Bangla a focal language at ILF Samanvay this year

-        Bangla, Dogri, Marathi and Tamil chosen as focal languages of ILF Samanvay 2015

-        Litterateurs Subhro Bandyopadhyay, Dolonchampa Chakravarty and Ramkumar Mukhopadhyay to discuss Bengali literature in Post-Tagore era – one of the most important session in ILF Samanvay 2015

-        ILF Samanvay’s new logo created by Riyas Komu unveiled

8^th October, 2015; New Delhi: Bangla will be among the four languages to be focused upon, apart from Tamil, Marathi and Dogri, when this year India Habitat Centre (IHC) celebrates the 5^thedition of its ILF Samanvay. The festival, from 26 to 29 November 2015, has over the years become a must-attend for the Capital’s Art and Culture aficionados. This year the central theme for the festival is ‘Insider/Outsider: Writing India’s Dreams and Realities’.

Bangla language with over 300 million speakers is the eleventh most spoken language of the world and second most spoken language in India. Bangla enjoys a rich literary heritage and has many prominent poets, writers and authors including Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Mahasweta Devi, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and even Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore who worked tirelessly to give it an identity in world literature. It is a fact that the national anthems of Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, and the national song of India, all were first composed in this language.

The Panel on Bangla will focus on the evolution of Bengali language and literature in post Tagore era. Subhro Bandyopadhyay, Dolonchampa Chakravarty and Ramkumar Mukhopadhyay will talk about three different aspects of literature and language in general. Subhro will talk about the changes in poetry, Dolonchampa will talk about poetry and some tendencies of contemporary music and Ramkumar will talk about the prose of post Tagore era. While Subhro and Dolon will focus on the changes, Ramkumar's stand as a senior writer and the director of Vishwa Bharati publishing will be defensive towards Tagore and his ideas. The idea of this panel discussion is all about an informal adda and an informative session about the contemporary Bengali literature and the anxieties of the contemporary language which is expressed through the different forms of literature.

The IHC Indian languages Festival in its 5th year is assuming a new brand and expression: ILF Samanvay. Its new design crafted by Riyas Komu focuses on facilitating genuine camaraderie among the many-splendoured linguistic cultures of India, and interprets ‘Indian Languages’ beyond verbal terms, and explores the transverbal possibilities of human expression and communication. Even as it addresses the specific concerns of India’s written and oral languages and literary traditions, it furthers the scope of the term ‘Indian Languages’ by interpreting and exploring the concept of ‘language’ beyond the limits of verbality, and by bringing in the visual, musical, performative, technological idioms into its purview.    

Speaking on the same artist, curator and the co-founder and director of programmes of Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Riyas Komu says, “In our times characterized by fragile thoughts and volatile expressions, an Indian languages festival such as Samanvay must live and present itself as a profound space for thinking. It must be a site to reflect on the past, present and future of humanity and nature at large. Hence, the attempt here has been to create a head space that represents the thoughtscape embedded in Indian languages. Again, as we need an insignia for thinkers who can make relevant changes, the red dot becomes the mark of that awareness.  The seven colors of the spectrum, capable of forming white light on their merger, are laid in a seed form in the line above the lettering of ILF Samanvay in the logo. Another indication of the 'coming together' inherent in the festival, this linear mandala also intimates one of the possibility of playing with each of these colors in specific contexts within the frame of the festival."

ILF Samanvay: IHC Indian Languages' Festival:

ILF Samanvay: IHC Indian Languages' Festival was conceived in 2011 as an annual celebration of writing in Indian languages. The festival has aimed at generating dialogue across Indian languages at various levels and has emerged as the only literature festival dedicated exclusively to Indian languages.

The inaugural edition (2011) tried to explore the problem of bringing various literatures under the master signifier: “Indian” and the mysterious bond that makes these various literatures at once distinct and collective. In 2012, the festival moved on to highlight and discover the heritage of Indian languages through the strain of Boli, Baani, Bhasha: Gaon, Kasba, Shehar. Even in 2013 the theme Jodti Zubanein, Judti Zubanein: Language Connections aimed at - discussing the various kinds of dialogues across the 'regional' languages and their multifaceted interaction with the 'national' languages - Hindi and English. In 2014, ILF Samanvay highlighted ‘Translation/Transnation’ focus on Indian languages which have a transnational presence.

The first four editions of the festival featured 20 languages presented by more than 150 Writers including some of the contemporary masters like Sitakant Mahapatra, Sheen Kaaf Nizam, Ratan Thiyam, Gulzar, Nabarun Bhattacharya, K. Satchidanandan, Ashok Vajpeyi, Girish Kasaravalli, Udaya Narayana Singh,  Rajendra Yadav, Mangalesh Dabral, Yumlembam Ibomcha, Arjun Deo Charan, Anupam  Mishra, Jerry Pinto, Ketan Mehta, Mahesh Bhatt, Mukul Kesavan, Piyush Mishra, Ravish Kumar, Sharada Sinha, Sanjay Kak, Shashi Deshpande, Kavita Krishnan, Vrinda Grover, Kancha Ilaiah, Alok Rai, K. Sivareddy, Manoranjan Byapari, Nirupama Dutt, Rooprekha Verma, Sylvanus Lamare, Tenzin Tsundue, Viveka Rai Harrish Iyer, Namvar Singh, Swanand Kirkire, Vinay Pathak, Arunava Sinha and Varun Grover.

Delhi Press, Vani Prakashan, School of Translation Studies, IGNOU and LILA Foundation for Translocal Initiatives are its partners at present. Outreach partners are Pratham Books. Le Communiqué Consultancy will be handling the public relations for the entire Festival.

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Warm Regards,

Sharat Shyam