President opens 3-day Bengali literary conference in city

President Pranab Mukherjee made a short visit to Bengaluru to inaugurate the 89th annual conference of the three-day Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan on Sunday.

Addressing the sammelan in Bengali, Mukherjee said, “Language is a unifying force without boundaries. Literature provides opportunities to people to discuss and exchange ideas.” Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan enriches the Bengali language and literature, he said.

The convention was first held in 1922 and was presided over by Rabindranath Tagore. Since then, it has been an annual event attended by eminent personalities from Bengali literature.

“Since Tagore, no writer from India has received the Nobel Prize for literature. This alone shows that he was a great writer,” said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, speaking at the event. Several Kannada writers like Kuvempu and D R Bendre have been influenced by Tagore’s work, he said.

“Tagore’s Gitanjali has been translated into Kannada from Bengali, bringing the two cultures and people together. In fact, this is the fourth time that the convention is being hosted in Bengaluru,” the chief minister said.

The annual literary convention was organised at ITI Vidyamandir School auditorium in Krishnarajapuram. Governor Vajubhai Vala, Karnataka High Court Chief Justice S K Mukherjee, Jharkhand Minister Saryu Rai and president of the Sammelan Pradeep Bhattacharjee were also present at the event.

Hindi, Kannada and Bengali writers will interact at a session on Monday. Jnanpith awardee Chandrashekhar Kambar,   Vivek Shanbhag and Prathibha Nandakumar, are among the participating authors.