The Evolution Of Jaipur Lit Fest: A Conversation With Its Creators
As the highly anticipated 17th edition of the esteemed Jaipur Literature Festival approaches, scheduled to take place from 1 to 5 February, 2024 at Hotel Clarks Amer in Jaipur, the Festival Producer Teamwork Arts offered a glimpse of this renowned literary event at The Leela Palace, New Delhi. As customary, the festival will bring together an impressive assembly of writers, speakers, thinkers, sports figures, journalists, policy-makers, social activists, and more.
The literary extravaganza promises a tapestry of linguistic diversity with sessions dedicated to 16 Indian and eight international languages. Among the Indian languages featured are Assamese, Awadhi, Banjara Language - Lamani (Lambada), Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Kurukh, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Tamil, Toda, and Urdu.
For its 2024 edition, the festival plans to host approximately 550 speakers and artists representing a diverse array of nationalities, including recipients of prestigious awards such as the Booker, International Booker, Pulitzer, Sahitya Akademi, Dada Saheb Phalke Award, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, JCB Prize for Literature, and more. The event will encompass a wide range of themes spanning Fiction & Non-Fiction, Literary Criticism, History, Politics & Current Affairs, Economics, Poetry, Art & Culture, Art & Architecture, Translation, Graphic Novels, Gender, Science & Medicine, Food & Memory, Biographies & Memoirs, Mythology, Spirituality & Religion, Mental Health, Fashion & Lifestyle, Law & Justice, Geopolitics, Sports, Crime Fiction, Climate Change + Environment & Climate Justice, Pet Parents + Pets & Animals, Cities, Literary Icons Through The Ages, Bollywood & Cinema, and more.
At the Delhi Curtain Raiser of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), Everything Experiential spoke exclusively to the masterminds behind this phenomenon - Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts, who produce the Jaipur Literature Festival; Namita Gokhale, acclaimed writer and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival; William Dalrymple, writer, historian and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival; and Preeta Singh, President, Teamwork Communications.
As the Co-founder of the JLF, Gokhale brings out, “These 17 years have been transformational. I have grown so much. The writers I have met along the path, legendary writers, new and aspiring writers, anxious writers, writers who've made it and who show you the meaning of humility. Just knowing and meeting writers from around the world has been the most important experience of my life, even more than my own writing.
Talking about the digital age - from books to Kindle and online, she said, “Earlier, it was an oral heritage. Yes. And they've returned to that oral heritage, a visual heritage, when the first cavemen danced around the fire and drew on the wall. It's no different. It's a better level of technology, but our different senses have to be engaged. What makes us a human being, a species, is the fact that we share our experiences, our narratives.”
“AI has featured very heavily in our programming since many years, it was almost futuristic. Now it's an acceptable part of life. But some of the greatest scientific experts have always been coming. And I think AI is somewhere to return to a collective consciousness of knowledge, shared knowledge. And I welcome that,” Gokhale brings out, on adapting to these new technologies and immersive experiences.
Discussing about the future of JLF, she says, “We didn't begin with a vision. We began with a belief. My belief was in the Indian languages, my belief was in translations. My belief was in shared stories. And those visions have come to life. But it wasn't some grand strategy or something. It was slowly doing the things we believe in. And I really can't predict anything about the future, but I know every year the path opens out itself through our programming, through the lessons we learn through those conversations. The next step. And the next step comes on its own, at least for me.”
Roy spoke about the attendee experience and mentioned that one of their chief focuses every year is about ensuring that they have a program that sort of is accessible to everybody. “As you know, 80 per cent of our audiences on ground is under the age of 25. And our effort always is that can we give them considered information which opens their mind and allows them to realize that they have a million questions to ask. The other day I was at some conference where they were talking about lowest common denominator. We don't look at that. We are like, why lowest common denominator? If you educate and provide people, irrespective of caste, colour, creed, economic background information, you can open their mind. That's our effort. And I think this year's 550 odd writers, speakers, performers, etc, will be able to do that because we have such a spectrum.”
Looking back in hindsight, Dalrymple talks about the journey of JLF, “Well, in one way it's exactly the same in that it's still Sanjoy, me and Namita putting together a program and hoping someone will turn up. But obviously in every other way, it's completely transformed. When we started, I remember going around every bookshop in Delhi, putting up posters, hoping that someone from the capital would come down to Jaipur on what was then a seven-hour drive or a slog along the train to come. And initially, not many did.
The very first JLF, we had one venue, in Digi. And it was an opening morning, completely empty. When thankfully, a party of japanese people walked in, filled up the whole hall, and only realised after the first session that they were in the wrong place and went off to Amer palace, which is what they were looking for. But, they saved us the embarrassment of speaking to an almost empty wall. And since then it just doubled and tripled and quadrupled and just carried on growing. And now it's whatever it is. Half a million people every year. People obviously want to come now. We don't have to beg them. I mean, the authors want to come. We get every year the book of winners, Nobel winners, political winners, Sahitya Akademi winners. Every prize on the planet each year turn up. And the audiences are enormous.”
Shedding light on the written word and public performance, Dalrymple brought out, “Before the book, there was the codex. Before the codex, the inscription. But in the end, the public performance of literature is something different from the written word. And India has always embraced both the private enjoyment of the written word, the individual with the book, codex, description, whatever it is, the palm leaf bundle, and then there's the public performance. So we are, in the tradition, more of the mushaira or the poetry, where poets or writers perform publicly, and that is a different thing. But again, as I say, there's no country in the world that has an older tradition of the public performance literature than India. India. And that's my first understanding why Indian literary festivals have taken off in the way they have 20 years, and why Jaipur is still at the head of it.”
Singh belives that these are happy accidents, but she thinks what's really important were the days when the world was kind of struck by covid, it was an opportunity because a lot of us sitting at home were listening in, so JLF went hybrid. “I think that was a turning point for JLF. We hope to reach 300 million people this year. We've got a 14 minutes, twelve to 14 minutes listen time on YouTube. So what's happening is that people want to engage with not only intelligent, but interesting new ideas, new conversations, to inform themselves and then make their decisions.”
“The second thing that's happened is thanks to what Jaipur Literature Festival has become. It's a credible, inclusive platform which connects writers with audiences and at the end of the day, brands that want to engage with their audiences. You can go to an IPL, you can go to a racetrack event, you can go anywhere. But I think, in a fractured world that exists today, you need to be an informed world. That's what JLF provides. It's up to the audience, what they take, and the brands that engage with us help us grow the festival. We are nowhere near cricket or anything, but we are, I think, in a good place. 300 million people, 12 to 14 minutes listening to content - I think it's fantastic,” she adds.
Reading, as a habit, needs to be developed. Singh points out, “People are not reading because I can be cooking, I can do driving, and I'm listening. Podcasts are doing well. Other formats are doing well. But physical reading, where there's a whole lot of cognitive things, is not growing the way it should. Mothers and fathers have to read with their children. And the more they read, the more they're going to develop their ability. Look at our country at 60 per cent, can't still read. I'm not saying JLF will change the dynamic tomorrow morning, but I'm committed to it because it brings India's in the world's best. It gives you an opportunity for free or at a nominal fee. Recharge. Get in there, listen to the best.”
