President Ram Nath Kovind to attend regional language literary meet in Assam

New Delhi: Regional language literature is coming up in a big way. Even readers of Indian English are gradually beginning to wake up to the pleasure of regional literature, owing to quality translators and more availability of such works.

A few years back, over 50 writers in languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Khasi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Odiya, Punjabi, Sindhi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Manipuri Maithili organised a major show.

This year’s regional language literary meet in the northeast to be hosted in Assam would be a major attraction.

President Ram Nath Kovind will attend and address the regional language literary meet in western Assam’s Tamulpur on May 4.

President Kovind is scheduled to address the valedictory session of the 61st annual conference of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS). The three-day conference began on Monday.

The Assam government has sanctioned special casual leave to the state government employees who would participate in the conference to be held in Tamulpur under the Bodoland Territorial Region.

“This would be a historic occasion as no President of India has ever attended any literary event of any language in the northeast region,” BSS President Toren C. Boro said.

The BSS has undertaken a massive campaign and arrangement to make the event successful.

Over 4,000 delegates are expected to attend the three-day conference from different parts of the world.

The BSS was formed in 1952 to develop literature, culture, and Body Language. It is playing a leading role in maintaining coordination among different ethnic groups.

Among regional literature from other states, sources said Vivek Shanbag’s Kannada novella, ‘Ghachar Ghochar’ translated by Srinath Perur, was included by The New York Times in their listing of the best books of 2017.

It was also nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award.

In the northeast, Manipuri, Bodo and Khashi literature have come up in a big way in the last few years.