Make people identify with writings, and they will return to literature: Mauzo

Panaji: The doyen of Goan literature, Damodar Mauzo, was conferred the country’s highest literary honour, the Jnanpith award, at Raj Bhavan on Saturday.
Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai, who conferred the award, said that Mauzo has “bravely shown a mirror to Indian society” just the way Dickens did to 19th century London.
“The need of the hour for our society is that all of us should live in earnest,” he said.
Mauzo, winner of the 57th Jnanpith, is only the second Konkani writer after Ravindra Kelekar, who won the 42nd Jnanpith in 2006, to win the award.
In his acceptance speech, Mauzo said that “the diverse humanity of Goa, of India, and that of the world has so much to offer that literature will continue to exist and lead the world for centuries to come”.
However, he also underscored the need to “identify and address the problems that are blocking literary roadways”.
“Our minister for national highways is doing excellent work,” he said. “But we also need another kind of highway, that will smoothen the fast pace of literature by clearing the hurdles and apprehensions in the minds of our writers, by strengthening the linguistic bridges of translation, and by creating an atmosphere that will ensure freedom of expression.”
Stating that he disagreed with the view that the current generation was drifting away from literature, Mauzo said, “If we introspect, we will realise that our writers and our writings are drifting away from the people. Make people identify with the writings, and they will turn to literature”.
Meanwhile, Pillai, referring to Raj Bhavan’s Nayi Pahel scheme that provides financial assistance to local writers in Konkani, Hindi, Marathi, and English to publish their books, urged the state government to play a facilitating role in “developing and promoting local creative talents and diverse cultural expressions of the country”.
Minister for art and culture Govind Gaude, Bhartiya Jnanpith president justice Vijendra Jain, chairperson of its selection board, Pratibha Ray, and poet and filmmaker Gulzar also spoke at the event.