Understand traditions of Indian literature

KOCHI: “Malayalis are familiar with stalwarts in foreign literature. The present generation is not attempting to understand the social commitments and relevance of the freedom struggle and the traditions of Indian literature,’’ said poet K Sachidanandan after inaugurating the two-day seminar on the works of Sumitranandan Pant and Ramdhari Singh as part of the ‘G Smaraka Jnanapeeta Puraskaram’ lecture series at Maharaja’s College on Thursday. ‘’Today when the concept of nation itself is being questioned, awareness on various Indian literary works is the need of the hour,’’ he said. Though the recipients of Jnanapeet are deserving, many good writers have not been bestowed the award; Edasseri, Vyloppilli and O V Vijayan to name a few,’’ he said.   Prof Valsalakumari, Principal, Majaraja’s College, presided over the function. Ernakulam Cluster of Colleges and the Malayalam Department of Maharaja’s College are jointly organising the two-day seminar. Margaret George, Principal, Government College, Tripunithura, Prof P Ramadevi, Head, Department of Malayalam, K G Ramadasan, CDC member, Prof Basuramani, president, Hindi section and prof M S Murali, among others, spoke.   Prof Shanmukhan Pulappatta, Cusat, Pramod Kovvaprath, Calicut University, and Prabakaran Hebbar, Brennen College, presented papers. T M Vishwambaran, Aarsu and K G Prabhakaran will present papers on Sumitranandan Pant’s poems on Friday.