PAGE TURNER - AC Bhagawati Recommends

Renowned anthropologist AC Bhagawati heads the North-Eastern Regional Centre of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA). He tells Gitanjali Das that literature is the last hope of revival of understanding among the northeastern communities

AC Bhagawati, Anthropologist

What does literature mean to you? Do you think it has any relevance in our day-to-day lives? According to you, does it have anything to do with all that is happening around us?

Literature means something that instills a sense of hope in life and future. It provides us with enlightening ideas. It must never digress from reality. It mirrors the society to some extent but there is always scope for imaginative thinking of a positive kind.

How close is your relation with literature in general, and with literature of the Northeast in particular?

I am not particularly close to contemporary literature. I belong in the discipline of anthropology which is in the domain of social sciences. However, literature has always been a close companion of the discipline. There is a kind of organic bond between the two, especially in the northeastern situation.

What future do you see for literature from the Northeast?

The future is great to the extent that the creative writers in the Northeast remain rooted in their societies and try to ignite the people into creative thinking. Unless we recreate the understanding between the different communities, we can never have a well fortified present and future. Literature is our last hope of revival of understanding between the northeastern communities, especially children’s literature, as the children are our future.

Name one book that had a lasting impact on you. In what way?

I can’t be partial to just one book. I really enjoyed reading Rita Choudhury’s Makam. It is a combination of life and creative thinking. A humble attempt at creating cultural understanding are the books in the domain of simple story-telling like Burhi Aair Xadhu by Lakshminath Bezbarua or the various other folktale collections. They have always been a source of inspiration for me. Recently I read a book which escaped me in my childhood and youth, NEFAr Xadhu, published in 1957. It’s a collection of stories written by children studying in the schools of Arunachal Pradesh, then NEFA (North East Frontier Agency). The stories are about the life of the communities of each of the tellers.

What book would you recommend for our readers and why?

I would ask readers to read a book which has a concrete message of how relevant children can be in protecting the environment. It is called Kaziranga Trail written by Arup Kumar Dutta. I made my children read the book and lo and behold, one of them became a nature lover after reading it and entered the domain of environmental science and protection of wildlife. It is a very simple book with the help of which adults can get an insight into how children can be agents of change.