The first Dalit Literature Festival was celebrated from
December 6 to 8 in Delhi. This was the first time ever that the fest was
organized to create new opportunities to boost the Dalit literature across the
country. According to the press release by the Dalit Literature Festival
Planning Board, the festival was held to promote Dalit literature and was a non-profit
initiative to focus on all the aspects of Dalits and their lives. The purpose
behind the festival was to showcase Dalit culture and way of life, in terms of
arts, movies and various food items.
The festival was part of an international program to bring Dalit
writers together on a single platform from different corners of the country and
to discuss about plans and opportunities. The various motives behind the fest
included getting a common platform for Dalit literature which is strong and
independent, to create opportunities for Dalit literature to be more focused,
to expand the network for Dalit literature and to get more readers, to open
doors of opportunities for the Dalit writers and artists and to promote Dalit
culture, arts, films and food on a large scale.
According to the press release published, the Dalit
Literature Festival Planning Board further added that Dalit literature has been
part of Indian literary tradition for a long period of time and has strong
bonds. Many writers, both Dalit and non-Dalit, have become part of Dalit
literature and keep contributing in the journey of expressing and fighting for
fundamental rights and developments of the community. Dalit literature which has
been available in Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Telugu, Hindi and many other
Indian languages earlier, is now being actively translated into English,
French, German and many other international languages and is getting the
attention of the whole world.
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