Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Literary Festival 2017 continued on its second day. There were panel discussions, lectures and poetry recitation forums. Social political issues to social media to Indian Literature various panels carried on various discussions.
First panel of the second day was on the topic “Communal vote banks and the dynamics of representation”. Panelists, Tushar Gandhi, political scientist Hilal Ahmad, Nakul Singh Swahney, shaper of documentary ‘Muzaffarnagar abhi baqi hai’ and Omair Ahmad an Indian writer also spoke on the topic candidly.
The discussion continued with a next panel on the topic “Making our voices heard” and panelists Hansda Sowendra Shekhar, who is an Adivasi writer, Omair Ahmad an author and Chandrahas Chaudhry a novelist. H S Shekhar expressing his views said, “writer should focus on his work instead of focusing on resistance and activism”
It was followed by a panel discussion “Social media, digitisation and Indian Languages”. The talk was initiated with the theme that the old concept was to stick to classism of language. Asif Naqvi, one of the panelists and professor of Museology, mentioned the case of Gurmeher Kaur for the quick mobilisation it generated among the masses. “The importance of script has been marginalised due to the digitisation of language. You can come across old letters and remember how you felt at that time, digitisation doesn’t give you that freedom”, said Najma Rehmani, asistant professor at Delhi University (DU) and a panelist.
The discussion was concluded with a note that social media is an ocean of information from which you have to sieve out your priorities. There was also a poetry reading session with Aditi Rao, an Indian poet and the house was then opened for the discussion with students.
In the evening there was a lecture by Sahitya Academy awardee and critic Ashok Vajpeyi on the topic “Samkal Mein Yuva – Swapn aur Sahitya” followed by a poetry reading session. “Dreams are for youth and you can capture them via literature,” he said focusing on the importance of language and literature.
Day two of three days AMU Literary Festival 2017 was concluded with “Dastan Goi” a 16th century Urdu oral storytelling art form. The three-day event will end on March 5th, 2017 with a Mushaira and renowned poets like Munawwar Rana, Rahat Indori and many more, will grace the occasion.
