History-lovers at Freedom Park on the last day of the Bangalore Literature Festival this Sunday were not disappointed, with discussions ranging from contemporary Indian history to the rise and fall of ancient empires; from a former Governor’s memories of Nelson Mandela to the great kingdoms of South India.
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Speaking at the panel ‘The Undying Light: A Personal History of Independent India’ was the author of a book of the same name, former diplomat and West Bengal Governor — Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who happens to be a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari.
He recalled a time when he had the opportunity to precede Nelson Mandela speaking at an event, recalling that Mandela had said, “In the names of the many Indians who had suffered for South Africa and spoken for South Africa, you have forgotten Mohammed Karim Chagla, who spoke in the United Nations about the evils of apartheid.”
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Gopalkrishna Gandhi said, “Mandela was telling me that plural India, with its extraordinary chiaroscuro, that India supported the struggle against apartheid, and that India has helped South Africa to become a new rainbow nation. This man, who could have left things like national anthems to those who look after such details, had Afrikaner and English words apart from the native languages of South Africa, to be sung without abbreviations.”
He recalled, “Mandela was asked by his own colleagues, ‘Why do you have so many Indians in your government?’ Mandela replied, ‘Indians in the Government in South Africa are not proportionate to their population, but in proportion to their contribution to the struggle’.”
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Another notable panel was ‘The Making and Unmaking of Empires’, headlined by historian Anirudh Kanisetti. Among the contrasts highlighted by Kanisetti was the difference between ancient outlooks and modern concepts of linguistic identity – via the example of the Chola ruler Koluttunga I, who was of Eastern Chalukya descent in the maternal line (a branch of the Chalukya dynasty ruling in Vengi, located in modern Andhra Pradesh), and of Chola descent on his father’s side.
Kanisetti added, “One of the strangest questions I get is, was he a Telugu or a Tamil? I am talking to all of you in English. Am I British? Just as we are capable of inhabiting multiple identities at the same time, no matter which geography we are from, the same extends to the people of the medieval past. We assume that people who lived 1000 years ago were simpler than we are…Kulottunga or Raja Raja Chola speaking a particular language in a particular part of the country does not make them conform to our particular ethno-nationalistic impulses”.
The 14th edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival began on December 6, with a keynote speech by International Booker Prize winner and veteran Kannada author Banu Mushtaq.