Bangalore: Hosted by Kannada Sahitya Parishat, the 86th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana (All India Kannada Language and Literature Conference) was grandly held on Friday in Haveri District, Karnataka. However, the literary festival has become controversial by sidelining Muslim writers and literary figures.
The three-day Kannada Language and Literature Conference will be held in Haveli, the hometown of Prime Minister Vasavaraj Bommai.
The celebration panel, the selection of the achievers, turned into controversy as social media users criticized the “biased approach”.
It is said that among the 83 successful people in various fields, no Muslim writer was chosen. Of the nine seminars on the main stage, no Muslim writers have been invited.
The Poet Contest does not take into account the Byali language spoken by Muslims in coastal Karnataka, not a single Muslim writer has taken the opportunity. There was also discussion of other dialects such as Konkani, Soliga, Tulu and Kodava.
Kannada activists and like-minded literary scholars opposed to this “biased approach” to Muslim writers organized a one-day parallel literary conference in Bangalore on 8 January. competition.
Dalit writer and former bureaucrat Moodnakhudu Chinnaswamy will be the initiator of the conference. The program will be held at the alumni premises near his KR Circle in Bangalore.
The competition was named “Jana Sahitya Sammelana” (People’s Literature Convention).
Topics such as “Governance and Politics of Food”, “Attacks on Minorities and Dalits”, “Responsibility of Literary World” and “Contribution of Christian Missionaries to Kannada Language” will be presented.
Kannada Sahitya Sammelana is the best gathering of writers, poets and Kannada lovers. It aims to preserve and develop the Kannada language, arts, culture and music.
Kannada Sahitya Parishat is the premier institution promoting the Kannada language and its literature with Mahesh Joshi as its current president.
