At the Kashmir Literature Festival, LG Sinha underlines writers’ role in shaping history and memory
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s inaugural address at the Kashmir Literature Festival-2026 at SKICC Srinagar on Saturday is more than ceremonial rhetoric. His assertion that writers, poets and scholars play a greater role in shaping civilisations than institutions is a reminder that in times of political churn and social anxiety, it is the written word that often does the slow, difficult work of repairing societies. Kashmir, with its layered histories of terrorism, resilience and cultural syncretism, understands this better than most. Our societies have seen institutions rise and fall, but the verses of poets, the chronicles of historians and the labour of scholars have preserved what regulations and regimes could not. When the LG says that a single novel can sometimes create more impact than institutions that spend crores, he touches a truth that this region has lived: narratives outlast regimes. Equally significant is his insistence on reclaiming India’s civilizational confidence without succumbing to distortion. The call to move beyond a colonial mindset and to recognise India’s contributions to mathematics, science and astronomy is valid and long overdue. But the task he places before scholars and writers is not one of romanticised nostalgia; it is one of rigorous, honest scholarship. Authentic history must resist both colonial erasure and contemporary simplifications. For Kashmir’s literary community, this places a particular responsibility. If writers are, as the LG puts it, “greater than nations”, then they must transcend the temptations of easy binaries and partisan narratives. Our books, poems and essays must be capable of holding complexity: acknowledging civilizational depth without silencing the marginal; celebrating scientific and intellectual traditions while also questioning power and injustice. LG Sinha’s rejection of the cliché that reading culture is in decline is also worth noting. In an age of digital saturation, people may be reading differently, but they are certainly not reading less. This opens a new front for Kashmiri writers and scholars: to inhabit digital spaces without losing depth; to use new platforms to carry nuanced, locally rooted yet globally conversant narratives. If the Kashmir Literature Festival is to be more than a two-day spectacle, it must become a forum where these difficult questions are asked: How do we tell our own story without erasing others? How do we honour civilizational pride without slipping into triumphalism? The LG has thrown a challenge to the literary fraternity. It is now for our writers, poets and scholars to respond; not with applause alone, but with enduring work.
