Vatika Group presents
Siyahi's
Translating Bharat
Language, Globalisation and the
Right to be Read

21st - 22nd January, 2008

Programme(subject to modification)
VENUE :
Diggi Palace Hotel,
Sawai Ram Singh Road,
Jaipur.
 

21st January 2008

10 am -12 noon

Swarmala: presenting North-Eastern languages
Udaya Narayan Singh, Temsula Ao, Desmond L Kharmawphlang,
Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih, Cherrie Chhangte

"Memory of time
live in me
Tell me your story
dream in me.

When i wake
i will stoke you
with my voice
Sing out loud
Make you mine."

Indian sensibility and way of life has always been a mixture of storytelling, enactment, song and dance. A common man's dreams and aspirations come alive and communities thrives on stories connecting the past to the present and dreaming of a future that is quite possible.

Udaya Narayana Singh is a reputed poet, playwright and essayist in Maithili and Bengali. He has published four collections of poems and eleven plays in Maithili - Kavayo Vadanti (Mithila Darshan, Calcutta, 1966), Madhyampurush Ekvachan (Vani Prakashan, New Delhi, 2005), as well as six books of literary essays and two volumes of poetry in Bengali. He holds a doctoral degree in Linguistics from the University of Delhi and is Director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore.

Temsula Ao is a Professor in the Department of English, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong and also Dean, School of Humanities and Education at NEHU. She has been named for the Padma Shri Award for Literature and Education. Prof. Temsula has to her credit the publications of seven books and three poems in anthologies and is the author of Ao-Naga Oral Tradition (2000). Her recent work includes a powerful collection of short stories titled These Hills Called Home — Stories From A War Zone, published by Zubaan and Penguin Books.

Desmond L. Kharmawphlang is Head of the Centre for Cultural & Creative Studies, NEHU, Shillong, India. Kharmawphlang presented a lucid exposition of the concept of sacred forests in Khasi and Jaintia hills and how the preservation of these forests were ensured through the belief in tutelary deities in the form of tigers.

Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih a poet, writer and translator, belongs to the Khasi tribe and writes in both Khasi and English. His short stories have been published in leading journals in India and translated into Hindi and Bengali. Nongkynrih is a Reader in the Department of English, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong. He has a total of five publications in Khasi and three in English besides edited volumes and translated works of poetry and short stories in both Khasi and English.

Cherrie Lalnunziri Chhangte, is a Lecturer in the English Department of Mizoram University. Her areas of interest include Black American Literature, Folklore studies, creative writing. She has presented papers like It Happened to a Friend of a Friend: Urban Legends in Contemporary Mizo Society (Sahitya Akademi Seminar, 2006); Loneliness in the Midst of Curfews: The Mizo Insurgency Movement and Terror Lore (Indian Folklore Congress Seminar, 2006).

12 noon - 1.30 pm

Shades of India
Gillian Wright, Namita Gokhale, Satchidanandan, Dominique Irène Vitalyos, Mahesh Dattani, Annie Montaut

Our languages reflect who we are as a nation.  Knowledge about life and cultures, people and purposes, the past and the yet-to-come is buried in the muffled sounds of dying languages and dialects and the buzz of new hybrid languages. India, being amongst the richest in language diversity is still to fathom the potential of its vital inheritance. Translation is the key to de-marginalize and acquire a new dimension in understanding the soul of India and its people.

Gillian Wright

Gillian Wright has spent more than twenty years in India, working for radio and television and especially for the BBC World Service in London. She has worked as a researcher on several programs, including Faces of India, Great Railway Journeys of the World. She has written a number of books on Indian wildlife, history and politics. She co-authored India in Slow Motion, Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle, No Full Stops in India and Heart of India with Mark Tully. Gillian Wright is well versed in both Hindi and Urdu and has translated numerous Urdu books and several modern classic Hindi novels into English.

Her first novel, the satirical Paro: Dreams of Passion (1984), caused an uproar due to its frank depiction of sexuality. Her most recent novel, the critically acclaimed Shakuntala : The Play of Memory (2005) appeared first in Hindi translation. In non-fiction, The Book of Shiva (2001) is an erudite and impassioned examination of the Hindu God of Death and regeneration. Namita Gokhale is also a partner in Yatra Books, currently co-publishing with Penguin India in Hindi, Marathi and Urdu. Namita has to her credit the first Neemrana International Literature Festival and the Asia - Africa Neemrana Festival. She has also helped design and programme the Jaipur Literature festival, 2006, 2007 and has co-directed the festival for 2008.

