Tributes to Gandhi on his martyrdom day
In another fitting gesture, the organizers kept one of the morning’s sessions that followed, on Gandhi. In “Gandhi: the Man and the Mahatma” Tripurdaman Singh and Pramod Kapoor in conversation with Pragya Tiwari discussed the fractured society of the national capital in wake of partition and the mayhem that followed. That way, against all odds of the existing milieu in the country and elsewhere in the world, the JLF continues to retain its sobriety and balance.
There are many literary festivals in the country but that the JLF retains a unique position is evident from the list of the speakers and guests who include Nobel laureates in literature, Booker Prize winners and men and women of eminence and representatives of the publishers. This year the European Union is supporting the festival as a co-host and session partner, along with some of the regular foreign embassies which support the event every year.
While the organizers have dropped the name “Mughal Tent” for one of the festival venues, seemingly after protests by the Hindutva organisations in the past about name, there was no visible presence of the Rajasthan Government in the inaugural event. In the past a senior political functionary of the government –during the time of Ashok Gehlot and Vasundhara Raje as Chief Ministers either they themselves or an nominated minister used to be part of the opening event—used to formally join the inaugural function but this time there was none. However, the festival is supported by Rajasthan Tourism and some other State government departments along with the Delhi Tourism and many other private and semi government organisations.
Once calibrated as the ‘greatest show on earth’ and the “Mahakumb of literature” JLF this time coincides with the Kumbh mela. There was also mention of the Maha Kumb festivities going on in Prayagraj at the opening event. One of the festival directors, Namita Gokhale mentioned the Kumbh associating it with the culture and ethos of the country. Delving into contemporary issues of concern another of the directors, Sanjoy K. Roy, talked about the horrors of Gaza, the unending strife and the continuing sufferings in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.
Venki Ramakrishnan in his key note address on “Bridging the divide the arts and the sciences” cautioned the world against the widening gulf between the science and humanities and the suspicion and disdain each had about the other. While many of the new innovations—AI to gene editing, climate science—have the potential to reshape the human existence, the general public lacked ‘even the basic scientific literacy’, Prof. Ramakrishnan observed.
“Even the scientists can hardly grasp the advances outside their own narrow specialties,” he noted. The gap was not just academic. The prevailing mutual ignorance and suspicion were responsible for the “populist movements fuelled by the spread of misinformation and even disinformation, prejudice and even conspiracy theories,” he asserted. Prof. Ramakrishnan mentioned the major issues confronting the world today as environment, food security, and preparation for future pandemics and increasing sophisticated weaponry, all of which would have serious consequences to the world.
Prof. Ramakrishnan, who quoted eminent English novelist and physical chemist, C.P. Snow, had a word of caution for the decision makers. Never leave it to the scientists alone.” Scientists alone cannot take decisions that affect us all”. We cannot allow technocrats to move fast and break things. “Rather we need humanities, literature, philosophy and history to provide us with the framework to grapple with the moral, ethical and social implications of the scientific advances we are making”. It is only together we can decide the way forward, he pointed out.
