Literature & Arts Festival hosted by Arogya Wellbeing Trust at Antara
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 15 Sep: A one-day Literature & Arts festival was organised by Arogya Wellbeing Trust at Antara Auditorium, here, today. Several sessions were held during the course of the day. This was the first edition of this literature festival. One of the more engaging sessions was a discussion on Gender based violence, titled ‘Gender based Violence, a Social Menace’, between DGP, Uttarakhand, Abhinav Kumar and Venu Agrahari Dhingra. Venu Agrahari Dhingra is a well-known author and writes extensively on issues related to women. One of the popular books authored by her is ‘Power Women- India’s Political Winners’.
Other interesting sessions included ‘A Journey through ages’ between Author Madhulika Liddle, Bijoya Sawian and Jasleen Kaur; a session on the experiences of leading documentary producer and director Robin Roy, titled, ‘From Himalayas to Thar: An Immersive Experience’, which had a discussion between the main host of the festival, Dr Aloka Dasgupta Niyogi, Robin Roy and Siddhant Arora.
The discussion on gender-based violence was very engaging. To begin with, Abhinav Kumar was congratulated for being the youngest DGP in the country and for being a no-nonsense Police Officer. During the session, Venu Agrahari Dhingra confronted DGP Abhinav Kumar with some survey-based statistics on gender based violence, domestic violence and rapes, etc., claiming that domestic violence against women is far more common than it is reported and that women despite being roughly 50 percent of the population are still having to live in fear and they feel insecure. She also claimed that violence against women has continued since the ancient times and quoted Mahabharata, also, on this. She reminded that Draupadi was declared to be the wife of five Pandav brothers by their mother, Kunti, without even seeking her consent and claimed that this was an indication of a highly patriarchal society and lamented that this continues even now. She also claimed that the rate of conviction in rape cases is very low, and the women continue to feel insecure and scared through their lives.
To this, DGP Abhinav Kumar responded that, while the women continue to be vulnerable and the situation in this regard is not as ideal as it ought to be, the statistics since 1947 onwards point to significant improvement. He added that he can tell from his experience since the year 1996, when he joined the police service, that the women are getting safer as compared to the past. He also added that, while he does not seek at all to justify the number of cases of rapes in India, the fact remains that in context of the size of population in India and that in the western countries, the number of rape cases being reported in Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden, etc., are quite high though these countries are considered to be much more evolved and peaceful. He added that, in the past, 30,000 women used to die in kitchen fires and dowry cases. This number has come drastically down by now. The society is becoming more aware. More women are getting educated and are less bound to the kitchen. He, however, conceded that in India, rape has also been used as a tool to impose patriarchy, or to impose cultural norms and male dominance.
Kumar said that, despite the fact that POCSO provides for death sentence, too, capital punishment has been awarded to the guilty very rarely. He added that, in his opinion, provision of death sentence is not a strong enough deterrence for the potential rapists. He agreed that the criminal justice system has to improve a lot but added that the improvements are being introduced.
In response to a question by Dhingra he agreed that a holistic approach is required but added that there are no immediate solutions to the problem. He also conceded that certain provisions in the law while being brought in with good intention are somewhat one-sided. He quoted certain provisions from the POCSO Act. He said that, even in the case of consensual sexual relations between two minors, the minor culprit is bound to be treated as adult and tried for rape under POCSO. He added that codification of laws and stronger laws are just the first step towards creating a safer world for women.
In response to another question, he conceded that poor women and segments of society are at a greater disadvantage as compared to the richer people and often have to struggle more to get justice. He added that, as a DGP, he has tried to reform the manner in which crimes against women are being handled by the Police.
In the first session of the festival, discussion was held on books of author Madhulika Liddle, particularly her books Garden of Heaven and Woman to Woman. In this session, apart from the author Liddle, Bijoya Sawian, a native of Meghalaya who is famous for her book Khasi Myths, Legends and Folk Tales, and Jasleen Kaur were also present. Bijoya Sawian observed that beginning her writing journey with the Muzaffar Jung series, a seventeenth century Mughal Detective, she later delved into women-centric topics and history. Sawian also praised the descriptive power of Liddle and asked her what led to her becoming a writer. In response, Liddle quoted Monisha, the compere of today’s programme, who stated that if one can’t find the book one wants to read, then better to write it. She said that she had been an avid reader and when she found something missing, she dropped in to writing. She also admitted that while her books have been written with a historical backdrop, in her childhood, she found history to be a boring subject. However, as she grew older, she felt the need to understand the history and the past in order to live better in present times. She also added that her sister is a historian and a major source of her (Madhulika’s) research on historical contexts and claimed that she tries her best to be accurate with her historical narration. The book Garden of Heaven is a story of a two hundred period when Taimur had invaded India but Humayun was yet to come. It is a story of a woman who brings home an injured soldier of Taimur and takes care of him.
One interesting session was on the documentary films of Robin Roy. This session had a discussion between Robin Roy, Dr Aloka Dasgupta Niyogi and Siddhant Arora, a budding actor writer and a book seller. During the discussion, Roy made it clear that he has not learnt the art of film making and the technicalities of film making in any film school but had on the job learning of the nitty gritty of film making. However, he had learnt still photography professionally, he shared. Aloka Niyogi pointed to a diverse range of topics on which Roy has made documentary films ranging from the environment, wildlife, to covering diverse landscapes ranging from Himalayas to the deserts and also making films on historical characters and monuments.
In response to questions, Roy also cited certain interesting experiences during the course of his career as a documentary filmmaker. He shared that, in Rann of Kutch, there is a specific area where the camels have learnt to swim over to one island a kilometre away to eat mango leaves. He added that he also swam over to the island with them and the tribesmen owning the camels. He added that he made a documentary of Humayun’s Tomb, which is now considered to have served as a model for construction of the Taj Mahal, for the BBC and has made films for Discovery India and Nat Geo. He added that, in between, he has to work also as advertisement film maker to earn his bread and butter.
Another session was on ‘Shadows of a Turbulent Past’, written by Kiran Manral, and the discussants were Ruby Gupta and Deepanjali Shah. One very different topic concerning challenges of publishing and the advent of AI tools was discussed in a session between Ravi Singh (Author of Speaking Tiger), Renuka Chatterjee and Randhir Arora. Jerry Pinto’s An Awkward journey to manhood was discussed between the author and discussants, Nitin Jugran and Priyakshi Rajguru Goswami. A session was also held on the book, ‘A trip to the moon – Bhang stories’, written by Akshaya Bahibala with discussants Sanjeev Srivastava and Roopa Soni.
Monisha compered the proceedings. ONGC was the Platinum Sponsor of the festival while DPS Vikasnagar was another sponsor of the festival.