K. Satchidananadan, former Secretary of the Sahitya Akademi (The National Academy of Letters, India) is an internationally recognised poet, critic, translator and editor. He has 22 collections of poetry, 16 collections of translations of poetry, 18 works of literary criticism, 4 plays and 3 travelogues to his credit. His collections of poetry have appeared in 16 languages including English, French, Italian and German.

Dominique Vitalyos, the well-known French translator from Marseilles, France, is passionate about translating Indian, especially Malayalam, authors. Some of her work includes O.V. Vijayan's path-breaking Malayalam novel Khasakkinte Itihasam (The Legends of Khasak), Unnayi Variyar's classic Kathakali repertoire, Nalacharitam (1993). What makes her different from other translators is that she proposes interesting books to the publishers in France and translates from the original.

Mahesh Dattani is a playwright, stage director, screen writer and film maker. His published works include Final Solutions and Other plays, Tara and a Collected Works edition published by Penguin India in two volumes. In 1998, Mahesh Dattani won the prestigious central Sahitya Akademi Award for his book Final Solutions and Other plays. Mahesh is the first playwright, writing in English, to receive this award. His film Mango Soufflé was shown in several international film festivals all over the world and as adjudged best motion picture at the Barcelona Film Festival 2003. The script for his film Morning Raga has been archived by The Academy of Motion Pictures, USA.

Annie Montaut is a  professor of Hindi / Indian and General Linguistics at  INALCO. She is a former fellow of Ecole Normale Superieure (1970-74, modern literature, modern Aggregation Letters 1973). Annie has authored and co-authored many books like A Linguistic Grammar of Hindi, A Sketch of Grammatical Garhwali, The Hindi without Penalty. She is a well known French translator and has translated books like Drops of Gold Rajasthan (Rājāsthān kī rajat būnde, by Anupam Mishra), The Train of Lahore, Sequence Guzrâ hua zamana, KB Vaid, Literature in India, to name a few.
She has also directed and co-directed translation based many events like On the Transitivity in languages, languages of South Asia, The Dative, Rajasthan, its heroes, its religions, its people (Paris, Presses de l'INALCO, November 2000).

Who owns knowledge? How far can writers, creators, communities go to claim what is theirs? How should they understand their rights and read the law? How are they entitled to ownership? We bring you a stimulating discussion on intellectual property management and the economics of publishing.

Amiya Bagchi is a renowned political economist from India. He is the Founder-Director of the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata. The Roskilde University, Denmark, conferred a doctorate Honoris Causa on him. He is also a proud recipient of the Padma Shri Award. Bagchi has authored over 250 academic articles, written and edited numerous books and monographs.

Madhukar Sinha

Madhukar Sinha is an officer in the Finance Department of the Indian Railways but with an abiding interest in issues related to the principles of access to knowledge and its interface with Intellectual Property Rights. Currently, he is with the Ministry of Human Resource Development on deputation as Director.

Urvashi Butalia is co-founder of Kali for Women, India's first feminist publishing house and is now Director, Zubaan, an imprint of Kali. She is a writer, researcher and has been active in the women's movement in India for several decades. She is the author of the award-winning History of partition: The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Awarded the Oral History Book Association Award and the Nikkei Asia Award for Culture, this book has been translated into nine languages.

Nuzhat Hassan, Director, National Book Trust, India, has played a major role in conceptualising, co-ordinating and implementing the prestigious Guest of Honour Presentation of India at Frankfurt Book Fair, 2006 which included a series of year long literary and cultural programmes in Frankfurt and other cities of Germany widely covered in the international media. Nuzhat has also authored a collection of short stories in English titled The Marginals.

Neeta Gupta is a publisher at Yatra Books. Besides translating and contributing to various magazines, she has been the editor of Bhartiya Anuvad Parishad's quarterly journal on translation Anuvaad. Yatra Books has been co-ordinating the Indian Languages Publishing Programme of Penguin Books India. They have published over a hundred books in Hindi, Urdu & Marathi. These books have been published both in translation as well as in the original languages.

4.00 pm – 5.30 pm
Resilient vision : building a movement from the margins
Dnyaneshwar Mulay, Arun Kamble, Pradnya D Pawar, Ganesh Devy

Those who didn't have a voice so far, wielded one and  taught the world to listen.  In this session, we analyse new  literature from the margins and its contribution in creating a more equitable society. It also focuses on the spirit of emergent writing in the struggle for social justice and economic development. To locate new voices and the space they are thriving to create for all that is marginalized and pushed away from the centre.

