Novelist Amandeep Sandhu at Punjabi University in Patiala on Thursday. Tribune photo: Rajesh Sachar

PATIALA (February 8, 2014)—Several scholars attended the inaugural session of the two-day national seminar on “South and West Asian Literature and Film: Narratives of Modernity” held at the Department of English in Punjabi University on Thursday. Noted novelist Amandeep Sandhu was the keynote speaker.

Sandhu said that there was a need for Punjabi-origin writers to write on the 1984 Anti-Sikh Genocides in Amritsar Sahib (Operation Bluestar) and Delhi. “We as Sikhs need to articulate our pain and write our own narratives,” he said. Sandhu’s latest English novel Roll of Honour was recently published.

The inaugural session was presided over by Vice Chancellor Dr Jaspal Singh, who appreciated Sandhu’s observations. Scholars from the region presented a total of 34 papers at the event. Prof Rajesh Kumar Sharma, chairperson, the Department of English, was one of the several speakers at the event. He said the literary community needed to pitch in more.