The Karnataka leg of “Journey of love and coexistence”, the national cultural jatha, organised by the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), will start on December 1 from Bengaluru. The jatha will feature music, art, street plays and folk forms of cultural activities, and will culminate at Manjeswara in Kasargod on December 7.
The valedictory will be held at Gilivindu, the house of noted Kannada poet late M. Govinda Pai.
The IPTA President and noted theatre director Prasanna said that as part of jatha places of renowned personalities, litterateurs, freedom fighters, artists, social thinkers and reformers will be visited. “Over the last two and a half months, jatha has already been taken out in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu, Bihar and Kerala among others. This is a cultural response to the attacks on humanity. One culturally rich rural area is chosen for the jatha and we have chosen Dakshina Kannada in Karnataka,” he added.
“During the culmination of the jatha at Delhi on January 30, we will declare it to be a Day of National Repentance for destroying nature, humanism, village and village economy, inflicting violence and war on humanity,” he said. Further, Mr. Prasanna said, “An oath will be taken that we will agree to a 70%:30 % economy that will have 70 % labour participation. While currently, labour participation has shrunk to 4%-5 %, mechanisation is moving towards total elimination. By declaring that we are true representatives of Hinduism that propagate work (kayaka) culture, we will question the current government of practising anti-dharma by promoting mechanisation.”
A release from Samudaya and Ragikana, which are jointly organising the jatha in Karnataka, said that a campaign will also be taken up to sell khadi hand towels to bridge the toiling works with different sections of the society. “Khadi hand towel is a metaphor of the poor toiling masses who wipe their sweat with hand cloth, tie and keep their lunch in the cloth and in emergencies use them as bandage, bedspread and for many other purposes,” the note said. It said that time now is the most opportune to tie people of all kinds to build a strong united society and a weave a humanistic fabric of love and togetherness.
