LDS

About the Literary and Debate Society

The Literary and Debate Society is established to provide students the opportunity toliberate their thoughts, and act as a platform to voice their opinions and sharpen oratoryskills. Literature is necessary to keep culture, art, heritage, tradition, and most importantlyimagination, alive. This Society aspires to create an environment to celebrate, discuss andpromote literature.
It is actively engaged in providing a substantial and unrestricted foundation for students toexplore the world beyond textbooks where the freedom of speech, dissent and discussionof significant social issues are vital for change and well-being of the society. It is keenlyfocused on providing all the necessary opportunities to the students of SLS-H to gain more confidence and promote interest in the debating culture. The Literary and DebateSociety thereby acts as the perfect platform for students to promote their interest inLiterature and Debating by holding National Literary Fest: the annual flagship eventwhich entails the National Parliamentary Debate, Mosaic: the internal flagship eventaimed to satiate the literary hunger, Book Discussions, Debate and MUN Training,Literary Workshops amongst the others.

Objectives

• To improve the oratory skills of students and develop the passion for debating in order to create an active debating culture in the institution.

• To provide platforms for students to exhibit their artistic talents and skills in order to promote literature and various other forms of artistic expression.

• To create a healthy environment in the institute for students to express themselves freely, vocally or through art.

Faculty-in-charge : Dr. Srinivas Bandameedi

OFFICIAL EMAIL ID : litdebate@slsh.edu.in

LIST OF EVENTS

INTERVARSITY EVENTS:

• 1st National Literary Fest, 2019

  
  

  The Literary and Debate Society conducted the first edition of the National Literary Fest on7th and 8th September 2019. The main object of the Literary Fest was to enrich literature andencourage the various forms of art and artistic expressions by conducting panel discussionsand a variety of competitions. The Inaugural ceremony and the first Panel discussion of theNational Literary Fest which was on the topic ‘Public Morality & Constitutional Morality:An Analysis of the Recent Supreme Court Judgments’ were graced by eminent dignitariesfrom the legal fraternity such as Shri Veerappa Moily, Justice GR Swaminathan, Dr. G BReddy, Dr. Ishwar Bhat and Madhabhushi Sridhar. The second Panel discussion on the topic‘As the 4th Estate of a Democracy, is the Media Influenced or Influencing?’ witnessed distinguished personalities from the journalism and the legal field such as SatarupaBhattacharya, Sushil Rao, Madhabhushi Sridhar, Justice Swaminathan and Dr.Radhakrishnan. In order to encourage storytelling and creative writing, a TTT Workshop wasconducted where the Chief curator of Terribly Tiny Tales, Joel Thottan had an interactivesession on writing stories with an audience of 100 participants. Several competitions such asPop Quiz, Open Mic, Online Creative Writing Competitions and Event Reportingcompetitions were conducted in order to nurture different forms of art and artistic expression.

  

  The Inauguration Ceremony of the 1st National Literary Fest, 2019

• 1st Symbiosis Law School Hyderabad British Parliamentary Debate, 2019

  
  

  The Literary and Debate Society conducted the first edition of the National BritishParliamentary Debate on 7th and 8th September 2019. The prime objective of conducting theBritish Parliamentary Debate was to enhance debating culture and allow healthy expressionand exchange of ideas and opinions in a competitive environment. The National BritishParliamentary Debate witnessed participants from universities all across the country and hadAnusuiya Radhika and Vedika Walia as the core adjudicators.The two days saw rigorousdebating by the participants during 4 preliminary rounds, two semi-final rounds and one finalround after which NALSAR Hyderabad emerged as the winner.

• 1st National Webinar on Pandemic: Its Effect on Productivity, Creativity, & Mental Health

  
  

  The Literary and Debate Society conducted its very first National Webinar on the theme ofPandemic: Its Effect on Productivity, Creativity, and Mental Health on 18th May 2020. Themain object of the webinar was to spread awareness and discuss the importance of mentalhealth during the pandemic time and its effect on academic and work life. The webinar had apanel consisting of Prof. Amita Dhanda who is a professor of law at NALSAR Hyderabadand a mental health advocate, Ms. Anindita Anand who is a child psychologist and a personalgrowth coach, Ms. Juhi Sharma who is the founder of Light Up EMF (Emotions MatterFoundation) and Unbottle Emotions and Mr. Amandeep Sandhu who is the author of SepiaLeaves, a novel which talks about mental illnesses. With a panel comprising of suchdistinguished personalities from various disciplines and an audience of over 500 participantsfrom 200 universities, the first national webinar was a grand success.

