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`English no more a colonial language'

Correspondent

Shobha de opens Book Fair

BHUBANESWAR: "English is no more a colonial language and time is ripe to treat it as another Indian language. It has rather been India's passport to prosperity in several sectors including technology in an era of globalisation," celebrity writer Shobha De said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the 23rd annual Bhubaneswar book fair here on Thursday. She expressed concern over an undue importance attached to English in India. "It's a pity that English has acquired a high degree of glamour at the cost of our rich regional languages," she observed.

Expressing happiness over release of the Oriya translation of her book in the fair, De felt that there was a major market for translation of books in English and vice versa. With words of appreciation for the book fair for being "the only festival of its kind in the world to be hosted by writers," De brushed the memories of her visit to Orissa nearly 25 years ago when she was mesmerised by watching legendary Odissi dancer Sanjukta Panigrahi's performance at Konark. "Addressing the gathering, renowned Oriya poet Rajendra Kishore Panda expressed his deep concern for marginalisation of regional language publishing in India. Eminent Oriya writers Brajanath Rath, Jadunath Das Mohapatra, Pratibha Satpathy, Das Benhur, Gopal Krushna Rath and Kolkata-based Krushna Chandra Bhuyan were felicitated on the occasion for their contribution to Oriya language and literature. Among others, book fair committee president Satakadi Hota, secretary Barendra Krushna Dhal, member and novelist Bibhuti Patnaik and linguist Khageswar Mohapatra spoke on the occasion. Nearly 350 stalls have been put up in the fair

Dig at Indian writers

Earlier, talking to mediapersons at a private engineering college, she said most of the Indian writers were hankering after Booker Prize while nobody seemed to be interested for Sahitya Akademi. Ms De was critical of growing interest of writers in English language. "Regional languages are not getting their due recognition. We need to rethink on our priorities," she said.

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