From left, Sanjeev Sanyal, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Sanjeev Chopra of Valley of Words, Jayanti Ravi, Secretary, Auroville Foundation and T.S. Tirumurti, former Permanent Representative of India to the UN at the launch of the first Auroville Literature Festival on Friday.
| Photo Credit: M. Dinesh Varma
The first Auroville Literature Festival (ALF) began on Friday on the optimistic note of initiating an annual event that assembled some of the finest Indian and international writers and thinkers in the universal township that was inspired by The Mother, spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, to pursue higher consciousness and human unity.
The ALF (August 25-27) coincides with the sesquicentennial celebrations of Sri Aurobindo and the centenary celebrations of French architect Roger Anger, who under the guidance of The Mother, gave shape to the City of the Future. The not-for-profit organisations Valley of Words (VoW) and The Chennai International Centre are festival partners while the Ministry of Culture and Auroville Foundation are supporting the event.
T.S. Tirumurti, former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York, cited an important take-away from “Freakonomics” (Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt) that parents who own bookshelves raise children who do better in schools — a correlation that was later backed by a British study to state: “At a time when television screens are getting bigger and bookshelves are getting smaller, if not disappearing altogether from homes, let us at least for the sake of our children’s future, start putting bookshelves back in our home”.
This, he said, would help children and the authors striving for a better world.
Sanjeev Sanyal, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and an author himself, said for a wholesome understanding of a multifaceted personality like Sri Aurobindo, and his extraordinary contributions one should avoid looking at his contributions in silos. There are some who are inspired by his universalist, spiritual writings but feel somewhat embarrassed by his fiercely nationalist writings or civilisational reawakening, he pointed out.
In order to understand how all of these things fit together, it is important to understand the wider context of late 19th century India, from which he arose — whether it was the fact that Bengal was for long periods under foreign occupation or his father packed him off to England so that he could imbibe Western values, Mr. Sanyal said. In fact, Sri Aurobindo, at one point after the path to freedom had been firmly set, engaged in what he considered a significantly more important battle against deracination and for civilisational rewakening, not just for the larger good of India but of mankind as a whole, he said.
Sanjeev Chopra of VoW said the building of worlds from words from a finite set of alphabets of a language is somewhat similar to the aspect of elevated truths and expanding consciousness that constituted the dialectics of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. It is important for literature festivals to foster, in addition to multi lingual or multi genre authors, an inter-generational connect, he said.
Jayanti Ravi, Secretary, Auroville Foundation, pointed out that the theme of India’s G20 presidency — “One Earth, One Family, One Future” — may have already been introduced in Auroville 55 years ago when The Mother set up the universal township (February 28, 1968) to realise the writings of Sri Aurobindo about the inherent oneness in all human beings, in fact all forms of life.
Aurovilian author Anu Majumdar, who along with Sudha Prabhu, is coordinating the festival recalled the advice from Namita Gokhale, writer and director of the popular Jaipur Literature Festival, to consider the maiden attempt as a start from “zero” rather than the first edition, possibly given the bundle of learnings in store.
An online session with Ms. Gokhale and a cultural programme by Surya Performance Lab, Auroville, followed the festival opening.