Last Friday, saw me headed to Jaipur after four years to attend the Lit Fest once again, though this time it was with my daughter and her friends in tow.
And yes, the festival still continues to offer a smorgasbord of writer discussions to attend and, dare I say it, the organisation of the festival seems to have improved. Entry into the festival was smooth and trouble free; while the use of cash cards made all purchases at the festival hassle free as change was no longer a problem. Even lunch was a smooth process, probably in part due to the proliferation of food stalls all across the grounds of Diggi Palace.
Interestingly, the page 3 type attendees seemed to have decreased and their place taken by a younger local crowd. Nonetheless, weekend afternoons still remained super crowded making navigation quite a feat. The festival bazaar has expanded to accommodate more stalls, though one can't complain if it helps in ensuring the free entry to the festival.
Well enough of general observations, lets move on to the actual writers and their sessions.
I kick-started the festival by catching Princess Di's brother's dramatic account of Charles II's escape after the Battle of Worcester. Charles Spencer made this period of English history seem almost as fun as Henry VIII's!
While on royal escapades, I sat in on master storyteller Simon Sebag Montefiore's sketch of the Romanovs. He single-handedly kept the Charbagh audience riveted with his gory account of the cursed dynasty, reminding one of the Horrible History series (and that is a compliment!)
The session on Indian Princes vs the Raj had Moin Mir, Stewart Gordon &; Sunil S. Amrith share fascinating stories about Indian Royalty. Gordon explained how the patronage of Yunani medicine by the Begums of Bhopal was a subtle form of resistance against the British. Amrith pointed out how the Kaveri water dispute has its origins in the conflict between the Princely State of Mysore and the British. Moin Mir gave a brief of the Nawab of Surat's fight against the EEIC, whose final face off was in the English Parliament—quite unique I must say!
Sitting in on Sven Beckert's talk based on his book Empire of Cotton: A Global History, I was privileged to witness the new approach that history writing is taking today, the shift away from nationalistic accounts. Sven explained that to gain a global perspective of history he went local—looked at cotton—and then located it in a network of global connections. His book basically charts how cotton was crucial for the unfurling of the Industrial Revolution and interestingly the book opens in Surat.
What was lovely to see was Venki Ramakrishnan the Nobel prize winning biologist asking Sven a question at the end of the talk! It is not often that one sees speakers sitting in the audience. Perhaps, here is a man who loves to learn and does not consider himself above us mere mortals. My take-home from Venki's session was an insight into the world of scientific research where competition spurs people on one hand but on the other monopolies make people complacent.
As a student of history I quite enjoyed the session titled after Richard Evans book In Defence of History. Here the participants all argued in favour of the relevance of the discipline of history in today's world. Of course, they might just be biased as all of them have written history books! During the session, Evans pointed out that history writing is now focusing on cultural, transnational and global themes—evident in the writings of the panel. He also mentioned that the internet was a threat to historical writing as online writing bypasses the guardians of information and anyone can post anything claiming it to be fact. Stewart Gordon stated out that history should be taught as a way of knowing, wherein students are taught how to separate facts from opinion. He also mentioned how in today's age we need to be wary of the way in which numeric evidence can be manipulated into making falsehoods appear as the truth. Sanjay Sanyal stressed on how facts cannot be altered, though everyone is entitled to form their own interpretations. He also sensitised the audience to how evidence is not static, rather it evolves with new discoveries. Ruby Lal brought up the need to think of authorship of the evidence: who was recording the evidence and why. Dan Jones with his tattooed arms clearly dispelled the image of a tweed coat clad historian! At the end of the hour, the historian in me was satisfied and my view of history as a discipline that fosters critical thinking was reaffirmed.
As a student of history I quite enjoyed the session titled after Richard Evans book In Defence of History. Here the participants all argued in favour of the relevance of the discipline of history in today's world. Of course, they might just be biased as all of them have written history books! During the session, Evans pointed out that history writing is now focusing on cultural, transnational and global themes—evident in the writings of the panel. He also mentioned that the internet was a threat to historical writing as online writing bypasses the guardians of information and anyone can post anything claiming it to be fact. Stewart Gordon stated out that history should be taught as a way of knowing, wherein students are taught how to separate facts from opinion. He also mentioned how in today's age we need to be wary of the way in which numeric evidence can be manipulated into making falsehoods appear as the truth. Sanjay Sanyal stressed on how facts cannot be altered, though everyone is entitled to form their own interpretations. He also sensitised the audience to how evidence is not static, rather it evolves with new discoveries. Ruby Lal brought up the need to think of authorship of the evidence: who was recording the evidence and why. Dan Jones with his tattooed arms clearly dispelled the image of a tweed coat clad historian! At the end of the hour, the historian in me was satisfied and my view of history as a discipline that fosters critical thinking was reaffirmed.
