Over 500 speakers across a vast array of nationalities from the fields of literature, cinema, media and politics will asemble to deliberate on the theme of "India and the World" at the annual Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF), which will take place from February 24-26 in Odisha's Bhubaneswar.
The KLF, now in its ninth year, will also see diversity in language, with speakers from 10 countries, inlcuding Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, UK, Italy, South Africa, Austria, and over 25 languages.
Recipients of major awards such as the Nobel, the Booker, International Booker, the Sahitya Akademi will also be a part of the literary fest, which was first held in 2013. Since them the festival has hosted nearly 2500 speakers and performers.
"International Booker prize winner Geetanjali Shree will join us. We are deeply honoured to have Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi and so many other international and Sahitya Akademi awardees. Living legends and youth icons, including Sitakanta Mohapatra, Pratibha Ray, Ramakanta Rath, Jayanta Mohapatra, Sanjeev Sanyal , Ranjit Hoskote, Rakhshanda Jalil, Shekhar Pathak, Daya Dissanayake, Rajesh Singh, Sachchidanand Joshi, Alka Saraogi, Vyomesh Shukla, Geet Chaturvedi, Gagan Gill, Satya Vyas,Pravin Kumar, Hindol Sengupta, Prabhat Ranjan, Asghar Wajahat, Divya Prakash Dubey, Navtej Sarna, Akshaya Mukul and others will join to contribute to the ongoing discussions in literature," said Rashmi Ranjan Parida, the founder director of KLF.
Well known for its socially relevant themes, the KLF will see the speakers touch upon topics like climate justice, the great women writers and artists focusing on the female voice and identity, crime fiction, memoir, translation, poetry, economics, tech morality and Artificial Intelligence, the global crisis, cutting-edge science, art and photography, health and medicine, amongst others.
This year, the central theme of the Kalinga Literary Festival is "India and the World".
The fest is happening at a time when India has stepped up its diplomacy with other countries following the ideal of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' -- which has inspired the Indic civilization.
The ideal of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' does not believe in the supremacy of any culture or social and political system and entails the coming together of the nations and cultures of the world for mutual richness and mutual growth.
In the contemporary world, the notion of the 'global' culture is often taken as synonymous with the Indic view of the world. This equation is not a correct one. Colonialism, especially of the Western kind, has shown the manner in which the western enlightenment model was used for slavery and appropriation.
To highlight the linguistic diversity of India and folklore, the ‘Marga’ and the ‘Deshi’ traditions, will be showcased in the festival.
The three-day festival will also cover several dimensions of the interconnections between literature, freedom, republican values, cultural diversity, social equity.
Besides, more than 30 new books and monographs will be released during the KLF. The delegates and speakers of KLF will have an opportunity to participate in heritage walk, called 'Mystic Walk', and participate in plantation and mystic mic.
A Kalinga Art Festival will also be held simultaneously to provide a platform for artists to showcase their talent and connect their art to the central theme of the festival. It will showcase works of 60 artists from Odisha and India.