The world’s most charismatic literary show was held at Hotel Clarks,Amer, from 19 – 23 January 2023.
.The Festival continued to remain committed to its core values: to serve as a democratic, non-aligned platform ensuring inclusivity and freedom of speech. The past 15 years have seen the iconic Festival transform into a global literary phenomenon having hosted nearly 5000 speakers and artists reaching out to over 200 million people globally.
In 2023, the literary extravaganza showcased a plethora of themes and writers curated specially for its loyal community of audiences from across the world, offering an immersive experience of literature, discourse, musical performances, art installations, merchandise, local cuisine and more. The Festival offered a representation of all Indian national languages and multiple foreign languages with sessions spread across 5 venues with over 250 speakers.
INAUGURAL SESSION
Address by Namita Gokhale, William Dalrymple and Sanjoy Roy
Keynote Address: Writing as a Form of Resistance by Abdulrazak Gurnah
It began with speeches from acclaimed personalities, including author William Dalrymple, Namita Gokhale and Sanjoy K. Roy. Roy, who shared how—with over 80% attendees under the age of 25 in 2020—the Festival has found a niche among India’s young.
Roy also mentioned their commitment to increasing the reach of the Festival to students from economically-weaker sections.
Events from three venues was live streamed this time. Further, through their partnership with Pratham Books, libraries were set up in across 50 schools for the economically-weak.
Author Namita Gokhale spoke at length about the diverse languages that the Festival has come to represent—in this edition, there were speakers from over 20 Indian languages and 14 international languages, making this an event that represented the diversity of its attendees.
This was followed by the keynote address by Nobel Prize winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah. Gurnah spoke about writing as a form of resistance by attempting to gauge what it was in resistance to. He mentioned that it is in resistance to the forgetfulness which obscures us from remembering what we know to go unnoticed. Secondly, he mentioned that it was in resistance to distraction to the things that did not seem more immediate. Thirdly, he said that it was a resistance to neglect—which forced us to not let things important to us be forgotten. This was a responsibility that all writers had. In that sense, this was not perforce fighting tyrants or mobilising people, but was a responsibility to keeping things alive.
The first day session began with an introduction to Bibek Debroy’s latest book, “Brahma Purana”. Debroy further discussed how the Puranas are supposed to represent the five characteristics of Panchlakshana.
Then Bernardine Evaristo was in conversation with Nandini Nair
Nandini Nair, while talking about Berananrdine Evaristo’s memoir, ‘MANIFESTO’ said that it is about Evaristo’s life.Evaristo told she was a reserved and private person but afterward she found herself really open about her life. Nair talked about how Evaristo belonged to a bi-racial family and never sinned as a child so she ended up making confessions and sins.
In another session Brahma Purana was mentioned by Debroy and he talked about the four latest editions in the Brahma Purana. At the end he advised the audience to begin with Bhagavata Purana or the Markandeya Purana as a beginner to gain more insight into the world of shloka’s and Puranas.
Durjoy Datta in conversation with Kiran Manral talks about his journey as a writer from being published at 21, till writing his latest novel “When I’m with you.” He further discussed the depth and background to his characters and how he comes about writing them and the flaws many of his characters have.
Shashi Tharoor and Sumit Samos were in conversation with Pragya Tiwari on BR Ambedkar: Life and Times Sumit Samos spoke about how BR Ambedkar was neglected for a very long time in the Indian political discourse. He discussed the manner in which he is being used and appropriated by parties across the political spectrum today. Shashi Tharoor discussed Ambedkar’s impact on women rights, the Constitution and legal mechanisms of India.
In another session Surina Narula talked about Deepti Naval’s book, a memoir, A Country Called Childhood, which is based on Naval’s childhood in Amritsar. Deepti said that the book is about the influences that made her different in the film industry. Naval said that her parents influenced her life and her interests.
