Jaipur Literature Festival: A gathering of literary royalty

RAJASTHAN translates as the land of the kings, and the crown jewel is unmistakably the architectural marvel of the “pink city’’ of Jaipur cloaked from drinking well to palace dome in the dusty terracotta hue decreed by Maharaja Ram Singh in 1876 to welcome the bum-in-butter Prince of Wales who was later to be crowned King Edward VI.

Fast forward exactly one hundred and fifty years later and the warren of beehive royal hides beckon a far more stellar breed of royalty in the waves of writers, poets and lovers of the written word who converge from every nook and cranny of the known world on the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Historian and Indophile, William Dalrymple, who was among the founders of the litfest nineteen years ago quipped: “These hundreds of thousands are a far cry from the handful we started with and the busload of Chinese tourists who boosted our numbers when their bus stopped at the wrong palace.”

The organisers expect between three hundred thousand and a half a million people to walk through the lavishly decorated gates of the Clarkes Amer Hotel over the five days of the festival which ends on Monday, January 19. It is likely the biggest book fair in the world exceeding the well-established London, Frankfurt and New York festivals.

Livewire host Sanjoy Roy heading the hosting entity, Teamworks, estimates that twenty million people from Spain to Mongolia tune into the festival’s online platforms. The real thrill however is rubbing shoulders with the Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners and other luminaries of the literary world.

This year, the throne belonged to 2025 Booker Prize Winner, Banu Mushtaq, whose short story collection, Heart Lamp, was originally written in her native Kannada language. The book has since been translated into 35 languages.

Dressed modestly in a light sari with her hair tied back she was introduced as an author, lawyer and activist. The activism for social and gender justice was the hallmark of her inaugural address. “Throughout my life, I suffered a lot of communalism, patriarchy and class hierarchy. I never stopped asking powerful questions. I asked questions that no one could tolerate. I challenged everything – caste, class, power …”

She recounted how all kinds of violence was directed at her including people barging into her home demanding that she decline an invitation from the Chief Minister of Karnataka state to open the annual Dusshera festival which falls on the tenth day of the Hindu observance of Navratri. The quarrel was that as a Muslim woman she had no right to enjoy such prominence on an occasion revered by Hindus.

The objectors took the matter to the Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court. The applications were defeated on both occasions. She maintains that the petition was orchestrated by “unseen people and unseen power”. Such was the risk to her life that the state government “arranged a gunman to be posted at my residence”.

Mushtaq comes across every bit harmless except to injustice. Her work centres around giving marginalized people, especially women a voice. Since winning the Booker, her voice is one of the most sought out across India.

Former Indian High Commissioner to South Africa, Gopalkrishna Gandhi whose brief tenure coincided with the Mandela Presidency brought his riveting tome, “The Undying Light – a Personal History of Independent India” to the festival. The erudite diplomat, statesman and scholar waltzed lyrically on art, music, history, politics, film and philosophy to a rapt audience.

The former governor of West Bengal and Bihar is widely regarded as one of the consciences of democratic India. “There is such a thing called courage,” he says as he drew on his vast historical knowledge from the tolerance and empathy of the Emperor Ashoka to the magnanimity of javelin thrower and Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra’s mother who described his main Pakistani competition as “he is my son too”.  

British satirist and actor Stephen Fry also held court at the festival enthralling packed audiences with his wry and witty sense of humour. He recounted how he was hopeless at everything at public school from being unable to “run a straight line without bumping into a tree” or having his hands clap when he tried catching a call. His enviable agility with the English language proved his saviour especially his ability to unpack anagrams.

Recalling a lunch engagement with the renowned Shakespearean actor, Sir Alec Guinness, he twirled the thespian’s name into the anagram, “CLASS GENIUS”. Quite impressed, the stage legend replied: “Fry, I’ll remember you in my will.” He didn’t which Fry laments as the estate continues to rake in millions from royalties from Guinness’s role in the Star Wars movies.

The literary slate is punctuated by riveting music concerts from Carnatic to the traditional Rajasthani wind and percussion performances by the acclaimed Natoolal Solanki family. For the throngs who make the annual pilgrimage to Jaipur, the litfest is quite possibly the greatest show on earth.

Kiru Naidoo is a local author and co-founder of the annual Durban International Book Fair scheduled for August in Umhlanga. He has been a regular visitor to Jaipur over the past two decades. He may be reached on kirunaidoo@gmail.com or 0829408163.

SUNDAY TRIBUNE