By Shekar Ajekar
Daijiworld Media Network—Gadag (RD/CN)
Gadag, Feb 20: Two literary sessions were held on the first day of the 76th All India Kannada Sahitya Sammelan, on Friday February 19. Nadoja Dr Geetha Nagabhushan is the chairperson of the Sammelan which began on Friday morning.
These two sessions were held at the Dana Chintamani Attimabbe stage at the venue, and focused on Kannada in uniting the Kannadigas’– regionalism.
Mukyamantri Chandru, president of Kannada Development Authority, presided over the first literary session.
Speaking on the occasion, Chandru said that all the languages that are approved by the union government enjoy equal status. He also referred to the recent Gujarat High Court ruling that Hindi need not be the national language.
Chandru expressed hope that this would drive home the point and unite all the natives of Karnataka on the basis of their mother tongue Kannada.
The setbacks in granting classical status to Kannada was the prime topic discussed in the first session.
Prem Kumar Hariyabbe, senior correspondent of ‘Prajavani’, Kannada daily, in his keynote address during the second literary session said that all the state governments that ruled Karnataka in the past offered only assurances of implementing the reports of committees that were appointed to look into bringing statewide equality in usage of Kannada and its promotion, but it has not been practically implemented.
Linguist expert and Hampi University former vice-chancellor Dr P V Narayan said that the notion of a greater India had emerged just over 125 years ago under colonial rulers.
“Even Bankim Chandra, the author of ‘Vande Mataram’, mainly covered the splendour of West Bengal; hence it would not be appropriate for the entire country. India can be called as a federation rather than one country”, said Dr Narayan.
He stressed the need to explore the truth behind the demands for separate statehood as in Telangana and other north eastern Indian states. Dr K Marulusiddappa presided over the second session.