Writers' role critical in inducing sanity in society: Ansari

India's unmatched diversity of literary traditions reflects its plural ethos, Vice President Hamid Ansari said today even as he emphasised on the critical role of writers and narrators in "inducing sanity in an increasingly maddening world".
A well-developed literary tradition is the hallmark of every civilisation, Ansari said, adding India has an unmatched diversity of literary traditions in many languages and cultural patterns.
"This is reflective of our plural ethos that has accommodated and enriched a wide variety of impulses and influences," he said.
Ansari said the sense of unity that pervades the fabric of Indian society is intangible.
"It is reflective of a continuum from the traditional to the modern and post-modern, in prose, poetry and the multiplicity of oral narratives," he added.

The writers and narrators are inheritors of a very rich legacy, he said, adding that "their role in inducing sanity in an increasingly maddening world would remain critical".

The Vice President was speaking at the 'Delhi Literature Festival', organised by The Times of India.
Ansari said that he had been given to understand that the event is a people's festival covering an entire spectrum of ideas from scholarship to social media, from high art to street expressions, from 'dastaan-goi' to budding novelists, from films to sports.
The festival, he said, aspires to be a bridge between ivory tower and the town hall.