Lit fest calls for preserving linguistic heritage

The 10th edition of Amritsar Sahit Utsav dedicated to promoting and celebrating literature, art, culture and creative expression, hosted a session on challenges and opportunities for language and literature in the era of technology and Artificial Intelligence. The festival, being hosted at the historic Khalsa College, which makes for an apt venue, invites readers, publishers, artists and people from all walks of life to experience the cultural and literary activities during the five-day event.

The Department of Languages, Punjab, organised the session on challenges that languages, mostly regional, face in the era of extreme globalisation. Director, Department of Languages and a noted author, Jaswant Singh Zafar, eminent thinker Dr Amarjit Singh Grewal and Dr Rajesh Sharma, along with Principal, Khalsa College, Dr Atam Singh Randhawa, deliberated on the future roadmap to promote and preserve the language without compromising on its quality and rich vocabulary.

"Everything is in motion in this world, just a click away. Changes in literature and language come easily and technology changes very quickly as we have seen with AI. Therefore, there is a need to maintain a balance between the two. Without this balance, one part of our civilization will be lost in our haste to jump onto the other, seemingly the progressive part," said Zafar. He has initiated a literary magazine, "Punjabi Dunia", published by the Language Department to preserve and promote the ideas presented by eminent scholars of Punjabi.

Dr Amarjit Singh Grewal said that in the present era, serious efforts are needed to deal with the challenges faced by literature and art. "We must understand that the role of literature is more important than science and technology, but in the present era, research work related to technology and science is increasing while liberal arts are being pushed aside. There is a need to give priority to research related to literature. Technology cannot be separated, but to solely rely on machine intelligence is going to creatively bankrupt us," he said adding that for research work being done at the academic level in Punjabi language, the researcher should know Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts. "There is a need to write literature in the language of the people and bridge the linguistic divide," he added. The end of the session saw a book release event of 'Punjabi Dalit Kahani: Drishti Te Drishti' edited by Dr Navjot Kaur and'Jadunagari De Jadugar' by Ajay Tanveer.

A glimpse of history

The Amritsar Sahit Utsav also invited creative stalls by student artists including Phulkari exhibits, live painting and music events. A special treat for visitors is the exhibition of rare coins and currency and artifacts from the personal collection of Dev Dard, a city-based poet. A fascinating collection of antiques by him, it includes about a 200-year-old idol of 'Menka' (a mythological character), a unique folding metallic glass, a 400-year-old metallic urn, 3,000-year-old silver and copper coins belonging to the early Kushan period, Gupta period, Mughal period, Sultan era, Bahmani and Malvi periods. This collection also has coins belonging to the period of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, coins of Suri and Khilji dynasties and Sindhi coins. He also has earthen utensils of the Greek period. He keeps these artifacts he has collected over the last three decades at his museum space in his home in Islamabad.

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