Creative pursuits are activities that most of the artists prefer to carry out in private. Be one is an author, a painter or a composer, he or she prefers solitude to crowds. This is what has been happening to the creative people with a penchant for purity for centuries. Experiencing it as a highly private joy, these specially gifted people dread other people's presence during their creative exercises. The mundane people, thus, view the authors and others of their kind as 'unsocial' and 'selfish'. This negative image, thus, applies to philosophers as well.
In spite of all this notoriety, the artists have often been found coming out to dust-laden and sweat-soaked localities from their exclusive confines. It's because socialising connects minds. It has been seen since ancient times. Thanks to these breaks from the carefully nurtured privacies, the artists were able to prove them as facilely accessible and sociable beings. In Greece's classical past, bards and philosophers would meet with the commoners in yearly get-togethers. Those were great occasions for the philosophers and poets and others to engage in views-exchange sessions with their disciples and admirers. These partly formal, partly celebratory assemblages have later taken the form of festivals.
The earliest literary session in human history is traced back to the pre-Christ times. Handy books made of paper had just begun appearing, with the preparation of the first-ever book of the world completed with The Epic of Gilgamesh in its Sumerian version --- in 2,000 BC. Reading books was made easier in around 1250 BC. Those were written in Papyrus of Ani.
In the second decade of the 21st century, over one hundred international literary conferences and festivals are being annually held throughout the world. They are organised in countries ranging from Bulgaria, France, Iceland, Canada, Portugal, UK, Bhamas to Peru. Of these countries, the US hosts the highest number of literary events --- over sixty. The trend to organise regular week or days-long national and international festivals picked up in the 1970s. The South Asian countries too, including Bangladesh, do not lag behind in this field.
With a three-day international literary conference concluding in Dhaka last January 15, one would feel like looking backwards to have a glimpse of its scenario as it prevailed in the last 60 years. The first massive literary and cultural conference in the pre-independence Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, was held at Kagmari in Tangail in 1957. Organised by one of the highly admired politicians of the time, Maulana Bhashani, the conference was marked by strong political underpinnings. As a result of Bhashani's mission to see an amalgam of politics and culture including literature, which he believed will play a great role in making people enlightened, the conference saw a virtual celebration of creative works. With the participation of dozens of legendary Bengalee authors and cultural figures from then East Pakistan and India, the five-day (February 06-10) event later emerged as a landmark event on the cultural horizon of the land. The history of the later-day Bangladesh witnessed many of its turns and twists being shaped by the Kagmari Conference.
The independent Bangladesh saw its first international literary conference in 1974. The three-day event, inaugurated by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was held at Bangla Academy. The opening session was graced by Poet Jasim Uddin and Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin. Apart from the noted poets, novelists, essayists and academics of the country, it was attended by over two dozens of literary figures from West Bengal. They included a number of great authors writing in Bangla. In fact, the 1974 literary event eventually proved to be the precursor to the tradition of literary festivals in independent Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, nowadays, hosts a number of international literary festivals every year. One is centred on poetry only which has been taking place since 1988. Called the National Poetry Festival and held for two consecutive days, February 1 and 2, it is now participated by a lot of writers from abroad, many from Scandinavian countries, India, Nepal and Malaysia. In line with the Poetry Festival and the three-day International Literary Festival organised by Bangla Academy, another new version of this creativity celebration has lately found its place in the annals of the country's literary festivals. It began from this January with the three-day occasion held on January 13, 14 and 15 on the premises of Bangla Academy.
Besides over 200 Bangladeshi and foreign writers, critics and academics, persons belonging to cinema, painting, journalism and other branches of creativity also joined it. The programmes were presented in two auditoriums of the Bangla Academy building and three daises erected outdoors in the compound. Called the International Bangla Literature Conference (1424 B.S.), the conference-cum-festival featured six seminars each focusing on a main paper, with selected participants discussing it. The event was organised by International Bangla Literature Conference Organisers' Council in collaboration with All-India Bengali Literary Conference. Apart from paper-readings, talks and poetry recitations, there were screenings of movies based on literary works, staging of plays and sessions of songs and story-telling. Besides, poetry reading by renowned and younger poets occupied a major segment of the conference.
The ceremonial inauguration by Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of the country, came up as a unique aspect of the event. The 3-day literary pageant's concluding session had Pranab Mukherjee, former President of India, as Chief Guest. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith and Minister of Culture Asaduzzaman Noor attended the concluding ceremony. The conference's chief coordinator Nasir Uddin Yusuf and convener Professor Anisuzzaman along with Bangla Academy Director General Shamsuzzaman Khan played critical roles in the organisation of the festival. Thanks to the warm participation of a galaxy of illustrious persons, mostly writers, the literary conference has stood out with many distinctive features. Few literary events elsewhere in the world can bring together so many personalities from government, national institutions and regional literary and cultural forums --- and, of course, authors and other creative people. This unique feature has been inherent with Bangladesh since its independence. The seminar topics at the conference elucidated the issue, with many pointing out the fruits normally borne by a nation's distinctive cultural identity.
Barring the thin presence of connoisseurs and visitors, presumably due to the biting cold, the conference venue remained abuzz with people having a passion for the arts. There were stalls of books and periodicals and open 'adda' sessions between authors and their readers. However, the character of the conference remained serious all through. The topics of discussion and discourse included the impact of Partition of India on Bangla literature, interface between literature and cinema, recent trends in Bangla novels, two hundred years of Bangla newspapers, Bengali Language Movement and the Bengalee national identity, crisis in Bangla literature and its prospects in the digital age, translation of literary works, etc. Poetry, which deserves the most pronounced emphasis in conferences like this, was conspicuous by its absence as a topic of discussion. It may have astonished poetry lovers.
With the South Asian sub-continent carrying the legacy of the modern arts festivals for long, the latest festival has carved a place for itself among many such events with its very opening edition. Tasting the pleasure of literature turns out to be arduous, and also illusory, for the general educated people; but regularly attending literary events featuring discussions, readings and get-togethers finally prompts many to become ardent admirers of books. Contrary to the common notion, literary festivals are not mere talks or rigmarole. These events do play a great role in bringing literature close to people's heart as a source of unique pleasure. Upon attaining this mental uplift, the readers experience the pureness of his or her entire self. In fact, literature deals with the human mind. Maybe, this has prompted Pranab Mukherjee to emphasise cleansing the mind of its pollution. It's literature which can accomplish this feat, as authors envision a non-violent world.
shihabskr@ymail.com