PVLF 2025

Now Nagpur, Ranchi, Kanpur, Indore and Kokrajhar are sprouting Mini JLFs

on Aug 29, 2022

The Jaipur Literature Festival has been described as the Mahakumbh of literature, the largest literary display on Earth, a huge gigantic Punjabi wedding, and a business networking event. This summer, it received a brand-new worldwide edition on the Eden-like white sand shore of Baa Atoll in the Maldives. Literature festivals in India are becoming more local, moving beyond state capitals and metropolises to small aspirational towns such as Mysuru, Panchkula, Jhansi, Gurgaon, Nagpur, Indore, Kishanganj, Noida, Meerut, Shimla, Kokrajhar, Puducherry, Pune, Madurai, Shillong, Itanagar, Jodhpur, and Chandigarh.

As the rest of India grows more popular, illuminated fests are exploring new horizons. There are currently at least 65 illuminated fests in India, a monument to decades of neglect of smaller cities and regional languages, as well as a large appetite for cultural events. The transition currently corresponds with the emergence of small towns in popular culture, politics, and economic prosperity.

"In contrast to bigger cities, where people have many alternatives and attending a literary event is the last thing on their mind, individuals in tier-2 and tier-3 cities actively seek them out." When it comes to literature, they take things more seriously. "As a result, even the authors like going to these," says Apra Kuchhal, honorary convenor of the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, which sponsors literature festivals in Kanpur, Indore, Gujarat, and Kolkata, among other places.

These events are frequently headlined by regional writers, local celebrities, movie stars, and cultural czars. Journalist and writer Vaibhav Purandare, actor Darshan Jariwala, the late historian and theatrical artist Balwant Moreshwar Purandare, and food YouTuber Laksh Dadwani have all attended Nagpur's Orange City Literary Festival. Vani Kaushal, a writer and journalist, Milan Vohra, a novelist, and even famed photographer Raghu Rai have all appeared in Panchkula. Meanwhile, in Puducherry, home minister A. Namassivayam, Swarajya Magazine editor Aravindan Neelakandan, and writer and government employee Ma Venkatesan participate in the Union territory's literary festival year after year.

India’s changing ‘litscape’

Only roughly two decades ago, India's big-ticket tryst with literary festivals began. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government planned to commemorate V. S. Naipaul's (2002) Nobel Prize in the old historic village of Neemrana, roughly 150 kilometers from Jaipur, the place that has become associated with modern India's literary talent.

But the 'litscape' has shifted dramatically since the Indian Council for Cultural Relations staged the International Festival of Indian Literature, which brought Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Nayantara Sahgal, and Hanif Kureishi together for the first time.

But it was the Jaipur Lit Fest, identified with Sanjoy K. Roy, Willian Dalrymple, and Namita Gokhale, that fused books and glamor, literature, and performative intellectualism.

After several editions of opulent flare, the major gala in the Maldives was toned back this year to celebrate 'slow living' by flipping the concept of 'up close and personal' on its head for a mere $7,200—Rs 5.7 lakh. According to Sanjeev Chopra, director of the Valley of Words International Literary Festival, "India's mushrooming literary festivals have four defining models' that comprise its core—money, egos, celebrity, and property."

Forget golden triangles and quadrilaterals; a literary apeirogon is sweeping the subcontinent. But it's all about the sum of its pieces, and it's more important today than ever. With world leaders proclaiming a war on degrees that "do not boost earning potential and employability," the task of protecting culture, arts, and humanities falls heavily on these festivals. According to Janhavi Prasada, festival director of Himalayan Echoes, it has become "as crucial as water is to a fish." "Literature makes us human; it fosters acceptance of others' words, thoughts, observations, and creativity, and it all culminates in a sense of freedom with responsibility."

The major cities holding several literary festivals in India are Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Goa, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Dehradun, Thiruvananthapuram, and Ahmedabad. Others, though, are not far behind. Srinagar, Bhopal, Patna, and Ranchi have also had lit festivals. However, not all of them have survived past their first years or have opted for an online strategy after the Covid-19 epidemic.

Valleys to coasts—fests with a focus

From Nainital's 'boutique' Himalayan Echoes festival, held at the Abbotsford Heritage Hotel, to Insan school, once India's model residential educational institution, which hosts the Seemanchal literary festival in Bihar's border town of Kishanganj, lit fests are also emphasizing the intertwining of cities and literature.

Aside from the occasional famous name, most panels include regional writers and cultural figures whose names aren't always well-known throughout India. The North-East Light Fest in Arunachal Pradesh this year included writers such as Upen Rabha Hakacham, Munish Singh, and Bipul Region, among others, and Himalayan Echoes provided a platform for writers such as Tarana Khan, Aneel Bisht, and Shekhar Pathak, who have since become lit fest regulars.

Literary festivals not only highlight places or writers, but also the issues of marginalized populations and cultures. The Kokrajhar Literary Festival in Assam, for example, promotes the lived reality of minor languages like Rabha and Yerevan. Similarly, the world's largest Urdu language festival, Jashn-e-Rekhta in Delhi, celebrates Urdu with ghazals, Sufi concerts, 'qawwali' (Sufi devotional music), and 'dastaangoi' (storytelling)

Every year at Mumbai's National Centre for Performing Arts, regional writers gather for The Gateway Litfest, an exclusive event for them alone. The initiative was launched in 2015 in response to the diminishing presence of local writers at literary festivals. Others, on the other hand, remain rooted. This year's Gujarat literary festival featured plays by Yash Vyas (Gamti Vaat) and translations of Pannalal Patel's Jindagi Sanjeevani. The Gulmarg Lit Fest in Jammu and Kashmir did the same thing last year.

