Global perspectives with an Indian Flavour at the Jaipur Literary Festival

The Jaipur Literary Festival has truly risen to become one of the most exciting literary events in India and in some ways anywhere in the world. At the very least it has appropriated to itself a very distinct and unique position in the world of literary discourse.

The festival organizers have succeeded in bringing together some of the best minds from the world of literature but also succeeded in packing a lot of variety in its content, in the form of discussions about theatre, film, novels, stories, science, religion and philosophy.  This year the list of authors and celebrities included Annie Proulx, Ben Okri, Kiran Nagarkar, Lionel Shriver, Michael Ondaatje, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Dawkins, Tom Stoppard, Steven Pinker, Javed Akhtar, Rahul Bose, Aruna Roy, Girish Karnad and Asghar Wajahat among others.

Festival experience varies across the world as the event takes in the flavour of the local people and culture where they are hosted, whether it’s the festival at Hay on Wye, Edinburgh, Berlin or Jaipur. However the Jaipur festival is substantially different to all its peers in featuring a lot more writing from non-western authors owing to its Indian domicile. But the most remarkable feat of the Festival is its free admission. Given that Jaipur is a populous, bustling Indian city, it makes it all the more impressive that the organizers should be able to keep the doors open to all. The free admission aspect gives the festival what some call the ‘Kumbh Mela’ feel making it very distinctly Indian. Creditable and incredible as this approach is, it gets a mixed response from the attending public. Some visitors especially from outside India, find the experience a bit daunting especially on the weekend when the crowds make access and movement really challenging. This year when Oprah was at the venue, many hundreds if not thousands were in long queues outside hoping to get in at some point in the day. So even though the complete democratization of knowledge and access to all is a great and worthy cause, logistics need to be slightly better managed. The improvements in management from last year were substantial, so the organizers are definitely moving in the right direction in terms of cleanliness, hygiene and crowd management. Still if the popularity of the festival increases, the organizers may need to either move venues or change some policies regarding attendance.

However, the grand success of the festival should prompt another question, why aren’t their many more of these events in the country? One major literary event of this sort aside of the book fairs is hardly sufficient for a country of 1.2 Billion people spread over vast distances.  One hopes that more of such events will begin to get the right kind of patronage and support from sponsors and readers. All said the future of literary discourse in the country is bright and strong. One can only hope that we get to see many more of these events in the country and broaden further the discourse in the public sphere on wider and more interesting topics and themes. All in, a grand success and a promising platform to make space for in your calendar every year.