Celebrating South Asia’s unlikely heroes

To celebrate their second anniversary, the team behind Kindle, a Kolkata-based, outspoken and progressive magazine for India’s youth, has compiled a list of South Asia’s 30 youth icons. Spanning the worlds of literature, cinema, public sector, art, music and politics, these are people who have (often subconsciously) gone beyond their chosen specialism, to shift the status quo in some way. Sona Hathi speaks to Pritha Kejriwal, (pictured, right) Kindle‘s Editor-in-Chief, about the literary presence within the list and what else binds these 30 personalities together.

Kindle Magazine, 2nd anniversary issue

SH: What prompted you to create such a list?
PK: Once in a while, every publication dabbles into making lists – be it year-end lists, icon lists, song lists, event lists etc. and it’s an essential exercise to make one’s stand clear, to once again assert one’s choices to the readers and to substantially establish the contextuality and the drift of the publication.Kindle’s list of youth icons is also created in similar purview and is an annual tradition. Our first list came out on our first anniversary and the second list – which is the list of South Asian youth icons is our second birthday present to ourselves and our readers.

SH: Upon which criteria was each “icon” selected?
PK: To a lot of people, this list might be a very iconoclastic list, but to us, it essentially defines the values, whichKindle, as a radical and progressive publication, upholds. Hence, even while each of the icons is unique in his/her own ways, all of them are strung together, by a certain thread of profundity, beauty and wilderness, and by an ability to defy odds, shun stereotypes and challenge imaginations. These are unlikely heroes springing up from the unlikeliest of places.

SH: Kindle is a Kolkata-based magazine, and there are arguably many such personalities within India alone, why did you choose to broaden the focus to South Asia?
PK: Kindle very recently announced its Neighbourhood Project. The idea behind this is to work towards a stronger, more united South Asia in our own little ways. Along with many other socio-cultural projects, this list of South Asian youth icons is also an extension of the same context.

Why South Asia? For very many reasons, the most important of which is our geo-political commonality – a shared past and an inseparable future that ties all of us together in more ways than one. These ties cannot be overlooked, instead should be nurtured at all levels – socio-politically, economically and culturally, and this is essential for our very survival in an emerging new world order.

SH: Fatima Bhutto, one of the icons in your list is also speaking at the DSC South Asian Literature Festival. What gained her a place on your list?

PK: Fatima Bhutto captured our imagination, when she came to India to release her book – Songs of Blood and Sword. She was all over the Indian media, speaking so eloquently and with such unabashed pain in her eyes for her battered country and her bruised childhood that she simply could not be ignored. As we dug deeper, we found out that the material that goes into her writing was somewhere very deeply rooted into the complex political flux of the sub-continent; and that, when combined with the romanticism, passion and hopefulness of a young mind, created a strong, enduring body of work. She is a writer, who had made her pact with the darkness and is trying to interpret light. Unanimously, she was an icon to us.

SH: Fatima insists she does not wish to pursue a career in politics, do you think this will inevitably happen at some stage? Can she wield more influence as a politician or as a writer?

PK: That’s a question to which I don’t have a clear answer at this point of time. It’s true that she hasn’t yet captured the political imagination of the people of Pakistan, a very big faction of which hold Benazir Bhutto very close to their hearts. It’s equally true that Pakistan is going through an enormous socio-political churning which may yield changed perceptions, changed agendas, changed imaginations and Fatima Bhutto just might be at the centre of it all. As of now, she may still be as political through her writings.

SH: Another literary icon in your list is graphic novelistSarnath Banerjee, how influential is he, and has he increased the demand for graphic novels in India?

PK: The tradition of storytelling in a graphic format is very very old in India, right from the tradition of Mangal Kabya, Patua or tribal art. Its newest paperback avatar is equally interesting and intriguing, a complex intertwining of genres which transforms visual vocabulary into layered narrative. Sarnath’s work in this genre has been exemplary, often breaking into a riot of new forms, interpretations and characters, making the contemporary graphic novel, very very independent and indigenous. His foray into the form has definitely increased the spectrum of its audience. However the contemporary graphic novel scene is still limited to a very small niche in India. Hopefully, it will grow in the future.

SH: How do today’s South Asian youth icons differ from those of say, ten or twenty years ago, if at all?

PK: Icons, in many ways, are representative of their times. They are people who actively negotiate with their times, to create a dent here and there, to bring about change – in mindsets; and the world of icons is multi-directional, multi-faceted, constantly evolving and changing. Hence, it’s not a good idea to categorize their qualities so physically in time periods.

SH: Who in your view are the most promising and/or influential South Asian writers of today?

PK: In my view, Arundhati Roy is perhaps one of the most influential South Asian writers of today. Her political writings are deeply humane with such a profound sense of justice. Her language is so simple, yet so powerful. In her own words, she is “one stubborn chink of light”.

SH: Finally, the images of each icon are beautiful, why did you use illustrations rather than photographs?

PK: The idea to go with illustrations had multiple reasons. Apart from the obvious aesthetics of it, an artist’s interpretation always opens up the thought to so many other interpretations! So, the icons, bursting into this beautiful riot of colours, gave so much more lucidity to their features, so much more humanity to their expressions and most importantly, so much more space to the reader’s imaginations.

Source: http://southasianlitfest.com/2010/09/kindle-south-asian-icons/