But after some highs there must be lows. Richard Evans' session on The Coming of the Third Reich was a bit lacklustre in that it was a lecture on how Hitler came to power—not a very juicy topic. What he did stress on again and again was the widespread of use of violence by the Nazis to squash any opposition.
The Fog, the Smog and the Flu—what a catchy title for a session on the perils of pollution and epidemics. Laura Spinney pointed out how we tend to glorify mass deaths by war but not those by other causes, because of which we are unaware of the fact that the Spanish Flu caused more deaths than World War I. Christine Corton provided a very entertaining account of the London Smog and its impact on London society while Siddharth Singh reminded one of the perils that air pollution causes us today in India. Clearly after this session I needed some cheering up!
At earlier editions of the festival, I was quite an autograph collector but this time I was keen to get only one autograph—Manoranjan Byapari's! His book Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit really sensitised me to the injustices the Dalits face. So varied are the twists and turns of his life, that the book seemed like a movie. His conversation on stage was fascinating and one quite admired him for being so loquacious on stage. So imagine my shock when I found such a different persona when I went to get his autograph, it was almost a volte-face—the chatty man on stage had metamorphosed into an angry old man; he just did not want to sign the book (but I persisted!). Perhaps this explains why his translator (who just happened to be his editor) was making such odd faces while on stage during his session and and instead of paying attention to what he said presented a memorised speech when she was asked to translate what he had just said.
The last session that I attended at the fest this time was Perumal Murugan's. He is always a joy to listen to. A pertinent point he made this time was that the term regional literature needs to be done away with and instead the umbrella term Indian literature should be used for all Indian writing. It was also interesting to note how he credited Justice Sanjay Kaul's judgement for motivating him to write again (Kaul's 2016 judgement concluded with the lines: "Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write.")
While this is a summary of the sessions I attended, what of the rest? Well, here is some feedback on a few of them: R really enjoyed Markus Zusak's session and can't wait to read his Bridge of Clay. She found Yann Martel's session equally engaging. The girls enjoyed the sessions on Brexit, The Right to Know, Why I Am No Longer Talking About Race, Bloodhead, Climate Change: A Call to Action, Beyond Borders: On Migration and the Novel. In contrast, they found the session on Directorate S a bit dry.
Thinking of the festival as a whole I realised that what bound a lot of speakers together were the political potshots they took; the targets being the trinity of Trump, Brexit & Modi. Criticism of the latter made me realise just how leftist the Indian intelligentsia is barring one lone voice: Sanjay Sanyal's.
In this huge melee the absence of the larger than life William Dalrymple was striking. The co-founder of the festival was clearly missing in action; a contrast from previous festivals where he was buzzing around the venue introducing virtually half of the speakers and taking part in a number of discussion. His absence was so not in character that it made me wonder what is afoot……
Strangely, while I enjoyed the sessions, perhaps I'm a bit jaded as no single session stood out. My high instead was interacting with the artist Abhishek Singh and getting a sketch in lieu of an autograph, which will now be framed and placed on my souvenir wall.
Overall the best part of the weekend was seeing how much the girls enjoyed the festival; their enthusiasm & curiosity ensured that they were an engaged audience rather than mere passive listeners—questioning the speakers when they could and carrying the conversations long past dinner to chasing down authors to get an autograph to collecting their insta moments (how else would one know that they were teenagers!) It was with a heavy heart that they left Jaipur. On the ride back home they unanimously decided that the next time they were to attend the festival it would be for its entirety!
And yet, despite not being floored by the festival itself, I do want to go back next year since Neil Gaiman is supposed to come (but then again wasn't he supposed to come this time?) along with George Saunders…won't it be great if they could be conversing with each other?!?
