Lit fests in India have become vibrant cultural celebrations across India, bringing together celebrated authors, emerging voices, poets, thinkers and passionate readers, many of them very young, under one lively roof.
'India is advanced in that everybody has an ID. But behind that (digital) ID (Aadhaar), you don't have a place where you can share information between each other,' says Tim Berners-Lee.
'Our fractured world has been embroiled in wars and hatred, and many sessions reflect these concerns.'
The dramatic moves of Donald Trump, which have shaken up the global order, dominated the discussion. A sense of bewilderment prevailed, but there was also expectation that President Trump would settle down to a more traditional style of governance after a time of shock and awe, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, an attendee at literary festivals in Calicut, Jaipur, Kochi, Sharjah and Thiruvanathapuram.
The author faces threat from homegrown terror outfits as well as organisations with political interest. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Writer Amitava Kumar speaks to Aseem Chhabra about life after he read from The Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literary Festival.
Terming the entire Salman Rushdie episode in Jaipur as "shameful", Pulitzer prize winning author David Remnick has said it reflects "troubling tendencies" of contemporary Indian politics where retaining power is more important for the government than freedom of expression.
Two months after being forced to skip the Jaipur Literary Festival, controversial author Salman Rushdie on Saturday hit out the Congress, suggesting that his presence there was blocked because of "useless electoral calculations". Participating in the India Today Conclave, he said India "deserves to be led by better leaders".
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday demanded that Rajasthan government should immediately send author Ashish Nandy to jail over his controversial remarks at the Jaipur Literary Festival that 'most corrupt people come from OBC, SC and ST communities'.
'...and all of us need to do more to give it a happy Bollywood ending. I used to be a huge optimist but now I have become somewhat of a pessimist. As a country, we don't seem to want to get things right,' Sanjoy Roy, producer of the Jaipur Literary Festival, the biggest free annual literary event in the world.
The lingering effects of colonial rule show up in a variety of subtle and not so subtle ways, says Rupa Subramanya Dehejia
Rejecting Salman Rushdie's charge that it had concocted the story about a plot to eliminate him to keep him away from India, the Rajasthan government on Sunday said the information was provided by the Intelligence Bureau.
Writer-Director Suparn Verma and Rediff.com correspondent Abhishek Mande are attending the Jaipur Literary Festival, the leading literary event in the Asia Pacific. After their enthralling experiences on Day 1, Suparn didn't have a good Day 2; although Abhishek cuckooed all through the day. This is what he has to say:
'If you are being paid less than your male colleagues, file a complaint about it, make a noise... If you are being given a hard time over issues like maternity leave, complain to your boss's wife! Be innovative. Get involved.' On the sidelines of the Jaipur Literary Festival, legendary activist Gloria Steinem interacted with a select group of journalists, including Rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya, and addressed an array of issues including the Pope, prostitution and personal victories.
Muslim groups on Friday welcomed the cancellation of controversial author Salman Rushdie's visit to the Jaipur Literary festival and said their protest no longer stands.
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, the president of All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat says people will denounce Rushdie and hurl shoes at him if they find him. The blasphemer should be ready for such a reception, he adds.
K Satyanarayana, Dalit scholar, activist and associate professor in the Department of Cultural Studies, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, tells Ravichandran Chakkiliyan of Dalit Camera why he feels betrayed by Ashis Nandy
Karan Johar's biography will release in January.
The entire event suggests that in India democracy is decreasing and psephocracy is increasing, says Ashis Nandy, who spoke to rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
When Truth dies along with it dies the 'Fabric of Trust' that holds nations and societies together. From raising dishonest questions over the Batla House encounter to raising false bogeys over the Rushdie visit, the Congress stands guilty of causing irreversible damage to that fabric of trust, says Shashi Shekhar.
Soulful strains of classical music wafted through the chilly air as the ninth edition of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival kicked off in Jaipur on Thursday at its usual venue, the sun-kissed Diggi Palace grounds, amid elaborate security arrangements.
The raging controversy over author Salman Rushdie's visit to the Jaipur literary festival and the abrupt cancellation of a video link with the writer at the last minute on Tuesday evening refuses to die down. We reproduce an interview with Rushdie, when he visited India in 2000.
Continuous projection of Rushdie-like issues, as vital to Muslims, comes in the way of development as their priority requirement, says Saeed Naqvi
'Everybody of a certain age wanted to write like Rushdie and so did I but I wouldn't want being hunted around the world. I am sure even Rushdie wouldn't want that life, says Pakistani Writer Mohammed Hanif.
Ashok Gehlot may very well pat himself for winning over a few Muslim votes, but he has simply provided the template for the next offended group: The past is often the prologue to the future, says Rohit Pradhan.
Here's what your favourite celebrities are tweeting.
'Surprised by the absence of any sloganeering or even mild protest in an ambience so free and self-regulated, I asked a friend from Delhi whether he too, with sharp political antenna, was surprised at how smooth and easy going everything was,' notes Ambassador B S Prakash.
The eighth edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival kicked off on Wednesday to a grand start with a bevy of authors, poets, Nobel Laureates along with some Bollywood celebrities, trooping in to the pink city to participate in one of Asia's biggest literary jamboree.
Two Nobel Laureates, four listed writers of this year's Man Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists, winners of Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Crossword Prize and film stars will be the attraction at the most sought after literary event in India -- the Jaipur Literature Festival.
This year, the much-anticipated Jaipur Literature Festival will have a special touch of spirituality, with an underlying theme of Buddha's influence on the literary world. And who better than the Dalai Lama to throw open this discussion?
To be held alongside the Japur Literature Festival, the three-day BookMark conference will look at different aspects of the publishing industry -- from self-publishing to e-books, digital content to distribution.
Two Booker prize winners Kiran Desai and Salman Rushdie will be the major attractions of 2007's 10-day Jaipur Heritage International Festival, which begins on January 13.
During a session titled 'Sustaining Democracy; Nurturing Democracy', he claimed that tightening the already stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a way that kept people like Siddique Kappan in jail for two years without bail is one of the many ways the current dispensation has 'managed to depart from the democratic spirit of the Constitution'.
Aseem Chhabra attends an unusual medley of movies and literature in Chandigarh.
In the seventh edition of Jaipur Literature Festival, not only there would be writers to discuss topics ranging from economics to food, politics to fiction and everything else in between but there would be a smartphone app for new age art and literature lovers while 240 speakers will comprises writers of 20 languages.
A string of film celebrities like Waheeda Rahman, Naseeruddin Shah, Girish Karnad among others set to explore the intertwining of cinema with literature at the fest.
I'The entire display is a lesson in how to turn a mountain of a collection into a molehill, notes Anjuli Bhargava after a visit to the Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur.
He cited the Congress' poor performance in the 2019 general election after victories in assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh the previous year to buttress his point.
Dattatreya Hosabale and Manmohan Vaidya have been invited as speakers at the event starting tomorrow.
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