He is a prolific writer and poet in Marathi. He has written Swatahteel Awakash, Russia Navya Dishanche Amantran, Syria: An Enchanting Mosaic, Man Ke Khalihanomein, Rastach Vegala Dharala, Manoos Ani Mukkam, A Comparative Study of Post World War-II Japanese and Post Independence Marathi Poetry, Andar Ek Asmaan, Door Rahila Gaon, Ritu Ug Rahi Hai, Mati Pankh Ani Akash, and Jonaki.

Arun Krishnaji Kamble

Arun Kamble, a writer, poet and editor has authored many books like Cultural Struggle in Ramayana, Conversion of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Cheevar, Vad Samvad, Yug Pravartak Ambedkar, Chalvache Diwas, Tarkateerth Ek Vadata Vyadhat. He has been awarded with accolades like the Prabuddha Ratna Puraskar, Life Time Achievement International Award. Some of his works have been translated into English, German, French, Gujarati, Kannada, Telegu, Malyalam, Urdu (Dalit Awaz) and Hindi (Suraj ke Vansh-dhar).

Pradnya is a Marathi poet and writer, as well as a member of the Maharashtra State Literary and Cultural Board. Some of her works are Antastha, Utkat, Jivghenya Dhagiwar, Kendra Ani Parigh, Mi Bhidavu Pahatey Samagrashi Dola, Mi Bhayankarachya Darwajat Ubha Ahe and Dhadant Khairlanji. She has been awarded with the Maharashtra Balkavi, Indira Sant Vishesh Puraskar, Vishakha Puraskar and Sham Panganti Puraskar for her work as a writer.

Ganesh Devy is the director of Adivasi Academy, Tejgadh. He is the writer of Critical Thought, After Amnesia, Tradition and Change in Indian Literary Criticism, In Another Tongue, Of Many Heroes, India between Traditions and Modernity, Indian Literary Criticism: Theory and Interpretation, Painted Words: Literature of Adivasis and Denotified Tribals, For a Nomad Called Chief, Adivasi Jane Chhe and Vanaprastha. He is one of the founders of Bhasha Research and Publication Centre for the study of Tribal Languages, Literature and Arts, Adivasi Academy for Research and Training in Tribal Studies, Denotified and Nomadic Tribes Rights Action Group, and Himlok: Himalayan Studies Institute.

Translation is a place of absorption. Absorption in all  its senses of incorporation, enthrallment and intense concentration. To translate, the writer gets absorbed by another writer's strategies. The attempt is to create another text that will resonate in a way not similar to the original but parallel. There are as many ways to translate as there are translators alert and attuned to the possibilities of play, to the act of balancing new sounds with the original meanings. We bring to you a series of conversations between authors and translators, via the text, giving rise to a new conversation between the reader and the text, via the translator.

Anupama R. is a writer based in Thiruvananthapuram. As a journalist, her interests include meeting writers from various corners of the world and writing for The Hindu. Her poetry has appeared in The Little Magazine and the Unison Winners Anthology, besides other journals. She has an M.Phil English trainer and also teaches French at the Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum.

MT Vasudevan Nair

M.T. Vasudevan Nair rose to eminence through his well-crafted novels and short stories in Malayalam. A master storyteller, he was honored with the highest literary award the nation confers on a writer, the Jnanpith in 1995. Some of his famous novels are Nalukettu, Kaalam (Kendra Sahitya Akademi in '86), Asuravithu, Manju, Randamoozham (Vayalar award in '85), etc. He has also won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for his short story Swargam Thurakkunna Samayam; for his contribution to Malayalam cinema, he was awarded the Film Fare Award, Cinema Express award and Prem Nazir Foundation award.

Gita Krishnankutty is a well-known translator, who specializes in languages like Malayalam and English. She is the author of several short stories and has translated novels and collections of short stories from Malayalam to English.

6.40 pm – 7.30 pm
Book Launch : Samantar Kosh, Penguin English/Hindi, Hindi/English Thesaurus
Arvind Kumar, Kusum Kumar, Udaya Narayan

The Penguin English-Hindi, Hindi-English Thesaurus and Dictionary has been designed for those who use either or both languages. It helps develop vocabulary and diction and is a ready reference to Indian and international concepts/ideas. The work is not only a repertory of synonyms and antonyms in both the languages; it is also a cross-cultural handbook. It provides numerous references, short indicative definitions, examples to let a reader understand and appreciate the nuances of words in both the languages. It is the Ultimate Translators Tool.

