Whenever people stand in line to attend the inaugural session of a Litfest, something has been done right! And so it was at the inaugural of Godrej Lit Live! which was titled ‘For The Love of The Word.’ Nadir Godrej set the tone by reading out a crafty poem, with a few lines of tribute to Anil Dharker, the founder of the Mumbai Lit Fest.
The discussion theme for the inaugural was ‘TRUTH. TRUST. TESTIMONY’ with a panel comprising Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan, Christian Stoecker- course director of the Master’s program “Digital Communication” at Hamburg University and Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka from Sri Lanka. Rhodes Trust scholar Anish Gawande moderated the session.
1. The first point of conversation was truth itself. “In science, you can begin with a hazy idea and then work your way to a consensus. In that sense science has always been groping for the truth, and this truth is provisional until new evidence emerges,” said Venki. Stoecker added, “Truth itself is threatened by those who undermine that it can be known at all.” Shehan, who has had a stint in advertising before turning author, had the audience in splits when he said, “ I make a living peddling lies! But when a conversation around whether to take statins or not comes up, I find myself wondering what is the truth in that context.”
2. The second point of conversation was trust. “Its human nature to pay more attention to what you trust. So when someone you trust says that during a pandemic, masks work or otherwise- you believe them. For that matter, even surgeons wear masks regularly. But has a study happened to document patient fatality, when operated by 50 surgeons who wore masks and 50 who didn’t? That’s when we will have evidence. Shehan referenced the youth uprising (Aragalaya) of 2022, in Sri Lanka that toppled the government and said, “ There’s a lot of your truth and my truth going around. But the youngsters trusted themselves and their truth and took action. Thats what matters- to trust your truth.”
Stoecker added, “ There will always be conspiracy theorists who will say, ‘that’s your evidence, this is mine. People often put out conflicting theories to undermine the truth. This erodes trust. The process to find the truth, no matter what the process reveals is important. That’s when we build trust.”
3. The third topic was testimony. The changing nature of evidence itself was discussed by the three panelists. “The Napalm Girl’s photograph came to define Vietnam. But does photographic evidence stand for the truth today?” Asked Shehan. Stoecker touched upon information today being harvested for attention, optimized for engagement and not for the truth. “ You can also optimize for outrage. And this has been around way before AI. What AI has done, is lowered the cost of disinformation,” he added. Venki continued to champion evidence, as he said, “In science- there is only one truth. The truth may be complex but there cannot be versions of it.The truth as we see it in humanities, may be interpreted differently.”
Session chair Anish Gawande was able to weave the theme into a coherent continuum. A fitting opening to a city that must continue to celebrate language, literature and books.
