Book Brahma Fest Opens With Focus on Linguistic Hegemony

The *Book Brahma Literature Festival 2026* opened in Bengaluru on Friday, bringing together writers and readers across nine stages conducted in Kannada, English, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam. The festival's opening session, titled *Linguistic Hegemony: Indian Languages and the Federal Imagination*, set the tone for the day by examining how linguistic dominance shapes literary production in India.

Senior writers OL Nagabhushana Swamy, MS Ashadevi, NS Madhavan and Keshav Guha discussed the relationship between Indian languages, the politics of translation and the pressures facing regional-language authors as English and Hindi continue to expand their reach. The conversation, moderated by Divya Kalavala, framed language not merely as a medium of expression but as a site of power and negotiation within India's federal structure.

Beyond this central discussion, other stages hosted sessions on the depth and nuances of language, along with author interactions, book launches and children's programmes, reinforcing the festival's broader engagement with India's multilingual literary landscape.