IGNCA
Prof. Badri Narayan delivers Namvar Singh Memorial Special Lecture, talks about democratic spirit and literature
New Delhi/IBNS: A democratic inclination is essential for the literary sphere to prevent shrinking values from inducing fanaticism, said Prof. Badri Narayan, poet and social scientist, while delivering a special lecture at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), Kala Nidhi Division, New Delhi.
Sahitya Academy award winner and Director, G. B Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, Prof. Badri Narayan was speaking at the Prof. Namvar Singh Memorial Special Lecture on the topic ‘Jantantrik Bhav Aur Sahitya’.
The session was chaired by Rambahadur Rai, President, IGNCA and welcome address was given by Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi, Member Secretary, IGNCA.
Prof. Sachchidanand Joshi explained the importance of the topic ‘Jantantrik Bhav Aur Sahitya’ (Democratic Spirit and Literature) especially in the context of relativity and absolutism of ideas in literature.
The introductory address was given by Prof. Ramesh Chandra Gaur, Head of Department, Kala Nidhi Division, IGNCA.
Said Rai that it is time to find people like Namvar Singh in the present times. Because he was one of those people in the literary tradition, in whom we could see the image of the society.
Prof. Badri Narayan contextualized the subject with memory of Namvar Singh and categorized the latter’s writings in three broad categories.
The first being from 1962-73, which was the age of cold war in which Namvar Singh reflected in his thoughts literary reflections of the times.
The second categorization was of the time period between 1973-91 during which his thoughts shifted towards understanding the power of people and folk.
The third and final category was of the time period between 1991- to present, wherein the literary reflections were on democratic values.
During the course of the speech it was emphasized that Namvar Singh’s behavioral attributes in context to being a critic was based on the value of discourse.
However, today, the literary sphere is fragmented, fractured, self- centric and has drifted away from empathy, he said.
Prof. Badri Narayan said that Namvar Singh knew that the multiple traditions are fundamental to our democratic values and his creative discourse followed from the sphere of democratic inclination.
He also said that Namvar Singh believed in oral tradition and was inspired by critical traditions in folk literature.
The world of folk literature is a living tradition because it is in regular discourse with its cultural traditions, he said.
Prof. Ramesh Chandra Gaur, HoD, Kala Nidhi also highlighted the Kala Nidhi Library and the personal collections of various scholars and eminent personalities housed here.
He said the library holds the personal collections of people such as Acharya Hazariprasad Dwivedi, Prof. Namvar Singh, Acharya Devendra Swaroop, Prof. Suniti Chatterjee, Shyam Benegal, Mulkraj Anand and others.
Vijay Singh son of late Prof. Namvar Singh was also present on the occasion.
The vote of thanks was delivered by O.N. Choubey.
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