The parent organisation of the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL), the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature commenced its endeavours of cultural connectivity in India : by getting writers of all the Indian languages together, on the last Saturday of every month, since 1975.

The vision of cultural bonding and connectivity was extended to the neighbouring SAARC countries in 1987, when writers from Pakistan set foot on Indian soil for the first time since the Partition of the country in 1947, for the first-ever Indo-Pakistan Writers Conference.

Indian and Pakistani writers of the SAARC region had not interacted with each other as contemporary wordsmiths since Partition of the country in 1947, before our FIRST-EVER INDIAN-PAKISTANI WRITERS CONFERENCE in 1987. There was hardly any provision for writers to get NOCs and visas even.

This endeavour gradually emerged as the first-ever, unique and committed Non-Government organisation : the FOUNDATION OF SAARC WRITERS AND LITERATURE, which organised the FIRST-EVER SAARC WRITERS CONFERENCE in April 2000.

“We are the mad dreamers of the SAARC region. Let governments do their political and diplomatic work. Let us, the writers and the creative fraternity of the region, endeavour to create bridges of friendship across borders, and beyond borders” : declared the first-ever Resolution.

FOSWAL is honoured with the unique status of SAARC APEX BODY, with exclusive mandate to use the acronym SAARC and the SAARC LOGO for all its activities connected with writers and literature, and culture-oriented programmes in all eight SAARC countries : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

In 2008, we invited writers from Myanmar too.

In 1999 we reached out to the writers, scholars, academics, journalists of Afghanistan. They have been participating in all our SAARC Writers Conferences and Literary Festivals since the last 8 years. Afghanistan was formally included in the SAARC family in 2007. We hope the same would happen with Myanmar also.

It is always the writers and intellectuals who are opinion-makers at intellectual and grass-root level, and who have the unique gift of foresight of visualising and deciphering, with rare sensitivity, the eternal civilisational bondings in a region, the bondings which go beyond the geographical boundaries.

FOSWAL provided the first-ever platform for writers and scholars, poets and academics, journalists and artists, peace and human rights activists, visual and performing artists, publishers and the literary minds, playwrights and translators of the SAARC region to interact freely with their contemporary neighbouring creative and intellectual fraternity, discussing issues connected with the Written Word, with History and Historical Memories, with the Anguish of Exiles and Homelessness, with Rootlessness which makes us Outsiders, with Understanding and Respecting the Otherness of the Others; sharing their common concerns with poverty, illiteracy and hunger, with terror and fundamentalism, with saving the sanctity of the written word, with the marginalised in literature

INDIA-PAKISTAN WRITERS CONFERENCE

SEPTEMBER, 1987, NEW DELHI

Ajeet Cour with Mr. Jamilludin Aali, a unique Poet from Pakistan, the only one who
writes ‘Dohas’ of mixed Khari-boli and Urdu, in the style of Ameer Khusro

The Audience : From left : Rehana, Bhisham Sahni,
Sitakant Mahapatra, Jamilludin Aali and others

Ahmad Faraz and Ajeet Cour, unique contemporaries from India and Pakistan

Some of the ten writers from Pakistan, and India, who participated in the First-ever
Indo-Pakistan Writers Conference, September 1987, New Delhi

Mr. Intizar Hussain Pakistan	Dr, Namwar Singh India	Dr. Akhtar Hussain Akhtar Pakistan
Mr. M.T. Vasudevan Nair India	Mr. Mohammad Mansh Yad Pakistan	Ms. Kishwar Naheed Pakistan
Ms. Fehmida Riyaz Pakistan	Mr. Fakhar Zaman Pakistan	Dr. Sibtul Hasan Zaigham Pakistan
Eminent Hindi Writer Kamleshwar jee reading his story in the First-ever Conference of Indian and Pakistani writers, 1987

like dalits and ‘adivasis’ : the people with centuries-old oral literature, with the urgent need for Peace and Tranquility in the region.

The writers and intellectuals focused on comprehending their common civilisational linkages which give the SAARC Literature and Culture a distinctive SAARC IDENTITY.

So far, in the 28 SAARC Literary Conferences and Festivals organised by FOSWAL, twenty eight resolutions have been passed and circulated world-wide.

The ‘Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature’ was able to produce marvellous results because it is an NGO, a non-government organisation, and the creative fraternity in all the SAARC countries trusts it, respects it, and shares this unique endeavour of creating People-to-People Contacts, resulting in cultural connectivity in the region; a very profound TRACK TWO initiative.

Our Conferences and Literary Festivals have been regularly held not only in INDIA, but also in PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH, BHUTAN, MALDIVES, SRI LANKA and NEPAL, not once but several times. In each of the interactions, writers, critics, poets, playwrights, translators, mediamen, academics, political philosophers, peace and human rights activists from across the SAARC region, have regularly participated, shared their dreams and concerns, shared their poems, short stories, and scholarly observations, representing all genres and forms of writing, culminating in creative and free discussions on issues of contemporary relevance.

All our Writers’ Conferences, Seminars, Poetry and Fiction Festivals, Folklore Conferences and Festivals, have been widely covered by print and electronic media, worldwide, particularly in the SAARC countries, and by BBC.

FOSWAL has always emphasised and highlighted and focused on the regional languages of the SAARC countries. It is in the regional languages that the cultural ethos and historical memories of these countries can be deciphered, and their civilisational linkages with the neighbouring countries can be traced.

In regional languages, the vibrant ‘bhashas’ of people, as against the more recent phenomenon of English literature being written in almost all the SAARC countries, we can recognise the genuine cultural identities of the SAARC region : ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial.

It is only in the regional languages that we go back in the evolution of the cultural ethos of the region through their age-old oral lore too : folk songs, folk tales, folk cosmologies, theologies, belief systems, knowledge systems myths and rituals.

To enable communication with writers from different countries, we get the poems and short stories translated into English. Academic Papers are of course presented in English.

FOSWAL thus believes in swimming against the modern trend on concentrating on and highlighting English literature exclusively, though we always invite a couple of English writers as our co-travellers.

SAARC as a regional grouping is receiving world attention of such a magnitude that even China, Iran, Japan, Korea, Australia, Myanmar, Mauritius, United States, and the European Union sought and got Observer Status in SAARC. Recently Iran has also requested for the observer status. FOSWAL will gradually invite our contemporary writers from these countries, as well.