Jaipur Literature Festival: Day 3

Jaipur: The third day saw the crowds swarming from the around the globe for the upcoming weekend. Book lovers were seen mingling with their Favourite authors. Some of the renowned personalities spotted were Javed Akhtar, Chetan Bhagat, Shabana Azmi, Girish Karnad.

Festival Highlights:

Key address: Girish Karnad

The third day opened with a stirring address from renowned poet and playwright, Girish Karnad. He said that ‘this festival is something of a national event’ and that he was ‘astounded and thrilled’ when asked to do the keynote address. There followed a scintillating history and exploration of the affect of colonialism on Indian culture, looking at the profound, evolving dialectic between British and Indian cultures. Karnad talked of how in response to the British approach to theatre, ‘Indian theatre was plucked out of ritual and put in the free market. He also observed the emerging difference between the artist ‘who paints to express himself’ and the artisan, ‘who paints because of caste, class and to make money and is somehow considered to be less creative.’ The cultural interchange between Britain and India was further examined in the medium of dance, whereby dance moved from ‘the temple to the stage, calling this ‘the sanitisation of dance’, observing that ‘though the upper class taken our profession and only left us our art.’

Karnad credited the British for the ‘amount of turmoil and class tensions in 19th and 20th Indian art,’ though he conceded that some art forms had thrived under British influence, such as dance and music which benefited from a break down in certain caste barriers: ‘Indian music and dance today is more energetic and creative than it has ever been in its entire history.’ Karnad also observed though that other art forms had suffered, in particular, painting, sculpture and architecture because ‘the Britishers kept architecture entirely in their hands,’ and that Delhi and Chandigarh were two cities built by the British ‘untouched by any notion of tradition’ and using Indian artisans only for menial work. Karnad also talked about the British legacy of technologies, and the resulting art forms printing, photography and the gramophone records, and said that his hope was for the next generation of Indian children to know their own culture, something he thought highly likely given that ‘the arts are flourishing all over India.’

Bin Laden after Bush

9/11 changed the world for ever, and its aftermath has, for better or worse, shaped the last decade. Two Pulitzer winning New Yorker writers, Steve Coll and Lawrence Wright, joined by Economist Middle East correspondent, Max Rodenbeck and Kashmiri journalist, Basharat Peer to discuss Al-Qa’eda and the legacy of Bin Laden after the departure of George Bush. Lawrence Wright said he thought the issue of Palestine was ‘certainly important’ to Bin Laden, but more as a ‘recruiting tool’ to exploit the anguish and outrage of the majority of the Muslim world. He observed that interestingly, there were ‘practically no Palestinians’ in Al-Qa’eda because it could not offer them a solution. Max Rodenbeck said that Al-Qa’eda had been ‘empowered’ by the Western tendency to ‘confuse and conflate difference issues under the banner of terrorism’ and that this was ‘a terrible mistake.’ He said that Al-Qa’eda were still ‘running an organisation, at least in their imaginations’ but that the most important aspect was now the movement of an ideology that it represented. He added that the ‘good news is they have failed profoundly’ but warned that ‘the core group remains resilent and opportunistic and like a shark, it needs to move.’ He warned that there was still ‘no profound change’ in Muslim attitudes to the West and the political landscape that Al-Qa’eda had previously flourished remained resonant. Steve Coll urged people to think about ‘sustainable progress’ for Muslim countries rather than concentrating on security issues, saying that there had been ‘problems’ in some of the ways muslim had faced the challenges of the modern world, but their particular grievances ‘still have to be addressed’.

The Lonely planet story

“The size of the crowd in this place testifies to the number of people we’ve led astray!”With that began William Dalrymple’s talk with the original hippie, Tony Wheeler, who launched the world’s most famous travel guide series—The Lonely Planet.

Travel writing was but a natural hobby and profession for a man born and raised in four countries—England, Pakistan, The Bahamas, and America. Wheeler told the story of the first Lonely Planet guide that was published in 1973. It all started in 1972 when Wheeler and Maureen travelled “the hippie trail” in an Italian-made Mini, no less! The Beatles were in Rishikesh in India and the world had started opening up to backpacking around Asia, yet there was not much documented and written about it. With a laugh Wheeler said this was because most of the travellers at the time were “flying high above the ground through their trips” and believed “if you remember it, you weren’t there!” Wheeler was one of the rare travellers to be maintaining a diary of the trip, collecting such gems as signs in restaurants in Singapore.

