Ira Math­ur

In a world that feels in­creas­ing­ly frag­ment­ed, the writ­ten word re­mains one of the most pow­er­ful means of con­nec­tion, ca­pa­ble of cross­ing bor­ders, bridg­ing cul­tures, and il­lu­mi­nat­ing truths.

Nowhere is this more ap­par­ent than at the Jaipur Lit­er­a­ture Fes­ti­val (JLF), a gath­er­ing where sto­ries from all cor­ners of the globe con­verge. For over a decade, it has drawn to­geth­er the great minds of lit­er­a­ture, pol­i­tics, and cul­ture, cre­at­ing a space where di­a­logue and de­bate thrive and where the pow­er of sto­ry­telling—both per­son­al and uni­ver­sal—shapes the land­scape of in­tel­lec­tu­al ex­change.

What be­gan in 2006 as a small ini­tia­tive found­ed by Na­mi­ta Gokhale, William Dal­rym­ple, and San­joy K Roy has trans­formed in­to one of the world’s largest and most sig­nif­i­cant lit­er­ary fes­ti­vals.

Each Jan­u­ary, Jaipur, In­dia, hosts this gath­er­ing of writ­ers, po­ets, in­tel­lec­tu­als, and cu­ri­ous minds who come to­geth­er to dis­cuss not just books but the larg­er is­sues that shape our world.

The fes­ti­val has grown ex­po­nen­tial­ly since its ear­ly days, but its essence re­mains un­changed: a cel­e­bra­tion of lit­er­a­ture as a vi­tal force for cul­tur­al and in­tel­lec­tu­al di­a­logue.

At its core, the Jaipur Lit­er­a­ture Fes­ti­val is a cel­e­bra­tion of the hy­phen­at­ed nar­ra­tives that so of­ten de­fine our iden­ti­ties. It is here, amid the labyrinthine streets and pala­tial sur­round­ings of Jaipur, that au­thors whose lives span con­ti­nents and cul­tures meet to ex­plore the themes of mi­gra­tion, ex­ile, and be­long­ing.

For many, the fes­ti­val be­comes a space where sto­ries that tra­verse the bor­ders of na­tions, lan­guages, and his­to­ries can be shared with an au­di­ence as di­verse as the writ­ers them­selves.

The sto­ry of the fes­ti­val’s in­cep­tion is as much about the peo­ple who dreamed it in­to ex­is­tence as it is about the lit­er­a­ture that it cel­e­brates. Na­mi­ta Gokhale, a writer and cul­tur­al ac­tivist, has long been a cham­pi­on of In­di­an lit­er­a­ture on the glob­al stage.

She, along with William Dal­rym­ple, a his­to­ri­an and best­selling au­thor, and San­joy K Roy, the man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Team­work Arts, con­cep­tu­alised the fes­ti­val with the aim of cre­at­ing an event that not on­ly show­cased In­di­an writ­ers but al­so pro­vid­ed a plat­form for in­ter­na­tion­al voic­es to in­ter­act with In­di­an au­thors and read­ers.

Their vi­sion was to fos­ter cross-cul­tur­al di­a­logue and ex­plore the in­ter­sec­tions of his­to­ry, pol­i­tics, and so­ci­ety through the writ­ten word. The in­au­gur­al fes­ti­val in 2006 was a mod­est af­fair, with a hand­ful of writ­ers and thinkers. Yet, the spark of am­bi­tion that marked its be­gin­ning quick­ly ig­nit­ed a glob­al lit­er­ary fire.

Over the years, the fes­ti­val grew from strength to strength, at­tract­ing lead­ing voic­es in lit­er­a­ture, pol­i­tics, and the arts. To­day, it is a dy­nam­ic con­flu­ence of glob­al per­spec­tives, with par­tic­i­pants rang­ing from No­bel lau­re­ates to emerg­ing voic­es, all unit­ed by their shared be­lief in the pow­er of words to shape the world.

The Jaipur Lit­er­a­ture Fes­ti­val has be­come a cor­ner­stone of In­dia’s lit­er­ary cal­en­dar. Au­thors like Orhan Pa­muk and Mar­garet At­wood have tak­en to its stages, con­tribut­ing to the rich ta­pes­try of ideas that de­fine the fes­ti­val.

Through their work, these writ­ers have ex­plored is­sues that res­onate glob­al­ly—iden­ti­ty, free­dom, pow­er, and jus­tice. For au­di­ences in Jaipur and around the world, JLF has be­come a vi­tal space for en­gag­ing with some of the most press­ing ques­tions of our time.

