Second phase of Kashi Tamil Sangamam to be held in December

PM Modi inaugurated the first phase of the cultural festival last year, whose political message attached with the gala celebrations for a month is not lost on anyone as the outreach came amid a massive push by the BJP to make inroads into Tamil Nadu, where it still lacks base.

Kashi Tamil Sangamam, a festival aimed at rediscovering the connection between Tamil Nadu and Varanasi -- two major centres of language and culture in the country, is back this year. The second phase of the fortnight-long festival, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be held in Uttar Pradesh between December 17 and December 30 during the Tamil month of Margazhi.

Modi inaugurated the first phase of the cultural festival last year, whose political message attached with the gala celebrations for a month is not lost on anyone as the outreach came amid a massive push by the BJP to make inroads into Tamil Nadu, where it still lacks base. 

The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M), the implementing agency of the project in Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday sought applications from interested persons for participating in the second edition of the event. 

Like its first edition, this programme proposes to take forward the objective of reviving the living bonds between Varanasi and Tamil Nadu - two important centres of learning and culture in ancient India – by facilitating people-to-people connect across different walks of life.

“In Phase 2 of KTS, it is proposed that around 1,400 people from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will travel by train to Varanasi, Prayagraj and Ayodhya for an eight-day immersive tour, including the travel time,” the institute said. 

The delegates will be divided into seven groups of around 200 each, comprising students, teachers, farmers, artisans, traders and businessmen besides religious, writers, professionals and each group will be named after a sacred river such as Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswathi, Sindhu, Narmada, Godavari and Cauvery.

“The delegates will be taken to visit places of historical, tourist and religious interest and interact with people of Uttar Pradesh from their domains of work. The KTS 2.0 would have a crisper format with emphasis on awareness generation and outreach, people-to-people connect and cultural immersion,” the IIT-M said.

The focus would be on increased engagement and interaction with local counterparts (weavers, artisans, artists, entrepreneurs, writers, etc.) to get insights into best practices, enhance learning and cross pollination of ideas, it said.

The first edition of Kashi Tamil Sangamam saw over 2,500 people from Tamil Nadu, representing different 12 different walks of life, travelling to Varanasi, Prayagraj and Ayodhya on eight-day tours, during which they had an immersive experience of different aspects of life in and around Varanasi.

The festival is part of a recommendation made in the National Education Policy 2020 on the need for research to integrate the wealth of Indian Knowledge Systems with the more recent body of knowledge.

The organisers say while ancient and traditional knowledge systems exist across all regions of India, across all ages and in multiple languages, Tamil Nadu and Kashi, and the area around it, are two of the oldest and most important of such centres. “Both these centres have been fountainheads of knowledge in the intellectual, cultural, spiritual and artisanal realms,” they said.