• Power to the People

  
  

  The Literary and Debate Society conducted the first Edition of the online National Debatecompetition, ‘Power to the People’ on 10th and 11th July 2020.The event required participantsto form a team of two and send written submissions on the topics given, out of which 8 teamswere selected for the preliminary rounds. The selected 8 teams were required to debate uponvarious topics in the Oxford Union debate format and the audience were required to vote forthe teams which would determine the results of the competition. The teams were required todebate against each other in the preliminary rounds and 4 teams qualified to the semi-finalrounds based on the vote of the audience. After 2 semi-final rounds and a final round, theteam from IIT Madras emerged as winners of the first edition of Power to the People.

INTRA-COLLEGE EVENTS:

• Mosaic

  
  

  The Literary and Debate Society conducts its annual flagship intra-college event, Mosaic toencourage literature and to provide a platform for students to showcase their oratory skillsand their talents in different forms of art. A plethora of competitions such as Dialectic Debate,Hangman Challenge, Pressure Point, Treasure Hunt, Face Painting, Painting, Lit Pop Con,Carmen Scriptum and the like are conducting during the two-day event. A workshop on UrduWriting called ‘Aamad’ was conducted during the third edition of Mosaic where the guestsemphasized on the importance of Urdu in legal writing and discussed Urdu poem and Shayariwriting.

  

  The esteemed guests of Aamad Workshop discussing the importance of Urdu.

• Intra Qualifiers

  
  

  The Literary and Debate Society organizes internal qualifier rounds to select teams torepresent the institute in external parliamentary debate competitions. The Society organizesintra-qualifiers in various forms of debating depending upon the format of debate followed bythe institution. The intra-qualifier allows interested students to debate in the British Parliamentary Debate format or Asian Parliamentary Debate form or the Oxford Unionformat on a given motion. The top 3 teams and 3 Adjudicators are selected to represent thecollege at the competition. The intra-qualifiers would allow 3 teams to represent the institutewhere only the team ranked first would be eligible for reimbursement whereas the other 2teams had to participate at their own expense. The Society has conducted around 20 intra-qualifier rounds select students to represent the institute in over 30 external debate competitions.

• Training Sessions

  
  

  The Literary and Debate Society conducted Training Sessions for students on the variousforms of debating on 16th July 2019. The training sessions were conducted with the objectiveof developing an active debating culture in the college and to train students to participate inexternal debate competitions. The members who had previous debating experience explainedthe various forms of debating and conducted a mock debate to provide a hands-onexperience.

• Book Discussions

  
  The Literary and Debate Society conducted book discussions on a fortnightly basis where thestudents were allowed to deliberate on books of their choice. The results of the discussionwere determined through an audience poll and the best presenter was awarded a prize. Thepurpose of this discussion was to act as a platform where the students could exchangeopinions and insights on books of their interest. This activity also aimed at fostering theliterary interests of the students of Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad. Initially, the bestpresenter was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 1000 and later, food coupons were presented to allthe presenters. The book discussions witnessed participants discussing a range of books thatincluded ‘The Spy’ by Paulo Coelho, ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini, ‘First they erased our name’ by Habib Rahman and Sophie Ansel and ‘Persepolis’ by MarjaneSatrapi.
  

  One of the presenters discussing a book in one of the Book Discussions

• A Discussion on Jogini System

  
  

  The Literary and Debate Society in collaboration with the Centre for Human Rightsconducted a ‘Discussion on the Jogini System’ on 23rd January 2020. The discussion wasconducted to spread awareness of the system and to facilitate a healthy exchange of ideas andopinions regarding this system. The discussion was graced by Dr. Gogu Shyamala who is anauthor and activist. She has received several awards for her works and some of her writingshave even formed a part of the syllabus of higher education for Telangana Government andUniversity of San Francisco of America. The discussion provided the students with an insightinto the evolution of the Jogini system, the exploitation of women under the system and thelack of stringent laws for the protection of women under the system.

  

  Welcoming the guest speaker, Ms. Gogu Shyamala for the discussion on Jogini system

• Le Bibliophile

  
  

  The Literary and Debate Society launched the first book club of Symbiosis Law SchoolHyderabad, named ‘Le Bibliophile’. Le Bibliophile is a forum where students were allowedto read, exchange and ponder on literature conundrums. The students would have to provide abook to the Literary and Debate Cell which can be taken in exchange for another. At the endof the semester, a discussion was where they shall provide their views/conundrums/insightson the book.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

The following have won prizes at various national debate competitions:

1. Dylan Sharma, Abhay Patil- Best Team, KLE Law College Debate, 2019


2. Dylan Sharma, Best Speaker, KLE Law College Debate, 2019


3. Vinamra Gogia, Subhrotosh Banerjee, Novice Finalists, M.S Ramiah British Parliamentary Debate , 2019



Subhrotosh Banerjee and Vinamra Gogia