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Globalisation takes its toll on the arts

By Our Staff Correspondent

Shimla Sept. 16. " Globalisation and commercialisation are taking their toll in the field of literature also and this is at the cost of regional, national and cultural identities", observed Sukrita Paul Kumar, poet and critic at a seminar on creative endeavour at Himachal Pradesh University here yesterday.

She said if globalisation has to happen it should not be at the cost of elimination of native and original cultures. Some synthesis and fusion in both could be achieved.

Dr Sukrita, who is also director of the Indo-European story festival, said in her keynote address: "We are only becoming a nation of technocrats and managers and this is glamourised today.We are becoming managers and technocrats of literature.

She compared the plurality of a small hill state like Himachal with a rainbow of colours. The greater rootedness of a society results in the growth of a taller literary tree. She stressed on the use of culture-specific idioms and about the universality aspect of the story.

Katha, the story research and resource centre, is organising 28 seminars in 18 cities across the country before an international seminar and a story festival in January 2004.

Dr Usha Bande, a fellow in the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Dr Girija Sharma and Dr Meenakshi F. Paul of the English Department of Himachal University, also read papers at the seminar.

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