I thought the entire 'DD Kosambi Festival of Ideas 2022' -- and not just 
this lecture -- was 'postponed' (though the Goa gov website insists 
<https://www.goa.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/DD-Kosambi-Festival.pdf> 
it will be held from 10 to 14 Nov)?

There are reports that the BJP leadership got the Department of Art & 
Culture to cancel (sorry, postpone) the Festival as the roster of speakers 
was dominated by 'liberals and leftists'. Having gone through the list of 
speakers (Bhai Mauzo; Prof. Madhavi Menon of Ashoka University; Dr. Devdutt 
Pattnaik; Dr. Suraj Yengde and Prof. Pranay Lal), I am forced to concede 
that 'leftists and liberals' is a pretty accurate description; however, I 
didn't realize it was also an indictment. 

I wonder why the ruling party (and they've been ruling for a while even in 
Goa) took such a long time to realize that a 'festival of ideas' in the 
name of DD Kosambi -- one of the foremost Marxist historians of India -- 
was very likely to involve liberal and leftist ideas. Maybe they mistook 
him for the other DD Kosambi, his father, the Pali scholar who was 
presumably more conservative and tradition-bound. 

Perhaps we could have a Festival of Rightist and Illiberal Ideas named 
after an illustrious Goan intellectual, though I cannot, offhand, name a 
right-wing Goan intellectual. This is a pity. I did attend one mildly 
right-wing Lit Fest in Goa earlier this year, and it was a regrettably 
barren landscape of second and third tier writers of whom Vikram Sampath 
(Savarkar's biographer) was the only one of note, and Sampath isn't what 
you might call illiberal. 

I greatly enjoyed Pattnaik's lecture. Thanks, Rico. Pattnaik is a prolific 
writer on Hindu mythology (though sadly liberal), and a very persuasive 
speaker. No doubt his comments on how the Mahajans threw out priestesses 
from Goan temples for pelf and power will be met with howls of outrage from 
*bhakts *but, seriously, what did they expect? 

These liberals, I tell you.

Sajan


On Sunday, 13 November 2022 at 02:46:33 UTC+5:30 fredericknoronha2 wrote:

> Gods of Goa... by Devdutt Patnaik
> https://www.instagram.com/tv/Ck3EgewINLc/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
>
> ABOUT THE SPEAKER/TOPIC: Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik writes on mythology which 
> he defines as culturaltruths revealed through stories, symbols and rituals. 
> He lecturesonthe relevance of both Indian and Western myths in modernlife. 
> In the last 25 years, he has authored and illustrated over 
> 50books,including Book of Ram and Dharmic Leadership. Knownforhis TED talk 
> and his TV shows such as Devlok and BusinessSutra,he is a regular columnist 
> for reputed newspapers like Times of Indiaand Dainik Bhaskar. He was 
> trained in medicine, spent 15 years working in the pharmaandhealthcare 
> industry, but over the past decade has been fully immersed in 
> exploringmythologyand sharing its wisdom with the world. [Via the 
> Directorate of Arts & Culture website]
> -- 
>
> FN * +91-9822122436 <+91%2098221%2022436> * 784 Saligao 403511 Bardez Goa
>
>
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