultural connectivity which is a talisman for the establishment of peace in the region. The book was officially distributed by the Ministry of External Affairs to all participants and delegates in the SAARC Summit in Dhaka.

Ghar Barabar Laltein is a collection of short stories written by leading writers of the SAARC countries and presented in Hindi/Devnagri script, and Urdu which was published and distributed in Pakistan. The work is the outcome of a collaborative effort between FOSWAL
and Pakistan"s Academy of Letters, and is jointly
edited by Ajeet Cour, Iftikhar Arif, Asif Farrukhi and
Gulzar Ahmed.

City in an Oyster and Other Stories brings together eighteen exceptional short stories by prominent women writers from the SAARC region. Originally written in different languages of the region ranging from Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu, to Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Sinhalese, Nepali, Assamese, Hindi, Dzongkha, Marathi and Tamil, these stories in their highly readable English versions reflect the range, depth and diversity of the short fiction authored by South Asian women. Edited by Ajeet Cour, K. Satchidanandan and Mridula Garg.

The Arrival, a saga of the life of Dalits, their trials and tribulations, hopes and aspirations, and emerging defiantly against the backdrop of correlation of forces taking place in the twentieth century. Written by A.M. Gondane, in Marathi and English. The insistent social and political churning, epitomized by Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar, neo-Buddhism and neo-Ambedkarism, through proxy debates, comes alive in this fictional work.

Folklore : The Intangible Cultural Heritage of SAARC Region : Folklore of SAARC countries is the collective consciousness of the people of this region. Published in two volumes.
The roots of all cultures lie in their folklore – in folk songs, fables, folktales, folk paintings, folk crafts, folk dances, folk theatre, myths, legends, and grandmother’s tales. We, the people of South Asia, are connected at a deeper level through different forms of articulation; through our shared myths, traditions, cosmologies, rituals and folk knowledge systems that together constitute our cultural identity.
It is this realisation of the multi-dimensional significance of folklore that set the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature thinking of

Padma, Meghna, Jamuna is a rare treasure of Bangla poetry of Bangladesh. One of the best things about Bangladesh is its wonderful language, Bengali, which has produced poetry of the most sensitive and evocative kind. It was a challenging task to select some of the best examples of Bengali poetry, to be part of a representative Anthology. The canvas of Bangladeshi poetry is so vast and varied that it was a Herculean task to make a selection out of this huge variety and its multi-faceted excellence. Painstaking efforts and perseverance were required for accomplishment this feat. Kaiser Haq has done it with competence, fair judgement and brilliant editorial skills.

In the eleven years old tradition of ‘FOUNDATION OF SAARC WRITERS AND LITERATURE’, a Special Publication has been brought out for the SAARC SUMMIT.....

This book carries selections from the talks and papers presented at the Seminar held as part of the second SAARC Folklore Festival organized by FOSWAL at Chandigarh in India in 2009. The introductory remarks by B.N. Goswami, Abid Hussain, Chinmaya R. Gharekhan and Azizuddin Ahmadzada set the tone for the discussions that followed.

he book is then divided into two sections. The first one carries four papers that consider general theoretical issues and reconsider existing paradigms. Sitakant Mahapatra, Indian poet and folklorist, examines what happens to folkculture with the onset of modernization and commodification of culture. K. Satchidanandan, poet and scholar, interrogates the neat division between the classical and the folk, margi and desi. Suryakanthi Tripathi, diplomat and academic, looks at creation of myths as tales of origin that set human imagination free. Selina Hossain, fiction-writer from Bangladesh, examines the possibility of a SAARC identity at the level of cultural roots.

The second section carries specific studies. Shamsuzzaman Khan examines the origins of Bangla folklore; Abhi Subedi looks at Nepali Ramayanas; Anungla Aier surveys the Naga folk context; Abul Ahsan Choudhury studies the work of Lalon Baul; Mamang Dai examines the folklore of Arunachal Pradesh; Raza Rumi traces the evolution of a common culture in the Indus Valley region; Bhagvandas Patel looks at the Dungri-Bhili songs of courtship in detail; C.M. Bandhu seeks to consolidate the shared Asian identity; Molly Kaushal studies sanjhi, a folkform spread across many states; Rakhshanda Jalil discovers the folk elements in Urdu literature; Piyush Daiya attempts a critique of folklore research, and Lubna Marium examines the fate of popular arts in the age of globalization with the example of lathikhela, a martial art of Bangladesh.

The book is a must for folklore scholars and students, and a fascinating read for laymen interested in folklore.

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organising a Seminar-cum-Festival of SAARC Folklore.
It turned out to be a huge event, with a focused Seminar at the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, and scintillating folk performances from all the SAARC countries, including Afghanistan, the new member, at various venues, the chief of them being the Central Park, Connaught Place and the Dilli Haat, besides universities, colleges and schools in Delhi.

The Inaugural Address of the Seminar was delivered by Nihal Rodrigo, the Chief Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka, with a Keynote Address by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, under the Chairmanship of V.P. Singh, the former Prime Minister of India.

Ambika Soni, Minister of Culture and Sardarni Gursharan Kaur, the adorable wife of Dr. Manmohan Singh, graced the occasion with their elegant presence.The present books : Volume I and Volume II are the outcome of that memorable Seminar. Contributors to these Anthologies has remarkably succeeded in unravelling the elusive charm and eternal wisdom of folk culture. It is their effort which makes this book eminently readable and thought-provoking. First Volume was edited by Ajeet Cour and K. Satchidanandan.Second Volume was edited by Ajeet Cour and Dinesh Misra.

Beyond Borders is a regular SAARC Journal, initiated, edited and published by FOSWAL, with English translations of literary masterpieces from the SAARC region; highlighting Ideas of SAARC Scholars; giving the political highlights in the region. It is being brought out three times a year, aspiring to make it a quarterly, with four issues every year, with representative writings from the region – fiction, poetry, literary criticism, articles on fine arts and performing arts and also well-researched articles on social and cultural issues in the region, and political comments, on the latest political developments in the region.