A series of three talks on the theme of ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’ and an exhibition of photos from the archives marked the diamond jubilee celebrations of Alliance Francaise of Madras in the city on Saturday.
Lawyer B S Ajeetha, who was one of the speakers, broke down her topic ‘Equality of Sexes: Fantasy or Possibility?’ with statistics on mortality, missing and marriage among girl children and on the literacy level and crime against women. “For human community to develop and sustain, equality of sexes has to be achieved and that can happen if there is political will,” she said.
Art critic Sadanand Menon, speaking on the topic ‘Fraternity in an age of constant conflict’, recalled the recent case of inter-caste marriage and subsequent riots in Dharmapuri and questioned where the fraternity existed when the entire nation watched the incident in silence. He hoped conflicts would result in revolution.
Earlier, Pierre Fournier, Consul General of France, inaugurated an exhibition titled ‘Life and Times of AFM’ where about 150 photographs taken from the archives and collected personally over the past six decades were displayed.
The photographs had captured the various cultural and educational events organised by the AFM over the years. Fournier said the AFM serves as a centre for upliftment of culture and education.