National Conference on Contemporary issues in Society – Socio Literary perspectives

The Research centre of English, Department of Sociology and Social work, Fatima College and Vergal (Roots) The Educational Trust, Madurai jointly organized a National Conference on Contemporary issues in Society – Socio Literary perspectives on 18.09.2015 in Fatima College. The inaugural session of the conference started with lighting the lamp and with offering prayers to Lord Almighty. Dr.Geetha,Head & Associate Professor welcomed the gathering and she also introduced the Chief Guest Mr.Vareethiah Konstantine, a writer  who has done lot of research and documentation on the life of fishermen in coastal Tamilnadu.Sr.Dr.K.Fatima Mary, Principal, Fatima College gave the Presidential address in which she said that society and literary avenues are the two sides of universal community and this conference would focus the role of society in  literary portals and how it is linked with human kind. She also stressed that society need literates to maintain the status of the community and also for the enrichment of youth and aged. She insisted that darker areas of the Post modern era should be focused and tremendous changes should be done to attain the Vision 2020 dream of our former Indian President Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

The theme and aim of the conference was explained by Dr.S.Balakrishnan, Executive Director, Vergal Educational Trust. He expressed his perception about the society and the questions he had in his mind which made him to play a key role in organizing this conference. Reason for goodness and badness in Indian society is our culture. Our society has two power centers – one is Government which is visible and another power center is the bourgeois / corporate community which is invisible and holds enormous power in the functioning of the society. He also said that following a particular habit by a group for a prolonged duration becomes a culture. This type of culture makes us to be semiskilled. In today’s globalised world, we are losing our basic rights of speech and expression of thoughts. Many social concepts have been misunderstood and a classic example is the Fatwa given to music director Mr.A.R.Rahman for composing music for the film Muhammad: Messenger of God. He expressed his wish that this conference should bring positive changes among the younger generation and society.

Mr.Vareethiah Konstantine, writer belong to Thuthur gave the key note address. He started with quoting “Nothing in biology makes sense except Evolution”. In today’s world it is very hard to understand past, present and future as we view everything in prejudgemental attitude by putting everything in a frame work. The script for a language is very important as it helps the native speakers of the language to think and understand about themselves. In many African tribal communities, absence of language script is the reason for their sufferings. Dalit community in India started to think and understand once their life is being documented and decided about their future.He focused more on the lifestyle of coastal people of Tamilnadu. The fishermen folk are mostly perceived as the people with nonviolence, jealous, short tempered and people with no self thought. One should understand the reason for the behaviour of a community before making conclusion. The reality is different as they are highly knowledgeable about the nautical miles, roads and weather condition of the sea and ocean. The Tamil nadu fishermen are being made as cradle babies by expecting and accepting the welfare given by the Government. Their self thought knowledge and skill is in the process of elimination by making themselves as dependents instead of independents. Sea is the centre of the world and it is very well mentioned in Tholkappiyam.The human kind mishandled two prominent things in the world which are water and language. Causing damage to water and language would affect the entire human kind. We also failed to handle the language and literature. Water celebrates the socialism and the human should understand both water and literature in the ways of social, cultural and anthropological. He asked the students to go to field to learn things to understand life and he insisted that the depressed and oppressed has to write their own story with the native dialect which would make other people to understand and empathize them.

The inaugural session came to an end with the Vote of Thanks proposed by Mrs.A.Roselin Mary,Associate Professor,Research Centre of English,Fatima College.

The technical session was conducted between 11.30am and 01.00pm in the Jubilee Hall. The session was chaired by Dr.S.Geetha, Head & Associate Professor, Research Centre of English.Dr.R.Kumaran, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Gandhigram Rural Institute made his talk on “Social Problems and Modern society”. He started with appreciating the theme of the conference and said that it is pressing issue and it is conducted at the right time. He wanted to take this opportunity to express his anguish feeling on the modern society. He spoke about a specific social issue of declining sociology. By showing our power, we take the power of others. People have become less and less social in nature. He said that we have three choices in life which are outward directedness, inward directedness and inner directedness. In Outward directedness, the consumerism, developmentalism and corruption decides one’s life. In inward directedness, people living in illusionary world where caste, religion and alcohol have a major impact on life and finally in inner directedness, personality of a person is clearly shaped and self directs the right and wrong. Consumerism makes a person to the act of fulfilling his/her desires at the cost of someone’s needs. It leads to the explosion of one’s desire and also poverty in the society. Corruption is the subset of consumerism and due to the impact of technology everyone is addicted with clickingvitism.He concluded his speech by asking the audience to lead the life according to inner directedness.

Dr.S.Sridevi,Associate Professor, Post Graduate and Research Department of English,Chevaliar T.Thomas Elizabeth College for Women, Chennai spoke about “Realism in Literature in Contemporary society”. She started with the way how the writing of Charles Dickens is closely related to realism and how John Ruskin’s “Unto This Last” is related with sociology. She gave a new perception of how Karl Marx wrote his economics by taking ideas from Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens. She stressed the view of historian Romila Thappar that one should not get into any conclusion without knowing and understanding history. She suggested the audience to read the books of Merchant of Venice, Madharoopaagan, Kurinji Then of Rajam Krishnan and the poets of Yazhini Muniasamy which are very close to Realism. She concluded with the quote of “Literature reflects real life”.

The next speaker Dr.V.Rajagopalan, Dean, SSKV Arts and science for Women, Kizhambi, Kanchipuram started his speech by explaining how the utility of flowers differs according to sociology, literature, consumer and economist. He expressed that if a person quarrel with others, it becomes literature and if he/she quarrel with him/herself then it becomes poetry. He stressed the significance of reading and explained how the reading habit would broaden the thinking of people and what kind of change it would bring in the society.

 In the afternoon, students, scholars and faculty members of various institutions presented papers.

S.NO	CATEGORY	NUMBER
1.	UG & PG Students	88
2.	Research scholars	64
2	Faculty	39
4	Presented in Absentia	03
6	General Participant	11
	TOTAL	205

The paper presentation session was chaired by the following faculty members.

S.NO	CATEGORY	Name of the Faculty
1.	UG Students	Mrs.J.Rajameenakshi,Dept. of Sociology & Social Work
2.	PG Students &M.Phil scholars	Dr.Mary Magdalene Abraham,Research Dept. of English
3.	PhD scholars &Fcaulty	Mrs.Fernando Delishia , Research Dept. of English

The valedictory function was started at 4.30pm .Dr.M.Meenakumari,Head&Assistant Professor of Sociology and Social work welcomed the gathering and the valedictory address was given by Dr.C.L.Shilaja,Assistant Professor and Head of English,Sathyabama University,Chennai.She raised a question of does society shape literature or vice versa and answered that Literature holds the mirror to the society and vice versa. She specified the writings of Rohinton Mistry and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger and how these books talks about the contemporary issues in Indian society.She concluded her address with the quote of “Education is a Education when it is not Educated”.

The Conference came to an end with the Vote of Thanks proposed by Mr.Periara,HR Trainer,Speech Point.