Jaipur Literature Festival 2022

Jaipur Literature Festival - The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival is one of the most prominent literary festivals of India and in the whole of Asia. It was inaugurated in January, 2006 and has visibly grown to be a multi-dimensional event which is held annually, with the Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur playing host every year. The stately Palace premises serve as a fitting setting for the series of events that unfold during the 5-day programme. In its very essence, the Jaipur Literary Festival upholds the freedom of expression in writing and embraces diverging opinions and viewpoints. Thus, part of its popularity is also attributed to the fact that all genres of writing in Indian and International writing get full support as well as a level playing field in this literary festival. Above all, it gives a much-needed space for people to engage in debate and dialogue and reflects the temper of contemporary times.

Melting pot of ideas
Who doesn’t want a tete-a-tete with their favourite author or media personality? The Jaipur Literature Festival is one such literary festival where different cultures and literary powerhouses of the world converge. As ideas unfold during the five-day free-for all event, a multitude of interested people who come to soak in the cerebral environment. Most events run to packed houses even as people look forward to exchange of ideas and interaction with personalities from the world of literature, media and music. The Festival is a veritable platform for the literary fraternity to participate in major discourses across the globe.

During the entire length of the Jaipur Literary Festival, musicians, authors, lyricists and film personalities share space in what is a harmonious blend of different art forms. Music and other performances accompany a huge series of book readings, talks, debates and discussions. The Festival boasts the coming together of an eclectic group of authors, thinkers and critics, who deliver lectures, hold talks and inspire the audience to come back every year. The deeply interested audience gets exposed to theatre, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and a range of related and topical issues.

The Festival which was originally a Jaipur Virasat Foundation initiative has seen improvisations and slight changes in formats since its inception. It has expanded not just in terms of scale, but also in its content. There are even live music sessions and interactive film and media workshops.

Local and global perspectives
The Jaipur Literary Festival has become a fountainhead of ideas and human expression on topics that cover all aspects of human life. A veritable list of guest speakers and personalities from all over India and across the world also attend this Festival. The Festival gives promising writers the opportunity to showcase their writing, even as the Festival celebrates different viewpoints and human perspectives on a barrage of serious questions facing the world, whether literary, political, social, historical and even economic ones.

Several known personalities like Salman Rushdie, V.S Naipaul, Paul Theroux, Vikram Seth, Pico Iyer, Michael Ondaatje, HariKunzru, Pankaj Mishra, Tariq Ali, Ahmed Rashid, Patrick French, Shashi Tharoor, Shobha De, Kiran Desai, Kamila Shamsie, Amit Chaudhuri, Eimer McBride and several others have graced the events at the Festival in its yearly editions. It is a treat for book lovers to be in such august company and to be able to partake of the flow of ideas in a cerebral and liberating environment.

The Festival directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple who are also eminent writers have managed the transition of the Festival into one of the most frequented events, which witnesses a formidable number of visitors every year. The Festival is also known for applying best practices in logistics and hospitality and has elicited words of appreciation from patrons and organizers of most reputed literary Festivals. The Festival is supported by the state tourism department, various institutions and Trusts.

2015 saw a huge focus on gender equality in India that found support by U.N. Women. The Festival was witness to 300 events spread across 10 venues that include some of the most magnificent heritage places in Jaipur.

In 2015, three prizes have been instituted and announced, including the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, the Ojas Art Award and Khushwant Singh Memorial Prize for Poetry. Around three hundred speakers and over 140 musicians were present at the venue this year.

Expanding horizons abroad
The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival is also held in SouthBank, London. It fills a great need for exposure of South-Asian writing to the world and access to publishing houses. It was started in 2014 and is riding on a huge wave of success. The events are ticketed for the audience, though.