‘With culture studies influencing literature courses, the language and literature fraternities could form the door of awareness raising, holding hands to design a curriculum for India that could integrate through education.’ | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Seventy-two years ago when the National Academy of Letters, the Sahitya Akademi, was established to serve as the central institution of literary dialogue, and promotion of Indian writing, Pandit Nehru, who served as its first President, said that he would not allow the Prime Minister to interfere in the functioning of the Literary Akademi of India.Tagore said that literature is the surplus of civilization, but what if most of the citizens of this country are illiterate? Does this mean that their stories do not count?
They do count, of course, but what training are we giving our students about living for those who never get an education? Why are students trained right through school to focus solely on the material sciences and subjects thus growing up in environments where they are either repeatedly told that languages and the people who fashioned them do not count or where it is implied that you do not need to exert either mind or imagination to make language skills a part of you?
So what happens then is that that side of a child’s consciousness dies very slowly. I mention this because one of the aims of writing, and publishing books, journals, newspapers is about consciousness raising.
How do we decide what could realistically meet the demands of schools and colleges and be taught in a classroom? Published - November 01, 2026 11:51 pm IST