Sikkim litfest ends in Gangtok with focus on state's 12 languages

The second edition of the Sikkim Arts and Literature Festival (SALF) came to a close in Gangtok on Friday after three days of sessions that put the state's many native languages, from Lepcha and Bhutia to Nepali and Bhujel, at the centre of the programme.

The festival returned after its first edition in 2023, The Financial Express reported. Stalls at the venue displayed books and other literature in all of Sikkim's native languages and drew steady crowds of visitors.

A state with 12 official languages

Language is a big part of the festival's purpose. Sikkim recognises 12 official languages, the third-highest number of any state in India after Jharkhand and West Bengal. That is well ahead of the rest of the North East: Assam and Tripura, the next on the list in the region, have three each.

Speaking at the event, state education minister Raju Basnet urged people to write in every mother tongue. "No mother tongue is too small for big ideas," he said in his keynote address.

Sessions over the three days took up folklore, nativity, identity and belonging, with writers and speakers drawn from Sikkim and the wider region.

Voices from across the region

Sahitya Akademi Award winner Mamang Dai, from Arunachal Pradesh, recalled how she and a group of fellow writers had come together to start the Arunachal literature festival. She said it was heartening to see literary initiatives growing across the North East, with support from state governments.

Sikkim MLA Aditya Golay said the state had long been a meeting point of cultures, traditions and ideas shaped by centuries of exchange across the Himalayas. He said the festival was meant to build a reading culture and encourage young people to take up creative work so that Sikkim's voices and stories reach a wider audience.

Sanjoy K Roy, managing director of Teamwork Arts, described the festival as a chance for young people to be exposed to the arts and literature.

Who runs it

SALF is a collaboration between the Sikkim Students' Welfare Board and the state education department, and is produced by Teamwork Arts.

It joins a busy literary calendar in the North East, which now has more than a dozen festivals across the eight states. State governments also back the Arunachal, Shillong, Brahmaputra and LEI Mizoram literature festivals, while smaller events include the Dibrugarh University International Literature Festival, the Assam LitArt Festival in Guwahati, the Kokrajhar Literature Fest in the Bodoland region and the Dakshini Literature and Culture Festival in South Tripura.