The first Lonely Planet was published as a 96-page long guide to Asia. Wheeler misheard “lovely” as “lonely”—and the iconic name was born! Today, the Lonely Planet publishing empire no longer belongs to Wheeler—it was recently sold to BBC Worldwide—but he remains an adviser, a writer, and—most importantly—a traveller.

The Ascent of Money

In a dynamic and thorough session, Ahmad and Ferguson investigated the nature of capitalism and economics today. Ferguson said that in terms of the conditions that had led to the recent global recession, ‘the relationships in capitalism are as volatile as the relationships we form in our emotional lives. Crises are part of the deal.’ Ahmad said that India’s economy had ‘been progressing slowly’ and still remained fragile in many areas. As such, he questioned the wisdom of India entering the moon race with China. Ferguson observed that India is much less exposed to the crises of globalisation because it remains highly self-sufficient and without too much debt, content to grow at a sustainable rate in comparison, saying that China resembled the hare and India the tortoise.

However he warned that India not become too complacent because there were still problems including inequality, bureaucracy and unregulated financial systems, all of which ‘hold back growth and prevent the poor from escaping from their traps.’ In terms of regulating capitalism, Ferguson said the debate was over the nature of that regulation rather than whether there should be any, urging that markets be regulated to function ethically rather than monopolistically: ‘no serious advocates of capitalism since Adam Smith have argued for it to be unlimited.’ Ahmad and Ferguson also discussed the ‘fascinating trade-off’ in Chinese economics, saying the Chinese had undergone ‘the biggest industrial revolution there has ever been’ and that its economic growth had been at the expense of individual freedom, basing its social contract around economic growth. Ferguson warned that this model was not stable and there may be global consequences when it started to ‘malfunction’ because it could become more aggressive internationally. That said, he said he worried more about the Middle East than Asia in terms of impending conflict.

Freedom for sale

Journalist Tarun Tejpal started with a brief summary of two major stories his magazine, Tehelka, covered in this context: one was a report on jailed Maoist Dr Binayak Sen, and the other, The Rape Testimonies, focused on foreign women travellers who were raped by policemen in Maoist-infested areas of India. Each of them testified, but till date, no action has been taken against the perpetrators of the crimes. Tejpal also briefly touched upon what he termed "draconian" laws like the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), which he stressed must be done away with in order to prevent human rights violations in India in the future. John Kampfner spoke next, outlining why he set out to write a book on the correlation between rising consumerism and diminishing freedom; Kampfner used eight countries as models to illustrate his theory. Kampfner maintained that there needed to be a redefining of freedom, between public freedom — freedom of the press, of public expression — and private freedom. By private freedom, he referred to the choice "to lead an atomised life, as you wish. Freedom to make and spend your money." For the majority, he said, "these private freedoms suffice".

The next speaker, Anne Applebaum, is writing a book on the 1940s and 50s, based in Central Europe. "In this period, most people began to struggle for their own families," she said. "In Russia [for example], you have a very particular kind of wealth; state-controlled, no entrepreneurial growth. In countries where the state maintains economic control, there is little choice or opportunity for change." Applebaum particularly disagreed with Kampfner`s premise that rising consumerism was killing off freedom, even in non-totalitarian-regime-ruled states. "I don`t see the connection between wealth and loss of freedom," she said, contradicting Kampfner`s premise that "consumers provide the ultimate anaesthetic for comfort."

Niall Ferguson, who was at Oxford with Kampfner, said the sample size of countries was minuscule, and disagreed with his Oxonian mate that "capitalism is against freedom. People abandoned individual freedom altogether to create totalitarian regimes. In order to become oligarchs, people are willing to make trade-offs.... As long as there or less autonomous institutions, then freedom will flourish. Freedom of thought is needed to produce, for example, a Google."

