KNIT INDIA THROUGH LITERATURE
VOLUME I
THE SOUTH

Despite our experiences over the last fifty years, fears of the country breaking up continue to haunt us. Periodically, the National Integration Council, comprising of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and leading intellectuals of the country, meets in Delhi to take stock of the situation and chalks out programmes to combat forces which threaten our integrity. When the danger is past, people relax and the National Integration Council goes back into deep slumber.

Sivasankari's venture to knit India through the knowledge of each other's literary heritage is bound to have a more lasting impact.

Through her compilation, readers will realise how much we share in common with our scriptures, classics of our many languages and, above all, how concerned writers and poets of today are, faced with the problems that beset our country: poverty, ignorance, caste, class and gender discrimination, challenges of modernity, resurgence of religious fundamentalism, bigotry, superstition, intolerance of other people's beliefs, disrespect for the law, erosion of Gandhian values and proneness to violence.

Sivasankari's attempt to knit India is based on her conviction that novelists, short story writers and poets can and do change the way of thinking of an entire people. Her efforts, therefore, do not end with the South Indian languages. There are complications of her interviews with writers from the languages of the North, East and West. If the present effort is any indication, the books to come will prove just as illuminating and exhaustive with their in-depth analysis of the subject matter at hand.

Every section of the book is reflective of Sivasankari's painstaking effort and her deep commitment to the project. As she has said in her preface, It is a tragedy that we Indians are largely unaware of the literary treasures found in the various languages of our country, even as we dwell at length on the merits and demerits of foreing iteratue. Aparrt from introducing readers to the cultures and traditions of their fellow-citizens and promoting a sense of oneness, this effort is bound to go a long way in furthering their knowledge of literature too.

Sivasankari has said in her preface that she would not be so presumptuous as to imagine that nationsal integration can be achieved by her project alone. And yet she should not discount the immense contribution that her 'Knit India through Literature' project is certain to make to the cause. Her aspiration certainly deserves to be lauded as the first step she is taking in her effort to cement the unity and integrity of our nation.

The journey is long, but, then, she is a seasoned traveller.