For young writers, a gathering to recognise what this generation must learn from the past and what it must leave for the future is a necessity.
Published Nov 20, 2025 | 4:15 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 20, 2025 | 4:15 PM
Words that Break Walls – Samooha Youth Literary Festival.
Synopsis: Samooha, the Secular Writers Forum, is “Words that Break Walls – Samooha Youth Literary Festival” in Hyderabad. The venue where this literary festival is being held — Veeranari Chakali Ilamma Women’s University — is a symbol of harmonious living without religious boundaries.
This Saturday, 22 November, Hyderabad is about to witness an invigorating experience. A Youth Literary Festival is being held under the auspices of Samooha, the Secular Writers Forum.
Literary meetings, gatherings, interactions among writers, and conversations around books are not new to Hyderabad or Telangana. The radiant memories of the recently concluded, energetic Chaya Literary Festival still linger in the minds of many. While any human gathering, any dialogue among creators, is welcome in itself, the literary festival that is about to take place now is even more special.
It is coming before society as “Words that Break Walls – Samooha Youth Literary Festival.” At a crucial moment, it is creating an indispensable social context — one that is expanding and blossoming.
The medium of instruction in Telugu has drastically declined; complaints persist that the number of readers is shrinking, but the number of writers in Telugu literature has only been increasing. The scope of literary experimentation is expanding. With new writers, new books, new expressions, and new narrative strategies, the youth are doing extraordinary work in the field of creation.
Groups of young writers are forming. As befits this generation, the use of technology has grown. This is not just the present generation — it is one that will exist for at least another three or four decades. Therefore, we must understand this generation’s thinking, expression, attempts, and creativity; we must observe it with care. It must be welcomed unconditionally and with warmth.
For such a generation of young writers to gather in one place for a whole day, to talk and deliberate, to listen to each other’s writings, to critique and analyse one another’s work, and to recognise what this generation must learn from the past and what it must leave for the future — this is today’s necessity.
This venue of the meeting may be a coincidence, but it is a marvellous arena. This place teaches positive lessons to creators, and it teaches negative ones as well. This great building is a symbol of foreign rule, dominance, and repression on the soil of an Indian land.
At the same time, it is also a symbol of exchange between two cultures. It is a place that proved that love has no barriers of skin colour, religion, class, culture, or outward appearances. It is the grand stage upon which Hyderabad displayed an extraordinary and united people’s defiance against alien rule.
Today, because of its new name, it stands as a symbol of working-class culture — a symbol of the natural and inherent social justice that the fruits of labour must belong to the labourers themselves.
First of all, the venue where this literary festival is being held — Veeranari Chakali Ilamma Women’s University — is a symbol of harmonious living without religious boundaries. This complex was built in 1800 as the British Residency in the Hyderabad State. Why did a foreign official need such a massive building, on the banks of the Musi River, right at the heart of the capital of an independent princely state, 225 years ago?
The British East India Company, which had come here essentially for trade — to sell its goods and purchase local raw materials — soon realised that greater profits, greater advantages, and control over many affairs of life lay not in commerce but in governance. By using the rivalries, conflicts, and wars among local rulers, they seized control of some kingdoms in the country and began administrative rule with Calcutta as their capital.
With many princely states still not subdued, they entered into economic and political treaties and established residencies to run their political agenda. Thus, while the British Residency in Hyderabad began in 1788, the third Resident, James Achilles Kirkpatrick, who arrived in 1797, built this building. It stood as a symbol of foreign rule, a massive wall of domination.
James Kirkpatrick was so deeply influenced by Islamic culture that he wore Mughal-style clothes at home, smoked the hookah, chewed paan, and spoke Urdu, Persian, and Hindustani fluently, in addition to Tamil — his language of birth, contemporary historians noted.
He fell in love with Khairunnisa, granddaughter of Nawab Mahmood Ali Khan, the then-prime minister of Hyderabad, and even married her.
Although their interreligious marriage did not receive social or official sanction, he openly acknowledged her as his companion and gave their two children Islamic names. Thus, this campus stands as a symbol of experiences that broke several walls.
