From an evening in 2010 to a three-day extravaganza in 2016, The Hindu ’s annual literature festival, Lit for Life, has come a long way. Begun to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Literary Review, The Hindu ’s supplement on books, Lit for Life grew organically to become a festival that “hosts conversations that simply cannot be found anywhere else,” in the words of Naomi Wolf. Speakers at Lit for Life have included names such as Abraham Verghese, Vikram Seth, Aravind Adiga, Alexander McCall Smith, Lionel Shriver, Sanjna Kapoor, Mahesh Dattani, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Shabana Azmi, Gulammohammed Sheikh and Vivan Sundaram, among others.
This year, The Hindu introduces a new element with the Lit for Life Annual Lecture. Dr. Nirmala Lakshman, director of the festival, says, “The series is intended to explore and engage with important issues of the day with thought-provoking lectures that will inspire and expand the minds of the audience. We are delighted that Dr. Ramachandra Guha, one of India’s foremost thinkers and historians, has agreed to deliver the first annual lecture this year. I hope that this special series of annual lectures, which will be a forerunner each year to the Lit for Life in January, will quickly become a benchmark event in the country’s cultural and literary calendar as we will endeavour every year to bring the most distinguished speakers and thinkers from various fields in India and abroad to this forum, to stimulate discussion on the wide range of topics that we hope to present. This is one more way in which Lit for Life takes forward its commitment to expanding the horizon of words and ideas for its audiences.”
The topic of the first Annual Lecture is “India at 70: A Historian’s Report Card.” Dr. Guha’s talk will be followed by the announcement of the shortlist for The Hindu Prize. The event will be held 6.00 p.m. onward on October 15 at the Mysore Hall of ITC Gardenia, Bengaluru.
