14/2/2009
18:10-19:10
Renowned literary critic and activist Ganesh Devy will be in conversation with Dr Dilip Zaveri. Dr Devy is the founder of Bhasha, an institute for research into tribal languages and culture. He has been awarded by the Sahitya Akademi for ‘After Amnesia’ and is a recipient of the Prince Claus Award for his contribution to the conservation of the history and literature of oppressed communities in Gujarat. 
G. N. Devy, a literary scholar and a cultural activist, writes in three languages – Marathi, Gujarati and English, and has received prestigious literary awards for his works in all three languages. Over the years, he has established and edited several literary periodicals including Setu (in English and Gujarati), Dhol (in eleven adivasi languages), Budhan (an activist journal in English) and Bol (a children’s magazine in Gujarati). He was the series Editor for a Sahitya Akademi’s project on Indian Literature in Oral Traditions and Tribal Languages.
Devy has been the founder of the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre for the conservation of the Adivasi languages, the Adivasi Academy devoted to education and development, the Denotified and Nomadic Rights Action Group, a human rights campaign, and Himlok: An Institute for the Study of Himalayan Communities and Culture. His community development work with the adivasi villages in western India has resulted into a massive network of micro-enterprise self-help-groups, food-grain banks, water-harvesting cooperatives, informal learning centres and organic agricultural spread over nine hundred villages.
His scholarly and activist work shows a rare combination of a deep interest in India’s classical literature and philosophy as well as the threatened languages of adivasis and nomadic communities, in higher education and rural development.
Works by G. N. Devy brought out by Orient Blackswan include: Indian Literary Criticism: Theory and Interpretation (2002), A Nomad Called Thief: Reflections on Adivasi Voice and Silence (2006), and Indigeniety: Expression and Representation — co-edited with Geoffrey V. Davis and K. K.Charkavarty (2008/9). He has published Vanaprastha (2006) in Marathi and Adivasi Jaane Chhe in Gujarati. (2003).
Dr Dilip Jhaveri, MBBS, born in 1943, is a practicing general physician. He writes in Gujarati and his published works are Pandukavyo ane Itar (1989), a collection of poems, and Vyaasochchvas, a play (2003). Its English translation A Breath of Vyas has been published by Seagull Books in 2006. He intends publishing 18-poem Khandit Kand, written after demolition of Babri Masjid, along with its translations in Hindi, Bengali and English.He received the Critic Award, 1989, Jayant Pathak Award for Poetry, 1989, and the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad Award in 1990.
