Photo: Contextator

Local papers in Kakarbhitta this week have been running long and detailed coverage of a ‘historic’ art and literary festival that kicked off Sunday, 10th March 2013, with plenty of aplomb. “Kathmandu alone,” one leading local journalist said quoting the late poet Krishna Bhushan Bal, “can not carry Kathmandu.”  The front page lead was a passionate commentary decrying Kathmandu’s historical domination on literature and arts. “Kakarbhitta will herald a new dawn this week,” the article concluded, “and the East will reclaim its fair share of Nepal’s literary legacy.”

And by the end of the first day of the star-studded 3-day long  ‘Kala Sahitya Utsav 2069‘,  the festival seems to be making a strong impression. Beyond dozens of notable contemporary Nepali writers, the festival also boasts a strong presence of writers from across the border along with a handful of local writers. Few small towns even in India can boast the presence of a literary festival, this festival suggests growing urge towards great autonomy propelled by the strengthening of local communities.

“People tend to mistakenly think that the gap between the center and the regions is diminishing with the advent of new media,” noted young writer and political commentator, Yug Pathak, but stated, “It has not.” Pathak believes that literature has a major bearing on the national political discourse and big literary gatherings like this significantly contribute towards balancing the discourse. A good literature festival will not only celebrate the word, but the ideas that are manifested through them.

“Litfests in Kathmandu have failed to give due space to the Nepali writers from across the border,” lamented Pathak on the exclusion of Nepali writers from Sikkim to Darjeeling and beyond, “a festival in Jhapa can better bridge this gap.” The festival has strong local support because of its focus on local writers and its drive to promote them, while simultaneously engaging the community with well known national figures and writers.

Photo: Contextator

For the organizers, members of the group Readers Jhapa, the feeling is more in the excitement of bringing many important writers to their hometown. “Having attended the  festivals in Jaipur and few recent ones in Kathmandu, I always wanted to be able to do something similar in Jhapa,” Festival Chair Ujjwal Prasai said, “It has come out to be bigger than what we had planned during our [Reader Club’s] weekly meetings, but it is thrilling that we have made it happen.”

From exhibitions of local artists to poetry workshops for school kids, the festival really seems to have given the locals something new to be euphoric about. And the euphoria is palpable, from three giant welcome gates around town to posters on the local rickshaws. “It is both refreshing and important that we did this in Kakarbhitta,” Prasai explained. The decision to hold the festival in a place which has earned notoriety for being a border town with frequent petty crimes, was to highlight that  beyond its image, “there is a great hunger for literature in this part of the world.”

While the real impact of Nepal’s first major literary gathering outside Kathmandu remains to be seen, it is certainly a welcome and unique addition to the increasing number of literary festivals across South Asia.