Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) is inaugurating a new stream in its 2024 edition, “Indigenous and Endangered Languages”. This is in alignment with the United Nations which has declared 2022-2032 “International Decade of Indigenous Languages.” Optimistic estimates suggest that at least 50 percent of today’s spoken languages will be extinct or seriously endangered by 2100. Most of these are Indigenous languages.
At HLF 2024, over a dozen Indigenous poets, storytellers, writers, artists, folklorists, and researchers are participating this year. From children’s stories to panel discussions by experts to a workshop and exhibition on Gondi art, this promises to be a vibrant stream. Some of the Indigenous languages represented are the Great Andamanese Languages, Gondi, Kui, Oraon, and Santhali. Come and celebrate India’s little-known linguistic diversity! Prominent participants in the stream include:
- Prof Anvita Abbi, Linguist on the languages of the Andamans and linguistic minorities in South Asia
- Dr Damayanti Beshra, Padma Shri, Santhali writer, author of biography of President Murmu
- Prof Ganesh Devy, Author, Coordinator People’s Linguistic Survey of India
- Dr Hansda Sowevendra Shekhar, Sahitya Akademi Awardee, Santhali writer
- Padma Shri Smt Durgabai Vyam and Shri Subhas Vyam, Gond artists
- Manoj Rupda, well-known Hindi writer and the author of the novel Kaale Adhyaay, translated into English as I Named My Sister Silence
- Dr Bhangya Bhukya, Professor of History, University of Hyderabad
- Dr Karthick Narayanan, a linguist affiliated with the Moturi Satyanarayana Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Krea University.
