T-Rex talks back

It is a truth, now universally acknowledged, that not a single reader in possession of caste and class privilege in India must ever be in want of a literary festival to attend.

- Simar Bhasin

Indian literati recently went up in arms against an article in The Guardian for suggesting that this country doesn't have enough readers to justify the number of literary festivals held here. The point of this piece is not to add to the debate but to provide an insight into the latest edition of the festival that has endured the longest (the now infamous article referred to it as the 'T-Rex of them all'), the Jaipur Literature Festival. This year, the event held at the Clarks Amer, Jaipur, from January 15 to 19 saw about 400,000 people in attendence. The main draw for this writer, who has been covering the event since 2016, was the diversity of the panel discussions that brought together literary and cultural voices from across geographical and linguistic contexts. This year, the Where Does Fiction Come From panel included Kiran Desai, Tash Aw, Richard Flanagan and Esther Freud in a conversation moderated by Anuradha Roy. The perseverance of attendees who stuck around for the session which was rescheduled twice can be ascribed to Percival Everett's online presence. Sections of the audience even insisted he be given more time to speak as the panel exchanged hilarious anecdotes and discussed contentious literary categorisations such as 'autofiction'.

Despite being held on a Sunday morning,