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| Aita Aghodaro, a featured writer |
One of the biggest literary festivals in the Asia-Pacific
region began today in Jaipur, the majestic capital of Rajasthan in India.
Entering its sixth year, the Jaipur Literature Festival features writers from around the world,
but it takes place amidst much debate on the extent of authors’ freedom of
expression.
Last year, Salman Rushdie had to withdraw from the
festival following alleged death threats, and he was also prevented from
addressing participants by video link-up because activists said they would
demonstrate at the venue, in the continuing protests against his book The
Satanic Verses.
This year, authors who read excerpts from the book in
2012 are being blocked from attending, and other campaigners also wish to exclude
writers of certain nationalities. As The Times of India newspaper put it: “Not
to be bested in this game of competitive fundamentalism, saffron activists are
now demanding that Pakistani authors be kept away from Jaipur.”
Still, the five-day festival is expected to attract
thousands of participants in celebration of “national and international
literature,” according to the organizers. The event comprises readings,
discussions, performances and children’s workshops, among numerous offerings.
The Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama, is scheduled to
speak about faith during today's opening, and other internationally known personalities
are also on the Jan. 24-28 programme.
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| Tahar ben Jelloun |
They include French-based Moroccan writer Tahar ben
Jelloun, who has recently been writing about the Arab Spring; model-turned-writer
Aita Ighodaro, whose novels All That
Glitters and Sin Tropez explore
“the relationships between wealth, greed, lust, ambition and power”; Zoe
Heller, the author of Notes on a Scandal, which was made into a critically acclaimed movie; Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and festival
director, who has authored more than 11 books; and William Dalrymple,
co-organizer of the festival and author of the prize-winning City of Djinns as well as other books
about India and the Islamic world.
Besides fostering debate, the Jaipur festival also
represents the growing promotion of literature in Asia over the past decade. One
can now attend literary festivals in Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and other
countries.
In Bali, the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival will be celebrating
its tenth anniversary in October of this year with a special focus on women's
stories, women's rights and education, and heroes and visionaries, according to the
organizers. It will “embrace writers across all genres including travel
writers, songwriters, playwrights, poets, comedians and graphic novelists,”
they state.
This focus, too, will probably engender debate, but
argument comes with the writing territory.
As The Times of India noted in its opinion piece: “It is the nature of
literature to give offence to one set of readers or another. And it is the
nature of literature festivals to create space for competing affronts and
voices.”
We at SWAN say “long live the literary festival”.
