Dalit writer and Sahitya Akademi award winner Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy condemned the exclusion of Muslim writers from the Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, a literary fest held at Haveri last week. He was speaking at the Jana Sahitya Sammelana held in Bengaluru on Sunday, January 8, as a protest for excluding Muslim writers in the Haveri literary fest.
He said, “The exclusion of Muslim writers from the literary fest in Haveri was part of a wider agenda of pushing out Muslims from the mainstream.” He also called for restraining the "mad horse of ethnic nationalism.” Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism where nation and nationality are defined in terms of common cultural and historical ties.
Kannada scholar Purushottama Bilimale criticised Kannada writers and representative organisations for failing to address the multiple crises facing Kannada and Karnataka, including the attacks on syncretic culture. Bilimale argued that there was a lack of proper forums to discuss these crises and criticised the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana for not addressing these issues. He called for the organisation of conventions like the Janasahitya Sammelana in different regions of Karnataka and the formulation of a language policy for the state. Bilimale also highlighted the issue of language extinction in Karnataka and called on councils and academies to discuss ways to save and promote these languages. He argued for the inclusion of Tulu, Kodava and Banjara languages in the eighth schedule of the Constitution which lists the official languages in India.
Several participants including renowned actor Prakash Raj and writer Banu Mushtaq called for inclusivity in all programs of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat. Topics such as language extinction, inclusivity and the revision of textbooks were discussed, and resolutions were taken on the demand for autonomy of cultural institutions and a condemnation of the appointments made by the state government to the Textbook Revision Committee and Rangayana, a government-owned theatre institute. It also condemned the merger of banks and cooperatives with north Indian institutions and the imposition of Hindi.
The Kannada Sahitya Sammelana is an annual literary event organised by the Kannada Sahitya Parishat, a non-profit organisation that is viewed as a representative of the Kannada language. The organisation is funded by the Karnataka government and receives taxpayer support for its activities, including the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana. This year, not many Muslim names were included on any of the panels at the event despite there being a significant number of Muslim writers and scholars in Karnataka. This caused widespread outrage, given the organisation’s government funding and perceived role as a representative of the Kannada language.