The ‘Kumbh mela’ of literary gatherings, the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, from Jan 20-24, is already courting controversy.
The ‘Kumbh mela’ of literary gatherings, the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, from Jan 20-24, is already courting controversy.
Deoband-based Muslim seminary Darul Uloom last week asked the government to cancel Salman Rushdie’s visa as he had “hurt Muslim sentiments in the past”. Rushdie, however, said that he will be attending the festival. “Regarding my Indian visit, for the record, I don’t need a visa,” he tweeted.
Among others attending will be David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Hari Kunzru, Annie Proulx, Mohammed Hanif, Jamaica Kincaid, Tabish Khair, Michael Ondaatje, Teju Cole, Amy Chua, Rosamund Bartlett, Ben Okri, Richard Dawkins and Hisham Matar.
Theatre, screenwriting and adaptations are going to be strong themes this year. Tom Stoppard, best known for his play Shakespeare in Love, will share the stage on January 23 with British playwright David Hare, author Annie Proulx, who wrote the short story that was adapted into film Brokeback Mountain, and Kannada playwright Girish Karnad, to discuss adaptations.
Revolution and the Arab Spring is another theme in focus.
“There’s Hisham Matar from Libya, Raja Shehadeh and Karl Sabbagh from Palestine, and Fatima Bhutto from Pakistan,” says William Dalrymple, one of the festival directors.
The other important theme will be biographies, he adds.
“Biographies are being ignored in India. There’s been a surge of journalistic nonfiction writing, but surprisingly, very few biographies have been written lately,” says Dalrymple. So writers like Devid Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, and Saugata Bose, who wrote the biography of Subhash Chandra Bose, are some of the eminent biographers attending the Lit Fest.
Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey is making an appearance on the third day of the festival.
“Last year, we had 60,000 people attending the festival,” says Sanjoy K Roy, producer of the festival. “Every year, we estimate a number of visitors to the festival, but there are always many more than we expect.” Also worth looking forward to is the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, which will be announced on January 21.
The shortlisted authors are UR Ananthamurthy, Chandrakanta, Usha KR, Shehan Karunatilaka, Tabish Khair and Kavery Nambisan.
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