Northwest to meet northeast at Amritsar’s Majha House
After nine months of book readings, cultural fare, discussions and story-telling for children, food for thought and much more, the cultural hub of Majha House founded by Preeti and KS Gill is all dressed up to host its first ‘Syal (winter) Festival’ on November 17 and 18.
The theme of the first winter fair in the border city of Amritsar, located close to the India-Pakistan border, is ‘Border Crossings’.
However, it is an open forum concerned not just with political borders but borders of all kinds. Elaborating on the scope of the theme, Preeti says: “We are dwelling on borders and boundaries of all kinds. The troubled political borders concern us but so do the boundaries of cast, class, gender, sexuality and such others”.
An interesting aspect is that writers and academicians from both countries will meet and discuss the differences as well as the common ground for intervention.
One of the projects that the Majha House has been involved with is the research study, with a grant from the Henri Bolle Foundation, on the Dalit Sikhs of Assam and Shillong in Meghalaya, who made news during the past summer when the Khasi tribe was up in arms against them following a skirmish in Shillong.
Human rights activist Sanjoy Hazarika says, “The question to be asked is that are these Dalit Sikhs ‘outsiders’ even after a hundred years? Also, it has been interesting to note that while adopting the culture and dress of the northeast, they still have kept ties with Punjab for marriages of their children, especially daughters”.
The festival opens with a keynote address by writerpublisher Urvashi Butalia, author of the acclaimed book ‘The Other Side of Silence’, which was a telling collection of oral histories of the Partition of Punjab. However, this festival will also have writers from the north-east like Mitra Phukan and Shalim Husain, who will talk of what happened with the Partition of Bengal and what are the repercussions on the Bengali Muslims of Assam.
The other sessions feature poet Jerry Pinto on the importance of poetry to society and Punjabi poets reading their verses in a session dedicated to the path-breaking poet Amrita Pritam in her centenary year.
Madhavi Menon will discuss the infinite variety of sexuality with publisher Ravi Singh and Alka Pande will talk films with critic Ratanottma Sengupta. There is much more with something for everyone. The heartwarming news is that ‘Syal Festival’ will be an annual feature.