Lord Meghnad Desai spoke "strictly in my capacity as a legislator." He said many more violations were coming to light "because we have far better instruments of dissemination now. The UK Parliament is subject to the EU code of human rights. Again and again, the rights of terrorists have been staunchly debated by the House if Lords. We wanted to make sure the govt had a proper case when they wanted to incarcerate even a terrorists." Desai said the final test lay in protecting the rights of those who perpetrate evil. "That`s the ultimate test of a democracy."He also opposed the consumerism-against-freedom hypothesis. "Consumerism is not the opium of the masses. We`re actually advancing inch by inch in our fight for human rights. I think you`re not old enough to be despairing; and neither am I."
Coll also commented on freedom in America, post the 9/11 Pentagon and twin-tower attacks. "What is the nature of terrorism and how does one survive in an environment of insecurity?" And India, where "there are very few instances where people are afraid to speak, even where the state has perpetrated extra-judicial actions. There is a pervasive culture of redress."

Of women, rebels and peasants

It was a pleasant encounter with the educationists from Delhi University, Nandini Sunder(Professor of Sociology, Delhi University) and Dilip Simeon (former professor at Delhi University) and the introduction was carried forward by Namita Gokhale herself. The talk took off with Mahashweta Devi`s recorded byte in which she talked about the notion of `my India` and that how the real India is never really spoke about. She included Tribals, non-tribal poor, starvation-stricken people, poor dwellers dwelling at the elite districts of West Bengal. Dilip Simeon emphasised on the issues concerning the condition of naxalites in India, as he himself was an active participant of the maoist movement for almost two years. He attempted to detail the intricacies of the repercussion the movement has bore upon the naxal affected regions and its people. Dilip further on emphasises that literature is a potent medium to filter the reality and helps in the evocation of truth. According to him, Literature allows more space for truth to be dealt with rather than academic writing.

Nandini Sunder who studied anthropology and therefore reflects on the ethnographic lines mentions that "over one thirds of the Indian population has a BMI of 18.5". She agrees with Dilip simeon on the fact that Literature has a wider scope to tell the truth through its canvas and also maintains that press offers a limited scope to detail the facts related to the most brutal movements including the naxalite movement.


An End of Suffering - Ab aur nahi

In yet another session of the Bhaskar Bhasha series- Ab Aur Nahin; An End to Suffering, the Dalit voice was given the much deserved limelight in literature that is often obsessed with elitism. We are looking at the understanding of this literature, in the hope of changing ruthless social hierarchies for continual change. Christopher Jaffrelot gave us an insight into how it all started - Dalit as a term was first used in 1958 and subsequently numerous Dalit movements and conferences were held with emphasis on the presence of gripping inferiority in a country whose very actions are based on caste. However the difference here, in this literature, is the Dalits themselves putting forth their struggles in prose or verse or story, rather than a third person who has only "seen" but never "felt" them. There is anger and rebellion in the former, but only sympathy in the latter`s eyes.


And thus, autobiographies by Dalits have given a new dimension to the core idea of Dalit literature.Sixty years have gone by since Independence and the Indian State, ironically is the biggest culprit for the existence of this disparity. 1.3 million people in India are employed as manual scavengers to clean human excreta. What should one term this blasphemy? The readings by O.P.Valmiki and Ajay Navaria had such stunning visual impact that it is impossible to live in ignorance of the realities that still torment modern India

Vatsayan and the Erotic

Kamasutra has, without doubt, been one of the greatest bestsellers of all time and the sage (Vatsayana) who composed it is sadly not here to see the glorious waves of his creation, centuries later. However, those who have read the original would realise that the book is hardly about sexual typologies as it is often assumed to be. It is more sensitive than that and focuses on sensual living- love, happiness, manipulation. .Kamasutra infuses sexuality with eroticism. In the words of Sudhir Kakar these insights provided great knowledge and equal entertainment. However, one of the more specific achievements of the Kamasutra is the way it contributes for the empowerment of women. It is "sympathetic to a woman`s sexuality" and even urges them to leave a man, providing ways and means for peaceful separation!

Mr.Joshi`s fictional account of Vatsayana`s biography The Ascetic of Desire would perhaps be one great read given the fact that sage V claims to have written this bestseller in chastity!