If the Residency symbolises Christian–Muslim intermingling, the city of Hyderabad itself was built upon a bridge of Muslim–Hindu love. Our city is a symbol of a life of harmony and affection that built bridges between a Muslim youth and a Hindu girl, between a prince and an ordinary dancer, between the capital and the suburb, and between the far and near banks of the Musi River.
Today, when accusations of “love jihad” are spreading like thorny bushes, Hyderabad stands as the answer drawn from the harmony and love of those times. Thus, it is fitting that, in this city that has broken walls, in this very campus, a Samooha Youth Literary Festival of “Words that Break Walls” is being held.
All of these are examples of breaking social barriers at an individual level. However, this very campus is also a symbol of luminous examples where social and economic barriers were shattered collectively.
The first great attempt to resist the atrocities of East India Company rule and to expel the British from the country — the 1857 First War of Independence — took place in many regions of northern British India. Its impact was weaker in the British-controlled South.
Yet, despite not being under British rule, Hyderabad rose boldly. Hyderabad attacked this Residency, the lone symbol of British authority here. On one side, the British-friendly Nizam sent his troops to help the British suppress rebels in other regions, but on the other, hundreds of people led by Turrebaz Khan and Maulvi Allauddin launched an unexpected attack on the Residency.
It was Hyderabad’s declaration of fury — 170 years ago — against foreign rule. Turrebaz Khan was hanged to death. Maulvi Allauddin was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Andaman Islands, where he died.
But the idea that “this country is ours, and we shall not tolerate foreign rule or domination” did not die. Today, when global trade, global exploitation, and global tyranny continue unchecked under the “Yes Sir, Yes Sir” subservience of rulers, when walls are being strengthened and new ones raised, this history must certainly be remembered.
Another inspiring figure associated with shattering social barriers — the brave woman Chakali (Chityala) Ailamma — has only recently been attached to this campus in name. Young creators gathering in this venue named after her must know how many walls she broke and which ones.
She demolished the barriers erected by feudal oppression. She shattered the walls that prevented labourers from receiving the fruits of their labour. When oppressed caste groups united in solidarity with her struggle, she broke caste barriers too. When the Sangham members harvested the grain produced by her sweat and blood and brought it home, the conspiracy cases they faced revealed the massive walls erected by the state.
She became the inspiration for a great armed peasant struggle for land, livelihood and liberation on this soil, and she became a symbol of a world without walls.
There is a reason to introduce these glorious histories to this generation of creators. Every present generation is a bridge between the past and the future. Yes, the present — the here and now — is extremely important, powerful, and inspiring. Yet it has flowed from the past and must flow into the future.
Therefore, the present youthful generation, however extraordinary it may be, cannot exist without drawing from the accumulated wealth of the past. For instance, much of the language this generation uses, the ideas it expresses, the technologies and tools it employs — all have flowed from the past.
Thus, the present generation has the full right to draw from the past. At the same time, it also holds the responsibility to pass things on to the future. Every present generation must thus play the role of a bridge. This bridging role must be recognised even more in the domains of language, literature, art, and culture.
There is another reason to remind young writers of history. Today, forces that oppose social justice are gaining the upper hand. Many attempts are underway to corporatise society, to inject caste and religious arrogance, and to militarise society.
While historical walls still stand, efforts to reinforce them and build new ones are in full swing. The responsibility of breaking down these old and new walls, the responsibility of building a vast and pleasant world without walls, under the blue sky, creating a graceful and peaceful society — this responsibility lies upon the future generation.
As part of the makers of that future history, and as writers capable of inspiring those architects, the responsibility upon young writers is growing.
Congratulations and greetings to young writers who, through themes like “Writers in Times of Hate”, “Plural Identities – Voices of Resistance”, “Language, Identity – Voices of Defiance”, “Rhythmic Resistance”, and “Voices of Dissent” demonstrate their awareness of their responsibilities.
The youth, whose blood naturally surges with heat, may also display some undesirable tendencies — such as over-marketing, excessive praise, lack of discipline, lack of study, and impatience.
However, since they are in the age of learning, since selfishness has not fully stuck to them yet, and since experience will help them overcome these hurdles, we may reasonably hope for much from them.
(Views are personal. Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
