DHARWAD: Senior writer
Narahalli Balsubrahmanya alleged that the 'ruling class' in India is dominating the media and trying to curb the voice of dissent by using brute force. He termed this as a trend that harms democracy in the country.
Delivering the keynote address on the inaugural day of the
Dharwad Sahitya Sambhrama here on Friday, he recalled the concern expressed by poet
Gopalkrishna Adiga in the 70's about the attack on freedom of expression and said such a situation is emerging again now at both the state and national -level.
Bhakti movement
Narahalli hailed the role played by bhakti (devotion) movement in
Kannada literature. Though bhakti is used by religion and political parties to suit their objectives, it was Kannada literature which used bhakti as a mode of getting free from the clutches of the religion, he said.
Go digital
Referring to digitalisation, t he writer said that Kannada has to prepare itself for digitalisation. The 150-year-old New York Times newspaper too has closed its print version and has gone digital. There is stupendous growth of digital readership and for the survival of Kannada language, it is inevitable to go digital, he noted.
Foreign universities are setting up language laboratories and have taken up new researches. They are trying to divide language and culture and knitting them with a new knowledge and extending it to all parts of the world.
However, no such efforts are seen in the Indian universities, he felt.
