Historians discuss British era at literature fest

CHANDIGARH: In the British era, history was a succession of viceroys and after India gained independence, it became biography of the elite. This is what eminent historian Shahid Amin said at the Chandigarh Literature Festival (CLF 2016) while discussing his book "Conquest & Community" with critic Alok Rai. Day 2 of CLF 2016 started with this session where Amin talked about the essence, definition and role of history.
The book revolves around cult of the popular warrior - Saint Ghazi Miyan. Rai pointed out that there was no reference to Ghazi Miyan in the official chronicles of Mahmud of Ghazni, his alleged uncle. Rai suggested it is not that the peasants have forgotten history but they remember it differently.
In the popular imagination, Mahmud of Ghazni had been displaced by his young nephew - Ghazi Miyan, who died at the age of 19 years while trying to save cows. Amin said that women also helped in the propagation of this cult. Towards the end of the session, Amin explained that he was not a devotee of Ghazni Miyan and writing as a non-believer was a major challenge for him, added Amin.
The session was later followed by the discussion on the book "The Glass Bead Curtain", which saw its author Lakshmi Kannan engaged in a conversation on her book by critic Manju Jaidka. In her book, the Glass Bead Curtain, when the protagonist Kalyani goes to her in laws' house, she is ridiculed by women, but receives the support of her husband and father- in-law. Kannan read passages from the book, which depicted social pressure on a woman. Kalyani in her book is made to starve so that she does not grow taller than her husband.
Another session in the Literature Festival saw author Mahesh Rao talk about his book "One Point Two Billion" with critic Veena Venugopal. Born and brought up in Kerala, this writer thought it appropriate to set his stories in India. "Writers in countries like Norway don't get to see a soul for a distance of several kilometres. In India, stories just come to you". Despite having gripping plots in mind, Rao was not tempted to change his short stories into novels. "Stretching them could have ruined the whole thing," said Rao.
Another very thought-provoking session was of festival director Annie Zaidi's conversation with author of "Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India" - Akshaya Mukul.
Literature Across Frontier (LAF) director, Alexandra Buchler, conducted a session "Polyphony" - a poetry session with European poets --- Adrian Grima (Maltese), Yolanda Castano (Spanish/Galician), Brane Mozetic (Slovenian) and three Indian Poets --- Surjit Patar (Punjabi), Monika Kumar (Hindi) and Sampurna Chattarji (English). The poets were seen in a multilingual poetry performance, result of reading & translating each other at a Literature Across Frontiers workshop.