The National Book Trust has decided to dedicate its 60th year celebrations less than two months from now to a theme that has been much talked about in the recent past: nationalism.
On August 1 and 2, the Trust – an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Human Resource Development – will hold a national workshop on nationalist consciousness in literature in Indian languages.
“We are looking at all languages that are Indian in origin and recognised in the Constitution,” said a senior official.
This leaves out English but includes writings in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam and all other Indian languages.
The two-day workshop will have two broad sections – literature pertaining to the pre-independence period and literature written after independence.
There will be six-seven sub-sections where writings of eminent Indian writers aiming at instilling nationalist feelings among people will be discussed.