Jaipur, Jan 28
Why does society have a biased
view about writers dealing with sex or about sexual dualities, what
would end if we stop believing in our past and why freedom of expression
comes at a cost were among the questions that were thrown open for
debate and introspection at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2015.
The
annual literary fest, which has attained the stature of a "literary
pilgrimage" for the bibliophile, was held as usual at the 17th century
Diggi Palace. It hosted 234 speakers from all around the globe who
initiated stimulating discussions on varied themes ranging from history,
politics, cinema, art, travel and poetry across 170 sessions on its
five days ending Sunday.
As the festival, now in its eighth
edition, has grown from strength to strength since its inception 2006,
when it began on a small scale as part of the Jaipur Heritage
International Festival, the organisers tried to include dynamic topics
in several sessions that could lead to engaging and illuminating
conversations.
This year was no different with Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri at the very onset raising strong
concerns about the freedom of literary imagination. "The issue of the
poetic imagination, of its scope and freedom, has become doubly
fearsome, and has become problematic because of the way Indian society
is developing," he said in his keynote address on the opening day.
Similarly
lyricist Prasoon Joshi chose to initiate debate on the Tamil writer
Perumal Murugan's decision to renounce writing following protests from
various organizations in the session that was to discuss ""Is the
Commerce of Literature Today Killing Good Writing?".
And all the panelists were unamimous that the "burning of the book is act of violence".
Nobel
Prize-winning author V.S.Naipul was also present to mark 50 years of
the publication of his "A House for Mr. Biswas" that has now acquired
the status of a classic. The 82-year-old, now on a wheel-chair, was
moved to tears after he received overwhelming response from people as he
was brought onto the stage.
Other interesting sessions that
touched upon the subject of "writing on sex and refiguring masculinity"
saw the panelists asking pertinent questions to the audience for
"building stereotypes about these topics" and viewing them with a myopic
outlook.
Adding to the event's appeal was discussions on
contemporary issues like the situation of Pakistan, of the Middle East,
the prospects of Israeli-Palstinian peace process, and India's watershed
2014 elections.
For history buffs, there were intriguing facets
and episodes like the 19th century Chinese empress who really modernised
her country, a diamond necklace scandal that doomed the French
monarchy, the legend of Lawrence of Arabia and the audacious kidnapping
of a German general from a Greek island in the penultimate year of World
War II.
Unlike some previous years, the festival managed to
stay away from any controversy and distinguished participants like
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who attended several sessions, faced
questions only on books politics, not the investigation into the murder
of his wife Sunanda Pushkar .
As usual, Bollywood made its
presence felt at the festival as prominent personalities Naseeruddin
Shah, Waheeda Rahman, Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi participated in
several sessions. In one memorable session, Shabana, daughter of iconic
poet Kaifi Azmi, teamed with Salima Hashmi, daughter of equally iconic
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, to discussed their illustrious fathers.
Literary
luminaries like father of modern travel writing Paul Theroux, 2013 Man
Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton, Samuel Johnson Prize winner and
author of "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" Kate Summerscale, Pakistani
painter, writer and academic Hashmi, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
and journalist Kai Bird and the author of "Family Life" Akhil Sharma
also attended the festival.
The festival as usual drew huge
crowds, especially in its last two days, but sometimes this led to
swamping of available space - especially where the venue was smaller -
and created near chaos. It was a moot point how much some of people
thronging the venue attended even one session or were interested in one,
given that many walked out midway and the organisers must give this
aspect some thought.
(Shilpa Raina can be contacted at shilpa
