Congress leader Shashi Tharoor today said fiction writings contribute to the idea of resistance in the society.
Speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival, he compared the role of writers in the society to a a bird in a cage which is sent down to the bottom of a coal mine.
"If the bird suffocates and is unable to breathe or comes up gasping for air then you know there is no enough oxygen down below and writers, particularly that of fiction, are like that bird," Tharoor said.
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"Writers go down to the depth of the society and their gasps and suffocation alert the society that there is certain oxygen missing," he said.
Participating in the session 'India: The Power of Fiction Across Borders and of Translation', the Congress MP said that fiction contributes to the idea of resistance in the society.
Writer Vivek Shanbhag said literature takes people to specific issues.
"Literature takes you where you start looking at people and individuals--by which you can be more understanding and can connect with people. Literature draws you to specifics," he said.
He said the Dalit literature in India was a great example of it.
"Stories of Dalits were never heard and when they came to fore with those details in literature, they stunned the literary world and we felt that there is something that we were lacking in our understanding of the world," he said.
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