Writers and women are always insiders as well as outsiders, their life and work reflects it: Geetanjali Shree at the Hans Literary Festival | Books and Literature News,The Indian Express
A three-day literary festival on women’s writing by a magazine known for spotlighting feminist and Dalit writers drew crowds from across India
“I think a writer and a woman are always both insiders and outsiders. Her whole life and work always tightropes between these two statuses,” said Shree. Winner of the International Booker Prize 2022, she began her literary journey with the magazine initiated by Premchand in 1930 and had Gandhi on its editorial board. Noting that the Booker win changed her “life overnight”, Shree added, “It expanded my world, and I have met many friends and facades over the last six months. But after travelling worldwide, I have understood that what your own fraternity means to you is unparalleled.”
Her words kicked off the festival, titled “Stri Srijan ka Saara Aakash”, loosely translated to ‘The Boundless Sky of Female Creation.’ The three-day event that took place from October 28 to 30, was the first of its scale by Hans that featured 75 speakers, hosted guests from around the country, and organised seminars focusing on women writing their way around violence, injustice, backsliding of women’s rights and protest movements. The festival was several months in the making, its preparation beginning back in June, according to famed Kathak dancer Rachna Yadav, daughter of renowned writer Rajendra Yadav, who revived Hans in 1986, after it was shut down in 1956 due to financial strains. Now the owner of the publication, Rachna noted that since the language of this literature was Hindi, sponsors were few and difficult to come by. “It’s not that bigger lit fests don’t feature Hindi literature, it’s just that Hindi and other regional languages tend to get sidelined there,” says she, adding, “That’s why we wanted to organise an event in the heart of Delhi, where English-reading audiences from all over the country come and listen to our speakers.”
Among the writers speaking on the first day of the festival was Mridula Garg, Sahitya Akademi-awardee and author of several novels and short story collections, including Miljul Man (2013). She spoke of the category confusions that plague literature academia and how those have affected women’s writing. “When we talk of women’s literature, we only talk of women’s rights, but women’s literature was never limited to that one subject. It was twisted and forced into seeming that way. Whenever women have faced domestic and foreign injustices, they’ve stood against it and risen above it, changed politics and protested. This is a war not by men on women, but on all oppressed communities,” she said.
Sanjay Sahay, editor of Hans, said, “(This fest to celebrate women’s literature is happening at a time when) women are being pushed back in society yet again, when democracy is stealing women’s rights. But women will snatch them back, and it won’t be because men are granting them a favour.”
The myriad human experiences accessible only to women are understood by all of society because of literature written by women, said novelist Ashok Vajpeyi, adding that “they have never demanded that the community examine their art less seriously or with lower standards.” He stated, “Mahadevi, Subadhra Kumari Chauhan, Mrinal Pande, Usha Priyamvada, Alka Saraogi, Geetanjali Shree, each of these women has created a new language and done something for literature that their male counterparts have not.”
Rating: 5