Government working on National Book Promotion Policy: Dr Pandey
New Delhi, August 3, 2017: A two-day national seminar was organized by the National Book Trust (NBT), under Human Resource Development Ministry to coincide with the 60-Year programme of the Trust.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State of Human Resource Development, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey said that the Government of India was working on finalizing a National Book Promotion Policy, which would provide a policy direction to the whole spectrum of book publication, writing and distribution in order to promote a culture of reading in the society.
Pandey emphasized on the significant role being played by National Book Trust, India in creating a culture of reading and re-affirmed the commitment of the Government of India to support its endeavors to meet its avowed objectives.
“Nationalism is an integral part of Indian literature. India is surrounded by sea from three sides and its boundaries are open. We have been attacked several times by foreign invaders since ancient times and for about 200 years we were ruled by the British, even then we were able to preserve our culture and literature,” said Pandey..
Shri Rangahari, well-known author and thinker, was the chief speaker on the occasion. He said that nationalism was an important component of Indian literature since Vedic times.
Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman, NBT, in his welcome address said that NBT has been working towards the promotion of books among people of India.
On this occasion, the NBT books in Hindi tiled Aapki Sehat, authored by Dr Vijay Mittal and Dr Shyama Prasad: Ek Shikshak, authored by Ms Namrata Sharma were also released.
The first session of the seminar focused on the tribal literature of India. The session was presided over by Prof. Nand Kishore Pande, Kendriya Hindi Sansthan. The other speakers included Prof. T V Kattimani, Ashok Bhagat and Rudra Narayan Panigrahi.
The second session reflected upon the folk literature of India. The speakers on the occasion were Yatindra Mishra, Shriram Parihar and Malini Awasthi. The session was presided over by Dr Devendra Deepak. Sharing their views on the folk literature of India, they observed that the folk literature and culture of India has been preserved because of oral tradition of India. The folk songs, the folktales have now merged with the mainstream. They remarked that different culture, rituals, traditions of different regions of India together form one India.
The speakers in the third session on women writers included well-known writers Dr Neerja Madhav, Dr Reeta Shukl, Dr Advaita Kala and Malti Joshi. They said that women writers like Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Mahadevi Verma tried to awaken the people of India through their writings on nationalism.