By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS,
New Delhi : South Asia is fast emerging as the key focus area of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) with four major events taking place in a span of four months since December 2009.
The 33rd SAARC Festival of Literature hosted jointly by the Foundation of SAARC Writers’ and Literature and ICCR will begin March 26.
“The SAARC Festival of Literature scheduled March 26-28 has the highest priority in the scheme of things for ICCR in South Asia,” Director General of ICCR Virendra Gupta told IANS in a special briefing in the capital Thursday.
The ICCR’s South Asian initiatives began with the SAARC Bands Festival in December followed by a SAARC Artists’ Camp and the South Asian Women’s Festival.
The three-day literature festival will be followed by a students exchange programme, Gupta said.
The ICCR will bring “students and teachers from the South Asian nations to interact with each other in workshops, along with their parents to foster better prespective to understand regional cultures and situations.”
“The literature festival will bring more than 200 members of the intelligentsia, environmentalists and peace activists from eight South Asian nations which face common challenges. It is an attempt to forge new linkages in literature and culture,” Gupta said.
He said the literature festival was the only platform where smaller nations like Bhutan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Maldives and Nepal can find representation.
“Countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan get opportunities to come to India, but one rarely meets intellectuals from the smaller SAARC countries,” he said.
“If you take a closer look at the relationship between India and Pakistan, you will realise that the two nations have no people-to-people problem. Members of the Indian and Pakistan cricket teams are the best of friends. They play together, eat together and even party together. Our mandate is to remove problems by facilitating exchanges between the creative fraternity of the SAARC nations and by projecting the country’s soft power. India as the largest country in the region plays an important role in the current socio-economic context to consolidate South Asian solidarity,” he said.
Elaborating on the common social problems faced by the SAARC nations, Gupta said that “poverty, women’s empowerment, health, capacity building and social development topped the list”.
“A lot of these can be addressed through dialogue and sharing of information at intellectuals’ forums by creating better understanding about the issues,” he said.
Gupta termed it “an example of track three diplomacy”.
“This is a long-term objective. South Asia’s interests are best served through people-to-people connect. Lack of understanding and ignorance breeds hatred and animosity,” he said.
Literature apart, it will play host to key sessions on environment accompanied by cultural performances, including a troupe from Pakistan.