Arvind Kumar is an art-drama-film critic, writer, poet, independent lexicographer and translator; he translates from Hindi to English and Sanskrit and vice-versa. He is presently Editor in Chief of the Hindi Lok Shabdakosh project of the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan.

Kusum Kumar has been teaching in various institutes before joining the Government Higher Secondary Schools, Delhi Administration. Later, she has been associated with the data collection for the linguistic database for their joint ventures in lexicographical works. She has co-authored books like Samantar Kosh – Hindi Thesaurus, Arvind Sahaj Samantar Kosh–Dictionary and Thesaurus, Shabdeshwari and The Penguin English–Hindi/Hindi–English Dictionary and Thesaurus.

22nd January 2008
 

10.00 am – 11.30 am

Across language boundaries : a publishing perspective
Gopichand Narang, Marc Parent, Ravi Singh, Binoo K John

Translations are an instrument because of which literature becomes the universal property for all mankind. Translation leads to integrity as it crosses the language barriers and enhances the understanding between different cultures, their identity, knowledge and literary values. Translation is a process in which words, languages and cultures are transmuted on a much wider horizon. Translation has always served a special purpose or many purposes at the same time, and each time it has been shaped by a certain force, power or reason. Translation reveals the power one culture can exert over another. The essentials and the significance of translations from a publisher's perspective are brought forward in this session.

Gopichand Narang, President, Sahitya Akademi (India's leading literary organization) is an Indian scholar of Urdu language and literature. He has authored many books in Urdu, Hindi and English. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan (by the Government of India, in 2004). He has written over 60 poems and books, many of which have been translated in different languages; few of which are, in Urdu.

Marc Parent has an experience of 20 years in international publishing. He is the senior editor in foreign fiction & non fiction at Buchet-Chastel a famous and demanding literary imprint (since 1929) based in Paris. Marc recently opened the Buchet-Chastel catalogue to Tarun J Tejpal, Suketu Mehta, Kiran Nagarkar, Pankaj Mishra, Rana Dasgupta, Gurcharan Das and other Indian writers.

Ravi Singh has been with Penguin India since 1994, and is now Publisher & Editor-in-Chief.

Binoo K John has authored Entry Through Backside: Hazaar Fundas of Indian English. This is his third book, after The Curry Coast : Travels in Malabar 500 years after Vasco Da Gama and Under A Cloud : Life in Cherrapunji, the Wettest Place on Earth. He is the Senior Editor with Mail Today, a newspaper of the India Today group.

11.40 am – 1.10 pm

India that is Bharat : translating ideas, concepts, and cultures across disciplines

Pavan Varma, Suman Sahai, Lal Thangfala Sailo, Charles Malamoud, Sudha Gopalakrishanan

A country called Bharat, is as ancient as time itself and at the same time is as contemporary as the present context.  On the notional level, it claims to include all the people of the country but when it comes to the intangibles of culture and  language, the concept of Bharat seems to get lost in translations. This session attempts to bridge the gap, dispensing with ideas of homogeneity or dominant language bias. The universality and diversity of our literature is a key factor in paying a tribute, not only  to our oral traditions and myths which represent the current society's struggle, showing the destiny of individuals caught in the collective aspirations of a culture but also translating a greater Bharat. We need to develop strong local vocabularies in science, sociology and other disciplines for inter-disciplinary translations to integrate ourselves into an informed consciousness, regardless of which part of India we are located in.

Writer-diplomat, Pavan K. Varma joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976, since then, he has been Press Secretary to the President of India, the Spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs, Joint Secretary for Africa, High Commissioner for India in Cyprus and Director of the Nehru Centre in London. He has written over a dozen books including the highly successful Krishna : The Playful Divine on India’s most popular deity, the critically applauded biography of the Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib - Ghalib : The Man, The Times and the Havelis of Old Delhi, Being Indian, Great Indian Middle Class.

Suman Sahai is a scientist-activist and Director of Gene Campaign. During the last decade and a half, she has, through Gene Campaign (a NGO) fostered genetic and trade literacy among farmers and the general public. Dr. Sahai has written a basic book explaining the subject of Genetically Modified crops named Genetically Modified Crops: A Resource Guide for the Asia – Pacific.

Lalthangfala Sailo is the president of Mizo Academy of Letters. He is a writer, poet, essayist and playwright. His works have been published in the Mizo Literary Journals. He is the first Mizo dramatist and his poetry and dramas are prescribed for the Mizo studies by the Gauhati University, NEHU and Mizoram University. He has been relentlessly working for the growth and development of Mizo language and literature.

