The biggest challenge today is that the youth should not remain confined to the world of frames and clicks. Fleeting images attract them, but only history and literature give permanent self-confidence. The shine obtained from frames is momentary, but the self-truth obtained from literature gives energy for generations. There is a need for the youth to come out of the superficiality of social media and recognize the depth of culture and knowledge. Learning from history and connecting with literature will give direction to their lives. This is the way to make the future meaningful.
The generation born after 1990 got more frames and less history. The world of mobile, camera and social media limited them to superficial frames and visual images instead of going deeper into the events. Today’s youth is stuck in instant frames instead of learning from the struggles of the past. This is its biggest weakness.
Despite the frenzy of modernity, the reasons for the emptiness, poverty, and aimlessness that is visible in our public life do not have to be searched for too far. This emptiness has arisen from the disintegration of our memories and cultural self-awareness. History tells us what happened, while literature shows us what could have happened and what should have happened. Literature has been called self-truth because it gives man not just information, but experience and values.
The history of India is not a series of pleasant events. It is full of wars, conflicts, hatred, divisions, and partitions. But amidst these dark chapters, there is also the story of the freedom movement. The period from 1857 to 1947 was not just a political struggle; it was also the golden age of literature. The freedom struggle and literature were as if dissolved into each other. Poets, writers, and artists were not mere spectators; they were co-creators of history. Their songs, poems, and novels aroused energy and consciousness in the common people. This is the reason why the freedom struggle was not just a saga of sword and movement, but also became the story of literary works.
But this glorious tradition has been lost somewhere today. The vitality of an ancient civilization lies in its cultural symbols and life-giving beliefs. These symbols once provided meaning to our thoughts, creation and behavior. When this living wholeness is fragmented and divided into small pieces, they are reduced to mere nominal rituals. Worship remains, but no new inspiration comes from it. Today’s Indian society is going through this irony – we have traditions, but they do not have liveliness.
We have been forced to live like self-exiled creatures in our own country. Our moral values, our studies and our thoughts – all are being increasingly dominated by foreign language and thinking. The dominance of English is not just an educational trend, but the biggest symbol of our cultural dependence.
Hazariprasad Dwivedi had expressed this pain and said, “The English language has usurped the sovereignty of Sanskrit. Today, no Indian language can claim to discuss even half of the Indian knowledge and ideas in the English language. This is our biggest defeat. We are not as humbled by the loss of political power as we are by the loss of our language of thought, logic, philosophy, and spirituality. In the international arena, we are ridiculous criminals for not being able to express our knowledge in our language. This shame is our racial shame.”
The Indian elite educated class has been most responsible for what Dwivedi ji called ‘ridiculous crime’. It made English a symbol of superiority and Indian languages a symbol of backwardness. Today, the situation is such that the younger generation hesitates to speak in its language, considers its culture to be against modernity, and considers literature to be limited only to curriculum books.
This is the problem of the generation born after 1990. They have a lot of information, but no self-truth. They see glimpses of history on the mobile screen, but do not delve into it. Their consciousness is based on frames and clips. This generation has seen less ‘history’ and more ‘frames’. This is the reason why they do not have the depth that comes from communicating with literature and history.
History teaches us struggle, patience, and sacrifice. But the frame gives us only an instant show and superficial attraction. This is the reason why the energy of the youth is becoming directionless. They have many options, but no resolution. The world of the frame is ephemeral—a photo, a reel, a click comes and goes in a moment. Whereas the teachings of history are permanent—they give direction to the coming generations as well. If the youth fails to understand this self-truth, they will not only lose their present but will also darken their future.
Literature is not just a means of entertainment. It is a medium that connects the individual and society with their soul. Literature tells us where our roots are and how far the sky of our dreams extends. Without literature, society remains a mere pile of information, losing self-awareness and direction. This is why there is a need to bring literature back to the center today.
The question of today is this: Will we be able to connect this generation to literature and history again? Will we be able to show them that culture is not a burden, but the basis of self-reliance? This will be possible only when Indian languages are not limited to mere conversation, but are made the language of knowledge and research. The new generation will have to understand that the frames and clicks of social media are momentary. They come and disappear in a moment. But literature and culture are the foundations on which permanent self-confidence is built.
This generation will be meaningful only when it connects with its roots and imbibes modernity. If this does not happen, literature will remain confined to libraries, and culture will remain confined to the decorative frames of festivals. Then we will remain only a consumer society, not a creative civilization.
Today, there is a need that schools and universities should consider literature not just a subject of examination but an experience of life. Writers and poets need to be brought back to the centre of society. Language needs to be made a medium of pride and not a burden. And above all, the new generation needs to be made aware that the self-truth of literature is the power that gives them both the depth of history and the direction of the future.
History shows us what we have lost and what we have gained. Literature teaches us what we can be. This is why the relationship between literature and history is so deep and inseparable. If the new generation fails to connect with this self-truth, it will neither be able to understand history nor shape the future.
The frenzy of modernity will be meaningful only when it connects with the soul of literature and culture and creates new creativity. Otherwise, we will remain a generation of only ‘frames’ – where there will be no depth, there will be only superficial images. This is the biggest warning of this time and also the biggest solution.
