“Freedom to dream: India at 70” will be the theme of the 10th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) beginning here on Thursday.
The event promises to offer lively debates around modern India in the context of its history and future.
Poet and lyricist Gulzar and American poet Anne Waldman will deliver keynote addresses in the inaugural session.
The five-day festival will witness participation of over 250 authors, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular culture icons, while the number of audience is expected to surpass last year’s figure of 3.30 lakh.
Discussion on RSS
As a promoter of literary debates and social dialogues, the JLF will witness intense participation of speakers discussing the topics ranging from civil wars and cultural appropriations to women’s empowerment, experiments with truth and understanding aesthetics, at the historic Diggi Palace situated in the heart of Jaipur.
A session devoted to the theme, “Saffron and the Sangh, which will have Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders Dattatreya Hosabale and Manmohan Vaidya in conversation with Pragya Tiwari, has already generated curiosity in view of the RSS ideology being discussed for the first time in the event.
English novelist Alan Hollinghurst, English historian John Keay, Lebanese-American statistician and writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Irish film-maker Neil Jordan were among the notable invitees.
Collective energy
JLF co-director Namita Gokhale said on Wednesday that the festival would invoke “collective energy” of authors and audiences this year after a full decade of participation of books, ideas, readers and writers. A special focus this time would be on translations and the pulse of world literatures.
Since 2008, the JLF has hosted some of the best names, ranging from Nobel laureates and Man Booker Prize winners to debut writers.