Charles Malamoud

Charles Malamoud, Professor Emeritus at the Ecole Pratique Des Hautes Etudes, Section Des Sciences Religieuses, (Sorbonne), Paris, is one of the world's leading Ideologists, specializing in Vedic and Sanskrit studies. His numerous publications on Indian ritual, mythology and thought include, most notably, Le sacrifice dans l'Inde ancienne, co-authored with Madeleine Biardeau (Presses Universitaires de France, 1976); Cooking the World : Ritual and Thought in Ancient India and his recent, luminous book, entitled Le Jumeau solaire (Seuil, 2000), which is a study on the different figures of the God of death Yama.

1.10 pm – 2.00 pm – Lunch

2.00 pm – 4.00 pm
Act to alphabet : transmitting, transcribing, archiving oral traditions and myths
Malasri Lal, Mahmood Farooqui, Minja Yang, Kikkeri Narayan, Rashna Imhasly Gandhy, Tipaniya ji and group

A short dastaangoi enactment by Mahmood Farooqui
Tipaniya ji sings Kabir ke Dohe

Oral myths and traditions practiced among tribal and marginalized communities in India have to be understood as more than just exotic, esoteric and primitive fables. They decode insightfully into human life and relevant practices across time. Fundamental issues such as gender, social status, discrimination, power, salvation, identity, violence etc. are dealt with deftly via these strategies. It's a pressing necessity to preserve our endangered oral heritage.  The oral tradition of transmission does more than just communicate; it allows the soul to be carried forward without losing its vital essence at the same time adapt and groom itself to the new present. Executing this mission involves archiving, conserving and transmitting all forms of oral, cultural expressions of all ethnic groups.

Malashri Lal teaches in the English Department at the Delhi University. As the Director of the Women's Studies & Development Centre, she has guided research, documentation, gender sensitization, and faculty enrichment programmes. A recipient of several fellowships from the Fulbright, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Shastri-Indo Canadian Institute and the British Council, she has conducted research in prestigious institutions including Harvard University, USA, and Bellagio, Italy. Malashri Lal has authored The Law of the Threshold: Women Writers in Indian English (1995, reprinted 2000) and co-edited Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature ( 2007).

Mahmood Farooqui is a Delhi based writer and performer. A former Rhodes scholar, he has directed and acted in plays in Delhi and Bombay. Over the last two years he has been working to revive Dastangoi, the lost art of storytelling in Urdu. He writes for several newspapers and for a collaborative blog called Kafila. He is currently putting together a book on the 1857 uprising in Delhi for Penguin India.

Minja Yang is the UNESCO representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka and is Director, UNESCO office in New Delhi. Minja has published a monograph entitled Interaction between the Centre and the Periphery: The Communist Movement in Thailand (1979), and two books for children, Little Chea (1983) and Mama Also Works (1985).

He is the founder of Bilingual Transfer Model of Education for Tribals. He has done pioneering work in introducing post modern and post –structuralist literary criticism in Kannada. He has written text books in Junukuruba, a tribal language of Karnataka. His play Kitale Balli has been selected as Play of the Century by Karnataka Sahitya.

Rashna Imhasly Gandhy is a Delhi based Jungian psychotherapist. Her specialty lies in family and partner therapy. She has conducted many lectures, workshops and training courses in Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Mexico. She is the author of the book The psychology of Love: Wisdom of Indian Mythology (Roli Books and Namita Gokhale Editions).

Prahlad Singh Tipaniya ji is one of the most respected and senior artistes of the Malwa belt and has performed on both national and international platforms. He sings the words of mystic poets especially Kabir's and is also the head of Mathadheesh of the Kabir Panth branch (a sect of the followers of Kabir) of the area. He performs with his brother, Ashok Tipaniya and a team of remarkable musicians.

4.15 pm – 5.05 pm

Writers and Translators in conversation
Ashok Vajpeyi, Ira Pande, Sampurna Chattarji, Yasmina Khadra

Translation is a 'second life' of a work in another language. It is a creative expansion of the geography of a translated language and at the same time, it transmits its cultural and intellectual nuances. The best translations are embarked upon as labors of love, simply because one feels that a text one loves must reach a wider audience. There is a dearth of good translations and translators don't enjoy the kind of recognition and status in India, as they do in other countries.Has time come to put together an  autonomous but adequately funded foundation which promotes and provides financial and other kinds of assistance & disseminates translation of Indian literature into major foreign languages of the world?

