With the theme “The Life And Works of Mahakavi Subramania Bharati” whose 100th anniversary was observed in 2022, the 3rd edition of ‘Chennai Lit Fest’ was successfully organised from April 1 to 2, 2023, at Narada Gana Sabha, Alwarpet, Chennai.
The first day started with a talk on ‘How Dravidam Obscured Bharati’, – a searing expose of the concerted efforts by the Dravidian intellectual establishment to hide the glories of Bharatis’ works and multi-faceted personality. The panel was composed of Badri Seshadri, publisher and Aravind Subramaniam, Editor, Viyaan Tamil Channel.
The audience also enjoyed a panel discussion by two leading doyens of traditional media, Ramasubbu of Dinamalar and Prafulla Ketkar, Editor, Organiser on the challenges and transition of old print media.
This was followed by a panel discussion on entrepreneurship by two hopes of the New Indian Economy – Anubhav Dubey, Chai Sutta Bar and Ambi Moorthy, Founder, Go-Zen. This panel was moderated by the young management professional, Venkatesh. The day concluded with a discussion between Aravindan Neelakandan and Jataayu’ Shankaranarayanan.
The second day began on a high note – where Prafulla Ketkar and Harsh Madhusudhan discussed ‘Long India- A Civilisational Revival’, which discussed the rise of India on the global stage beyond economics to a position as a cultural, knowledge and social leader.
The next session was an eye-opening discussion on the scientific aspects of Subramania Bharati’s works between Aravindan Neelakandan and Annamalai, President of Tamil Nadu BJP. They explored the facets of Bharati’s writings, which seemed to have anticipated new scientific discoveries and delved deep into the ancient Indian civilisational memory of the sages. Annamalai made a convincing case for rethinking our educational system, mining our cultural legacy, and reviving a tradition of learning that produced such stalwarts such as Subramania Bharati.
Before wrapping up for lunch, Vijaya Vishwanathan gave a talk on Critical Race Theory, Caste as a weapon in the hands of Anti-Hindu and Anti-Indian forces and the deep prejudice in American Academia. She delved freely into her book, co-authored with Rajiv Malhotra, Snakes in the Ganga, and went beyond.
Post-lunch, a series of talks by Aravindan Neelakandan, Jataayu and BR Srinivasan delved into Bharati’s work on social emancipation by Ma Venkatesan, Chairman, National Safai Karmachari Commission, on Bharati and Social Justice.
Another discussion was by Sudhakar Kasturi and Niranjan Bharati, a descendant of the great man himself, on the diversity of Indian philosophical thought as exhibited in Bharati’s works. They expanded upon how Bharati had explored Vedanta’s mystical Shakta tradition in his works.
The Lit Fest concluded with a talk by Shri G B Harisha of ICCR on the journey of Subramania Bharati in regions outside Tamil Nadu and languages other than Tamil.
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