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Celebrating the word

CONCEPT The festival is not meant to be a political animal, says Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is clear that Jaipur as a location for the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival has no relation to being a site of blasts last year. In a phone interview, co-director with Namita Gokhale of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, Dalrymple says: “It is primarily a festival of books, where writers and book lovers get together to celebrate and cherish books. It is not meant to be a political animal.” But he admits: “But writers deal with the world they live in and this year for the festival, we have got some of the greatest experts on terrorism.”

“So from Ahmed Rashid who in his ‘Descent into Chaos’ explores the failure of the American policy post 9/11 and Malise Ruthven who is an expert on the Middle East and will speak on Gaza to Rajiv Chandrasekharan whose new book ‘Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone’ about Americans in Baghdad that won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction in 2007, experts on incidents post 9/11 have been invited for the festival,” expands William.

The musical programme emphasises on peace and co-existence, states William. So every evening post talks and discussions, the “Coexist Concert for Peace Series” will have musicians from Rumi artistes like Coleman Barks and Kudsi Erguner, Pakistani Salman Ahmad of Junoon, Shye Ben Tzur presenting a Sufi Qawwali experience, traditional Rajasthani musicians, Cheb I Sabba from Algeria to a Baul Sammelan with Paban Das, Subal Das, Debdas and Kanai Das Baul, Nimai Goswami, Halim Fakir. “The idea was to bring together Hindu, Muslim, Jewish and Christian musicians of different traditions and have them play together in pairs — Hindu and Muslim and Palestinian and Israeli musicians as a statement of peace and as a response to the times.”

The DSC Jaipur Literary Festival seeks to showcase seasoned writers with debutantes. And this year’s focus is on the oral tradition, the war on terror, American and travel writers. So from Michael Ondaatje, Nadeem Aslam, Patrick French, Alice Albinia and Vikram Seth to Tariq Ali, William Dalrymple feels that this year’s festival emphasises on what it neglected the last few years.

Dalrymple reveals that the trend of journalists such as Basharat Peer, Tarun Tejpal, Lawrence Wright, Steve Coll, Wendy Doniger, Sonia Faleiro, Patrick French, Ahmed Rashid, Tina Brown, Tariq Ali and Rajiv Chandrasekaran turning writers is not a new one. “It is a common thing that writers first start off as journalists. Looking at the history of literature, some of the greatest writers like Dickens started off their careers as journalists.”

The section on translations this year, William feels, stems from the lack of successful translations in Indian writing. “The translated works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez met international success. The works of Indian writers in English are accessible and are doing well. But there are some rich and wonderful work from regional languages like Urdu, Malayalam, Bengali and Hindi which would do well with an international readership if their translations are available across the globe,” says Dalrymple, who is looking forward to the works of Pakistani writer, Daniyal Mueenuddin. “He is said to be the best short story writer since Manto.”

But the limelight will shine on Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire”, based on Vikas Swarup’s “Q&A”. “Last year, the focus was on Ian McEwan’s “Atonement” with a screening of the film, and this year we are proud to have the Indian premiere of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ with a screenwriting workshop as well.”

As the largest book festival in Asia in three years, it is also a festival that is “strictly free” as Dalrymple puts it. He stresses: “It is completely free — there are no special passes, no reserved seats, no favours and based on first-come-first-serve basis. People might think you need to be part of the Delhi literary scene or need to afford your stay in Jaipur, but it’s none of that. You either need to be a writer or have a love of books — so hop on to the next bus to Jaipur and book the nearest hostel!” bellows William before drowning in laughter. DSC Jaipur Literary Festival with producer Sanjoy Roy and regional director Vinod Joshi, is sponsored by DS Constructions, Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art, The American Centre, The British Council, Jeffereies, Sula Vineyards, Penguin, Sahitya Akademi, Niyog Books and more.

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