India's Reading Boom: Youth Descend upon Book Festivals

India’s book festivals are booming as young readers flock to discover diverse literature, engage in debates, and celebrate regional storytelling.

on Mar 25, 2025

Book festivals are flourishing in India, where young readers make a beeline for book events to discover works of literature written in English and local languages alike. From crowded Jaipur Literature Festival to low-key events in Mizoram, book festivals are transforming India's literary scene.

As popular culture is controlled by cricket and Bollywood, literature festivals present a new arena for intellectual discussion. Young professionals and college students are going there in huge numbers to find new ideas, explore writers, and tweet about it.

The Jaipur Literature Festival, now commonly referred to as the "greatest literary show on Earth," has developed to now feature more regional language writers, showing a new-found pride in the diversity of languages in India. Other festivals, like the Shillong Literary Festival and Wayanad Literary Festival, showcase local narrative traditions and rural literature.

The Kerala Literature Festival, initiated in 2016, has also emerged as a platform for young readers, with Nobel laureates, cultural debates, and a robust emphasis on Malayalam literature. Likewise, the Mizoram festival brought local Mizo writers closer to a broader audience, welcoming both heritage and contemporary storytelling.

Writers, also, are cashing in on this boom, moving from festival to festival to meet readers and hawk their works. Sudha Murty, for example, drew huge crowds at Jaipur, while first-time writers such as Ravi Mantri have experienced surprise success, with Telugu literature becoming popular among young readers.

As literature festivals grow, they are not just bringing back the pleasure of reading but also defining India's cultural identity—one book at a time.

For more Latest News Visit: Frontlist