The major concentration was on Dogri, Pahari, Gojri, and Punjabi authors and novels. Speakers in the literary event included Dogri Sahitya Akademi Award recipients Lalit Magotra, Sita Ram Sapolia, and Darshan Darshi.

Several collegiate festivals also make an appearance on the country's must-attend literary festival 'circuits.' The termination of Aligarh Muslim University's literary festival recently drew political attention. Since 2019, Delhi University's Kirori Mal College has hosted a first-of-its-kind Dalit Literature Festival to promote "an alternative, change-oriented literary discourse in which Dalits, tribals, denotified tribes, women, minorities, and pasmanda groups".

The Queer LitFest in Chennai, which started in 2018, was the first of its kind, bringing together "political and literary values of works that play an important role in the lives of queer persons...and creating opportunities for queer writers, translators, and artists who are otherwise invisibilized or ignored in various literary platforms." (According to the webpage) The Awadh Queer Literature Festival in Lucknow and the Rainbow Lit Fest in Delhi have both taken up the baton since then.

Literary festivals are making the environment and climate a primary emphasis of their events as well. "Himalayan Echoes is India's only mountain event centered on the environment." "That is why I also call it India's 'nature festival," explains Prasada. Green LitFest, situated in Bengaluru, also emerged in 2021 as a platform that held events and panel discussions, especially on the theme.

Although most organizers dispute the existence of mainstream and alternative types of lit fests in India, the focus on 'quality' remains consistent. However, doing so is frequently equivalent to walking a tightrope.

Riding the tide

"The first couple of years are make-or-break for literary festivals," Chopra says, "you have to reach out to the communities and gather as much support as you can." It helps to have a strong board of directors leading the charge. However, in the early years, it is all about decreasing expenses."

Most Indian literary festivals are supported by corporate sponsorships, venue partners, and charities. They frequently need to have been operating for at least five years before they are eligible for government monetary programs and tax breaks. Times Lit Fest Mumbai was canceled in 2019, while Chennai's Hindu Lit for Life was postponed indefinitely due to a lack of sponsors.

"Conserving languages and literature cannot be accomplished on their own," says Apra Kuchhal, Honorary Convenor of the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, which sponsors literature festivals in Kanpur, Indore, Gujarat, and Kolkata, among other places.

"Language is a cultural indicator." Language preservation and protection protect culture. This is our intention. As a result, foundations step forward as a collection of like-minded people to work and connect—to discover answers to social challenges. "Our foundation believes in scaling deeper,' or making goals like these the new normal in society," she says.

Even now, most major literary festivals in India function around a break-even point, occasionally experiencing losses. "The pandemic has exacerbated the issue," says Atul K. Thakur, a writer, and literary consultant who serves on the boards of major literary festivals in India and Nepal.

Moving literary festivals online has given them a fresh lease of life and broadened their fan base. Exposure through podcasts, YouTube channels, and social media pages have enticed more businesses to invest. "We went completely digital during the two years of the epidemic, and it offered a fantastic view into the numbers game." Certainly, the reach is incredible, but I would not give the festival's physical avatar to the digital world.

A mixed bag

Literary festivals, while a celebration of literature, can also look to be a commercial exercise at times. A large turnout does not always indicate that the event was a success or that the gap between writers and readers has been closed.

Author Jerry Pinto demonstrates in an EPW piece how panels are sometimes put together without consideration, the interaction between writers and audiences is mundane, and why publishers and agents are absent from the events. According to author Amrita Shah, "during the last decade or two, the carnivalesque, festive, and spectacular approach to ideas and literature has grown to occupy a disproportionately prominent area in our lives."

The sessions are sometimes crammed into tight timetables, and individual ones are sometimes too brief to convey a concept. "The disadvantage for more introspective individuals like me is that you can't concentrate on anything or anyone in particular." "It might become all goodbyes, selfies, and social media postings," novelist Monideepa Sahu, who spoke at the Bangalore Literature Festival in 2018 and 2019, says.

Among the organizers is Atul K. Thakur, who is concerned about the dangers of deviating from literary ideals. "Bridging the gap between perception and reality is the solution." "Lit fests should not be utilized just as networking tools to get substandard submissions published and distributed through PR networks," he argues.

However, "not many people in the game are generating large money off of light fests," Thakur says. The majority of them are in a lot of trouble."

Though cultural festivals arose as a reaction to the need to market cities in 1980s Europe, the Roman "bread and circuses" staging of India's literary festivals looks to be a bit different. There is tea and charcha, but it is most cities and communities competing for attention, visibility, and nourishment. While some have been able to endure by attracting just enough consumers, others, such as the Kumaon Literary Festival, are abandoning their homes and "traveling" to areas like Kashmir and Goa.

"Literature festivals have become the new fashion show," Apra Kuchhal adds, explaining that "the problem with Gen-Z audiences is that lit fests have become a lifestyle for them." These events attract people who aren't even interested in literature."