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Jaipur Literary Festival
The Jaipur Literary Festival stands as the world's
largest literary festival, and also its grandest. |
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The global literati recently descended on the City of Pink (Jaipur) in the Land of Kings (Rajasthan) for the Jaipur Literary Festival. Held annually since 2006, the Jaipur Literary Festival is the world’s largest literary—as well as what many consider the “grandest.” Over 50,000 writers, poets, critics, musicians and literary aficionados all came out for the five-day fair, giving credence to the statement made by Tina Brown- the editor of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, that it is, “the greatest literary show on earth.”
With a multitude of panels, performances and workshops, the Jaipur Literary Festival offered a little bit for everyone—hence why the festival was noted by the Los Angeles Times as the “thinking-person’s carnival.” The apex of the literary world, such as Nobel Laureates Orhan Pamuk and J.M. Coetzee and Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai, were all on hand for panel discussions. Panels ran the spectrum of fiction and nonfiction, Indian and otherwise. Beyond discussions on literature, there were cultural events ranging from poetry readings to musical performances.
“The event is multifaceted, there are a potpourri of cultures here in Jaipur for the festival,” said Anindya— a literature student from Delhi. He noted that the event offered a broader global perspective for Indian literature, as well as effectively introducing Indian literature and perspectives to non-Indian audiences.
Kate from Australia shared such sentiments. She said that the festival was “outward looking” and gave an international flavor to understanding Indian culture through literature. She noted that one could learn so much about India’s different states and different peoples from the fair. Another Aussie named Liz echoed these thoughts, stating that the Jaipur Literary Festival was an accessible way of learning about different parts of India without having to travel there. She said she liked how, through the fair, she was able to get different local perspectives all in the same place.
One of the beauties of the Jaipur Literary Festival is that it is ultimately a platform of public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy for India. Rosemary from Delhi noted: “others become more aware of Indian authors, history and Indian literature; before there just wasn’t a forum or platform like this.” Thus, understanding the public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy value of the event, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, the Public Diplomacy Division of the MEA and the Ministry of Culture were all principal partners of this event, while the sponsorship lists was long and impressive including the British Council, the American Center, Alliance Frances, the Embassies of Poland, Israel, Sweden, and a mass of multinationals.
The festival was a great bit of cultural diplomacy as to offer a perspective on Indian literature to both foreigner audiences as well as to Indians of different states and locations. The Jaipur Literature Festival made Indian culture, literature and music accessible to both global and domestic audiences; it is ultimately a great way to make showcase the richness of Indian literature and introduce it to new, receptive global audiences.
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