Eminent Literateur and Critic Dr. K. Satchidanandan at DU Colloquium
Eminent modern poet in Malayalam, a bilingual critic, playwright, editor, literary columnist, translator and the recipient of Sahitya Academi Award, Dr. K Satchidanandan delivered a thought provoking talk on “Indian Literature: Singular or Plural?” at Dibrugarh University Golden Jubilee Colloquium on 16 December 2014. At the outset of his talk he observes that one has to be aware of the kind of literature produced in India keeping in view the diversity of experiences of different linguistic communities. In this regard it is important to discuss the conceptual nature and different forms of Indian literature. It is indeed an intriguing question to address whether Indian literature is singular or plural as there are different rich literary traditions of multiple languages within the country itself. Dr. Satchidanandan states that instead of reducing the polemic into an all-conclusive dictum, it is rather pertinent to problematize the entire issue so as to view it from different vantage points. Dr. Satchidanandan asserts that plurality is the essential feature of Indian literature, however, nonetheless there are certain commonalities within it which facilitated the grand tradition of Indian literature. While cementing his argument on the topic the noted poet critic takes into account some of the observation of other critics and commentators on Indian literature. For instance, he refers to the stance that Indian literature is one even though it is written in different languages. On the contrary to this there is another theoretical orientation to the issue is that there cannot be a single Indian literature as there is not an ‘Indian language’. In this regard he also points to the fact that the richness of oral tradition has also problematized the question of ‘singularity’. According to Dr. Satchidanandan the concept of Indian Literature can be better understood as a continuous process of evolving. It should not be considered as a final product. All the literatures of India can be termed as ‘Indian literature’ as they emanate from a common territory. It is not necessarily important to describe literature by language itself, it can be categorised in view of a ‘location’ as well. There are literature on the basis of race (Afro-American literature), gender (feminist literature) etc. Therefore, it is not erroneous to describe all the literature of India as ‘Indian literature’ as representing the nation. There are many ways, besides language, by means of which literature can be categorised. In this context Dr. Sathidanandan refers to noted Marxist theorist Aizaz Ahmed’s observation that ‘multilingual polyglot fluidity is the feature of Indian literature.’ He emphasizes that we should not presume that there is a single Indian literature. It is essentially plural. Otherwise it will lead to the politics of standardization which is an utterly reductive way of responding to the diversity of Indian literature. Dr. Satchidanandan advocates a federal concept of Indian literature because India is a mosaic of different cultural practices. He concludes his enticing talk by envisaging a new cartography of Indian literature to comprehend the complexity of plurality.