GUWAHATI, March 9 - A meeting of writers held at the Kanaklal Baruah Auditorium of Assam State Museum recently voiced concern over what it termed is a crisis situation confronting Assamese literature, and formed a new organisation christened Sahitya Mancha, Asom, to carry forward the legacy of Assamese literature.
The meeting, attended by many senior and upcoming writers, was of the view that Asam Sahitya Sabha, the State�s apex literary body, is increasingly getting alienated from literature and litterateurs, and hence the need for a new body, that would devote itself sincerely to the cause of literature and writers.
Noted author Apurba Sharma, who presided over the session, said that social or community consciousness leads to literary consciousness and that the present crisis plaguing literature is a fallout of the prolonged socio-political erosion happening in the State since the 1970s.
Earlier, critic Manoj Sarma, while initiating the discussion, said literature cannot survive without intellectual quest and the absence of intellectual inquisitiveness is causing a crisis in Assamese literature.
�Questioning is conspicuous by its absence in our literature, with the writer failing to give rise to any inquisitiveness in the minds of the readers. Intellectual debates are virtually non-existent,� he said.
Those who attended the deliberations included Samir Tanti, Atanu Bhattacharya, Mayur Bora, Prasanta Kumar Das, Ratna Bharali Talukdar, Bijoy Sankar Barman, Soumitra Jogee, Kamal Kumar Medhi, Pratim Baruah, Bitopon Borbora, Kamaluddin Ahmed, Manjit Singh, Alakesh Kalita, Neelakshi Chaliha Gogoi, Barnali Buragohain, Suranjana Sarma, Juri Baruah, Barnali Borgohain, Panchanan Hazarika, Malati Gurung, Kanak Chandra Rai, Abedur Rahman, among others.
The meeting formed an ad-hoc committee with Apurba Sharma as president, Manoj Sarma as working president, and Saumitra Jogee and Kamal Kr Medhi as joint secretaries.
