History Literature Festival opens in Hyderabad with focus on modern statesmen, art, music traditions

The three-day Historical Literature Festival kicked off at Hyderabad Public School on Friday, bringing together historians, writers, academics and researchers for wide-ranging discussions on the ideas and debates that shape the understanding of history.

The inaugural session titled ‘Two Modern Statesmen: KM Panikkar and M Visvesvaraya’ featured authors Narayani Basu and Aparajith Ramnath in conversation with Amar Farooqui.

Speaking about diplomat KM Panikkar, who wrote his biography ‘A Man for All Seasons’, Basu traced his return to India in 1918 against the backdrop of political turmoil following the First World War, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the Rowlatt Protests. He said he sympathized with Panikkar’s growing nationalist mood, but when the call was made to join the Non-Cooperation Movement, he chose to honor his academic commitment to the Aligarh Muslim University, reflecting what he described as a strong sense of institutional duty.

Speaking about M. Visvesvaraya, the ‘Father of Indian Engineering’, Aparajith Ramnath emphasized his central role in conceptualising large-scale engineering projects, especially reservoirs. He described the Krishna Raja Sagar dam in Kaveri as a pioneering multi-purpose project designed to serve irrigation, power generation and drinking water needs. Although Visvesvaraya is the public face of the project, Mr. Ramnath underlined that it was a collective effort that took nearly 20 years in the making and was a work that faced both financial and political resistance.

Another session titled ‘Shaping the Past: Ancient Art of India’ featured Parul Pandya Dhar, Naman Ahuja and Pushkar Sohoni. During her presentation, Ms. Dhar argued that artistic influences are not one-way and talked about Indo-Asian iconographies. Mr. Ahuja examined themes of migration and interculturality in shaping artistic traditions. Mr. Sohoni criticized the way history is taught in India and observed that history is often deprived of its vitality. He also discussed the architecture of the Deccan Sultanate, situating it within broader cultural and political currents.

The festival then moved on to a session titled ‘Melodies Through Time: Snippets from Music History’ featuring Sumana Ramanan, Priya Purushothaman and Vidya Rao, who explored cross-regional music history and performance traditions.

The day concluded with ‘The Call of Loving Hearts: The Myriad Living Traditions of Qawwali’ featuring Kathak dancer and researcher Manjari Chaturvedi and the Warsi Brothers, and the session concluded with a celebration of devotional music traditions.

The festival will end on Sunday.