Arunachal Pradesh Literature Festival 2024
[ Mamang Dai ]
‘House made of dawn/ House made of evening light. House made of male rain… House made of female rain. Dark cloud is at the door…. The zigzag lightning stands high upon it. An offering I make… Restore my body for me. Restore my mind for me, restore my voice for me… May it be beautiful before me…. May it be beautiful below me. May it be beautiful above me. May it be beautiful all around me.’
This excerpt, the size of a moment, is taken from a Navajo healing ceremonial poem, The Beauty Way that is sung over several days. It reminds me of Arunachal Pradesh, and I imagine how in the beginning, before there was a written world, there was a world of words that were chanted, and songs that were performed as stories or rituals, each act passed down through generations by word of mouth. Today we refer to this practice as oral tradition.
There are many communities across the world who continue with this tradition. In Arunachal too, for most of us, we are speech communities with no script. Not so long-ago pioneering writers took up the pen and began to write in the script of a foreign language. It was the beginning of the journey of words and letters. To honour two Arunachal pioneers in this field the session halls for the Literature festival have been named Tagang Taki and Kengsam Kenglang halls.
The theme for this year’s Arunachal Literature Festival 2024 is: A New Dawn of Literature. Once, writing was the realm of study and research. Now there are book clubs, literary societies like the Arunachal Pradesh Literary Society (APLS), promoting literature, hosting LitFests, reading and writing in any language- Hindi, English, Assamese, with the use of a script, whether Roman or Devanagari.
This is a new dawn.
There are also new writings in mother tongue in the form of songs, ballads or translations of song and verse into mother tongue, but for a language to stay alive it has to be spoken, and we have to admit the language scenario in Arunachal is precarious. The number of speakers of their mother tongue is dwindling. Arunachal Pradesh is high on the UNESCO list of endangered languages. The environment for discourse in your mother tongue in schools or in your home is overtaken by the dominant languages of current usage, technology and social media. Ultimately the way forward to save endangered languages might be with technology and the use of AI. (Perhaps that will be a new dawn.) At the same time linguistic scholars are doing excellent research work on Arunachal language groups, and devising new script, a case in point being that of a Wancho script by Banwang Losu, Linguist, that is accepted in the Unicode.
This is a new dawn.
Another view is that a lot of the writings will be a literature mingling recorded history and the oral tradition. This certainly was a backdrop, and will continue to remain so because the oral is not lost by writing. The written world and the unwritten world supplement one another. Alongside the oral narratives there are local voices recalling and revisiting the past, tracing unsung heroes and legendary forefathers to better understand our political history and state formation.
This is a new dawn.
When we held the first edition of the Arunachal LitFest in 2018, it was about building bridges to share the world of books, of human thought and imagination. With each successive edition the festival has grown bringing writers, poets, publishers and scholars and literary personalities from across the country to talk on subjects ranging from Literature and cinema, literature and media, writing in one’s mother tongue; Defining location, Nation, Region, Borders and beyond, the Oral traditions of India and the Writer’s responsibility, to highlight a few. Through all this the state government, and notably the Department of Information and Public Relations have been tireless in their efforts to promote literature and create a scenario for engagement and interaction with national and global discourse.
This is a new dawn.
In 2022 the LitFest was taken to Namsai district. In this edition, for the first time A Queer Conclave (LGBTQ+) featuring discussions and poetry performances by gender and sexual minorities was held that also received nationwide recognition in newspapers. This is a new dawn. With the active support of the district administration the festival was a wonderful mix of a new locale, rivers, good weather, food and air of festivity. In fact, post the 2022 Edition the Arunachal LitFest is dubbed the happiest LitFest in the country.
Ultimately, the word is a means of communication. This is how we express ourselves, all our deepest human emotions of joy, love, longing as also despair and hope through speech or the written word. This is our freedom of expression. It is how we bear witness to life around us. Sometimes bearing witness comes at a cost. In the world of ideas and a rapidly polarised world literature and writing is tested in a crucible of fire.
In the words of a poet: Silence is older than language… Poetry isn’t bound by words alone…It might be expressed by silence, love, roses, rain, sea, storm… stars, shadows, and forests. We each have our own verses, while nature pens her own. Choose, for your circumstances, how much you want /of weddings and funerals/ in each moment. When you discover what’s more valuable than silence, then it is okay to speak. (Faraj Bayrakdar- Spectrums of Silence and speech.)
This brings to mind several questions. We can ask ourselves what it means to be hailing from this or that part of the world. What is our say about mountains and rivers, about clean and green energy, about conservation, and political status, free speech, about changing times and our place in the world today. To put it simply: it is why do we write? What do we write?
From one perspective the answer might be quite simple. I want to write. I want to express myself. I want to be published. The question is perplexing if you stay on the path that you have chosen- to be a writer. We talk about it- try to analyze the role of the writer, the self as political, social activist, reformist, and still the exact answer might elude us. In the end I believe that writing is an expression of faith. No matter what race or nation, no matter if burned, lost, exiled, despite obstacles and obscurity, words are the breath drawn to reaffirm life.
As the saying goes: everything begins at home. Today the literary scenario is vibrant with young writers, and new writings have emerged with novels, travelogue, cultural histories, poetry, research publications alongside the growth of media, literary forums and festivals in a renaissance flowering of thought, ideas and innovation. The young volunteers, anchor, moderators are also a new generation who make their presentations with skill and confidence. This year’s edition has incorporated a Children’s Corner with invited writers, and Padmashri Awardee Satyanarayanan Mundayoor (Uncle Moosa) to engage with the kids with storytelling and poetry. This is a first too.
Another important development is the start of a satellite venue at Ane’s Home in the Itanagar Women’s Police station where children sheltering from trauma situations will be able to interact with the storytelling sessions. There are also proposals to rotate the LitFest in other districts, to strengthen public understanding of our art, culture and the social transformations taking place.
In all this I am sure the Arunachal LitFest will remain a constant flowing stream trying to give voice to the silent majority, finding expression in satire, in poetry; novels of political significance alongside the chronicles of the routine things of daily life, the small gestures, human endeavour, friendships, and the beauty of a world once in harmony with its environment. In short, the things that clutch at our imagination in what Anton Chekov called the ‘straws of the soul.’ Or: what poet Sappho (The Anactoria Poem) said centuries ago, recalling freedom of writing and the joy of writing, (still valid today for seasoned writers and those just beginning):
On the black earth some say the thing most lovely is an army of horsemen, some of foot soldiers, some of ships, but I say, it is what one loves.
(This is the Opening Remarks of ALF 2024 presented during the opening ceremony on 13th November 2024 at DK State Convention Centre.)
