Gurdaspur village set to host Marathi lit fest

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Chandigarh, April 1

Four special trains carrying Marathi men/women of letters, artists, actors and other dignitaries will arrive at Tanda (Hoshiarpur) and Beas (Amritsar) railway stations on Thursday. They will be arriving to attend the 88th All-India Marathi Literary Festival — largest such event in the state — in the memory of Bhagat Namdev at Ghuman village, near Sri Hargobindpur, in Gurdaspur district from April 3 to 5.

Top Maharashtra politicians — including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Prakash Javadekar, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, former Union ministers Sharad Pawar and Sushilkumar Shinde — will also join them for the event.

Born in Naras-Vamani village of Satara district in Maharashtra, Bhagat Namdev is believed to have stayed at Ghuman village for two decades in the 14th century before breathing his last there. His 61 shabads were included in Guru Granth Sahib, a holy scripture of the Sikhs.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has declared the festival a state function. Additional Chief Secretary Suresh Kumar is the nodal officer in charge of overseeing the arrangements.

More than 200 rooms have been booked in various hotels at Amritsar for VIP guests. Around 6,000 other guests will be put up in and around Ghuman village.

The literary festival is an annual feature in Maharashtra. But the 88th edition of the festival has been dedicated to Bhagat Namdev, which has brought the festival to Ghuman village, where Bhagat Namdev authored a large part of his devotional songs before passing away in 1350 AD.

Suresh Kumar, who visited Ghuman village today to oversee the arrangements, said: “Around 15 college hostels have been prepared for the stay of guests near the venue. We are ready to host the event.” Some guests have already started arriving.

Harpal Singh Pannu, a Sikh scholar, said the central theme of Bhagat Namdev’s writings was: “God is one and all human beings are His family”. He was part of the Bhakti movement that swept North India between 1100 and 1600 AD.