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English widened gap between cities, villages in India: Kambar


Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Sep 16,2017: “Our native languages addressed communities. But after the introduction of English, we started addressing individuals and not communities,” said Jnanpith winner Chandrashekhar Kambar.


Kambar


He was speaking after inaugurating the three-day literature and arts festival of Manipal University ‘Milap’ at Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, here.

Stating that the ties between cities and villages were broken by introduction of English, Prof. Kambar said “English brought prose to our literature. Though literature spread as a result of this, it, however, lost its depth. For the English, poetry is important because it brings catharsis, but for the people of India, ‘rasanubhava’ is important as it was negotiation with the ego,” he said.

The ego got rejected not only among the actors in a play but also in the audience. There was a vivid sense of imagination in Indian theatre, he reiterated.

Prof. Kambar said it was because of the Bhakti Movement that common people started to address gods in their local tongues. This movement was responsible for the growth of various folk forms in the country.

The next turning point was when British introduced their education system in the country. This resulted in lot of people reading and writing, which till then was confined to a few. But the British made Indians forget their past, Prof. Kambar said. He ended his speech with a recitation of his poem on Mao-Tse tung.

Speaking as chief guest, noted writer, Vaidehi, said nobody had imagined that senior journalist Gauri Lankesh would be gunned down. Killing someone for expressing their thoughts was wrong. The process of creativity could not be stopped, she said.

The present situation was such that people could talk, but could not express how they felt. People were losing their sense of humour, she said. She advised the youth to understand the difference between a rich life and making life rich.

H. Vinod Bhat, Vice-Chancellor of Manipal University, presided over the function. Neeta Inamdar welcomed the gathering.


Courtesy: The Hindu