Ashok Vajpeyi, a distinguished Hindi poet, critic, editor and cultural administrator, has been a senior civil servant in culture and the arts. He was the first Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Government of India. His poems have been translated into many Indian and foreign languages. He has more than 30 books of poetry and criticism to his credit.

In 2005, Ira wrote a book called Diddi as a homage to her mother. Through the book, Ira tries to discover her enigmatic mother, known as Diddi or elder sister. Ira Pande worked as a university teacher for fifteen years, and then as an editor at Seminar and Biblio, Dorling Kindersley and Roli Books. She has done some work for television and has also acted in the award-winning film Monsoon Wedding. Currently, she works as a freelance writer and editor.

Sampurna Chattarji is an award-winning poet, fiction-writer and translator. She is the author of The Greatest Stories Ever Told and translator of Abol Tabol: The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray, both published by Penguin India. Her first book of poems, Sight May Strike You Blind was published by the Sahitya Akademi in 2007. She was the winner of the 2006 Highlights Foundation Scholarship to the Highlights Writers Workshop at Chautauqua, New York in July 2006. Her next work of fiction is being published by Harper Collins in 2008, with Siyahi as her literary agent.

Yasmina Khadra is the pen name of the Algerian author, Mohammed Moulessehoul. Moulessehoul, an officer in the Algerian army, adopted a woman's pseudonym to avoid military censorship. In 2004, Newsweek acclaimed him as "one of the rare writers capable of giving a meaning to the violence in Algeria today." His novel set in Afghanistan under the Taliban, The Swallows of Kabul was shortlisted for the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. L'Attentat won the Prix des libraires in 2006, a prize chosen by about five thousand bookstores in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada.

5.05 pm – 6.35 pm

Voices from the desert : aims and aspirations
Hon'ble Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje, Mal Chand Tiwari, Arjun Dev Charan, Chandra Prakash Deol, Anupam Mishra, Namita Gokhale

Rajasthan is a treasure house of oral traditions, ancient literary history, languages and dialects. Its ballads are a lifeline of its proud history. The spirit of the people devolves from the mother tongue, reflecting its cultural vitality and identity. Recognition and acknowledgement is vital for any language to survive, grow and prosper. It is very important to understand the inter-relationship of folk literature, history and the need to carry forward these traditions. This session will focus on the present state of Rajashani language and the ways through which the voices from the Thar can carve a niche in this era of globalisation.

Vasundhara Raje, the first woman Chief Minister of Rajasthan, was initiated into politics by her mother in 1984. She held a variety of posts in the BJP and was elected to the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in 1985. She won four consecutive elections to the Lok Sabha from Jhalawar (Rajasthan). In 2007, she was awarded "Women Together Award", by the UNO, for her efforts in the field of empowering women.

Mal Chand Tiwari

Mal Chand Tiwari is a writer and translator in Hindi and Rajasthani. He has written Paryaywachi, Bholavan and short stories collections including Panidar, Sukant Ke Sapno Mein, Jaliyan Aur Jharokhe, Tran, Dhadand and Celebration. His collection of Rajasthani poems, Utrayo Hai Abho was awarded by Sahitya Akademi. He has also translated H G Wells’ Time Machine in Hindi. He has been awarded with Ganeshilal Vyas ‘Ustad’ Padhya Puraskar, Dr. L P Tessitory Gadhya Puruskar and Suryamal Misan Sikhar Puraskar.

Arjun Dev Charan is a renowned Rajasthani poet, critic and playwright. He has written and directed more than 25 plays in Hindi and Rajasthani. He has translated Bertolt Brecht’s play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Girish Karnad’s Nagmandal and Shudrak’s Mratchkatikam in Rajasthani. Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, and Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Academy have awarded him for his contribution to the Rajasthani language.

Chandra Prakash Deol is a renowned Rajasthani poet and translator. He has translated Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati, Hindi and Punjabi poems and books in Rajasthani. He has also translated Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevesky’s Crime and Punishment and Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot. He was awarded by Sahitya Akademi, Delhi for these translations.

A Gandhian and an environmental activist, Anupam Mishra is among the most knowledgeable persons in India on traditional water harvesting systems. He has written two books on traditional tank management in India and various traditional water harvesting systems in Rajasthan titled Aaj Bhi Bhare Hai Talab and Rajasthan ki Rajat Boonde. He has also interacted with grassroot-level water harvesters, inspired and supported them and helped them in their traditional water harvesting systems campaign.