Tamil, Bangla, Marathi Dogri in focus at IHC languages fest

Edition five of the IHC Indian Language Festival 'Samanvay' will begin here in November with a unique dialogue of the country's languages with a focus on Tamil, Bangla, Marathi and Dogri.
The four-day festival scheduled to begin November 26 features a line up that includes Booker nominated author Jeet Thayil, feminist Urvashi Butalia, professor Ayesha Kidwai, art critic Sadanand Menon, cartoonist E P Unny, translator Arunava Sinha, poet Sachin Ketkar and historian A R Venkatachalapathy among others.
The festival's main theme for 2015 is "Insider/Outsider: Writing India's Dreams and Realities" and would open with the well known thinker, Prof Aijaz Ahmad presentation about "The Languages of a Union".

"The languages that will be explored in detail at Samanvay 2015 are Tamil, Bangla, Marathi and Dogri," organisers said in a statement.
A session has been planned to pay tributes to the late cartoonist R K Laxman with cartoonist Unny, Krishna Prasad, and cartoon researcher and writer, Christel Devadawson gathering to unravel the complex field of Indian cartooning while looking at Laxman's unique contribution to shaping its sensibilities.
The second day of 'Samanvay' would focus on a thematic exploration of 'Insider/Outsider' in the contemporary socio-political and cultural context of India.

Day 3 would feature sessions on the focal languages of Samanvay 2015, while Day 4 will attempt to expand the theme with the futuristic vision which the festival embodies.

Rakshanda Jalil, Namita Gokhale, Avadhesh Kumar Singh, K Satchidanandan, Meena Alexander, Sharmila Seyyid, Padma Sachdev, Rosalyn DeMello, Makarand Sathe, Iravati Karve, Vaibhav Abnave, Dharmakriti Sumant, Samina Mishra, Jerry Pinto, Radhika Menon, J Devika, Manabi Bandyopadhya and Saleem Kidwai besides others feature in the line up of participants.
Various workshops, volunteer sessions, conversations, book exhibitions and performances will also be an integral part of Samanvay 2015.