For many, the most strik­ing as­pect of the fes­ti­val is its open­ness. While its his­to­ry is root­ed in In­dia, the fes­ti­val has nev­er been bound by na­tion­al bor­ders. It has em­braced lit­er­a­ture from all over the world, cre­at­ing an in­clu­sive space where the voic­es of the Glob­al South sit side by side with those from the West.

This com­mit­ment to in­clu­siv­i­ty is per­haps best ex­em­pli­fied by the wide range of speak­ers who have ap­peared at JLF: from cel­e­brat­ed In­di­an writ­ers like Vikram Seth and Ka­mala Das to in­ter­na­tion­al fig­ures such as No­bel lau­re­ates VS Naipaul, Orhan Pa­muk, and Wole Soyin­ka whose works have shaped lit­er­ary and po­lit­i­cal thought in pro­found ways.

Over the years, the fes­ti­val has al­so be­come a fo­rum for more than just lit­er­a­ture. It serves as a vi­brant stage for dis­cus­sions on a range of is­sues—from cli­mate change to gen­der equal­i­ty, from re­li­gious tol­er­ance to po­lit­i­cal free­dom. Writ­ers at JLF are not just sto­ry­tellers; they are thinkers, ad­vo­cates, and change-mak­ers.

Their work tran­scends the page, en­gag­ing with the po­lit­i­cal, so­cial, and cul­tur­al chal­lenges of our time. In ad­di­tion to its well-es­tab­lished rep­u­ta­tion for host­ing renowned writ­ers, the fes­ti­val has al­so nur­tured new tal­ent. Emerg­ing au­thors, par­tic­u­lar­ly those from un­der-rep­re­sent­ed com­mu­ni­ties, have found a plat­form to show­case their work, help­ing to shape the fu­ture of glob­al lit­er­a­ture. The sense of com­mu­ni­ty at JLF is pal­pa­ble, as writ­ers and read­ers en­gage in open di­a­logue about the chal­lenges and op­por­tu­ni­ties fac­ing con­tem­po­rary lit­er­a­ture.

William Dal­rym­ple’s con­tri­bu­tions to the fes­ti­val are par­tic­u­lar­ly note­wor­thy. As a co-founder and one of its most promi­nent par­tic­i­pants, Dal­rym­ple’s his­tor­i­cal in­sights and nar­ra­tive style have be­come a hall­mark of JLF. His works, such as The Last Mughal and Nine Lives, have deep­ened read­ers’ un­der­stand­ing of In­dia’s com­plex past, draw­ing con­nec­tions be­tween his­to­ry, cul­ture, and mod­ern-day In­dia. Through his ef­forts, Dal­rym­ple has helped el­e­vate the fes­ti­val’s com­mit­ment to dis­cussing his­to­ry through the lens of lit­er­a­ture, mak­ing it a fo­rum for di­a­logue about the past, present, and fu­ture of In­dia and the world.

Na­mi­ta Gokhale, whose own works delve in­to the in­ter­sec­tion of gen­der, iden­ti­ty, and cul­ture, has been in­stru­men­tal in cul­ti­vat­ing a space for In­di­an lit­er­a­ture to flour­ish. Her com­mit­ment to cel­e­brat­ing the di­ver­si­ty of In­di­an voic­es—es­pe­cial­ly those of women and mar­gin­alised com­mu­ni­ties—has helped JLF be­come a plat­form where the com­plex­i­ties of In­di­an so­ci­ety can be ex­plored with nu­ance and em­pa­thy.

JLF’s ded­i­ca­tion to pre­sent­ing a di­verse range of voic­es ex­tends to its will­ing­ness to tack­le dif­fi­cult and of­ten con­tro­ver­sial sub­jects. Writ­ers have used the fes­ti­val to dis­cuss their views on pol­i­tics, na­tion­al­ism, and the role of lit­er­a­ture in a chang­ing world. These con­ver­sa­tions have not on­ly been il­lu­mi­nat­ing but have al­so sparked glob­al de­bates about free­dom of ex­pres­sion, cen­sor­ship, and the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of writ­ers in times of po­lit­i­cal cri­sis.

Renowned au­thors and the in­tel­lec­tu­al rigour of the dis­cus­sions make JLF spe­cial. And a sense of com­mu­ni­ty and the vi­bran­cy of the fes­ti­val—an at­mos­phere that en­cour­ages di­a­logue, fos­ters con­nec­tions, and cel­e­brates the uni­ver­sal pow­er of sto­ry­telling.

To­day, as JLF con­tin­ues to ex­pand, the fes­ti­val’s founders and par­tic­i­pants re­main com­mit­ted to the ideals that guid­ed its in­cep­tion: to cel­e­brate the writ­ten word as a force for change, to bring di­verse voic­es to­geth­er, and to en­sure that lit­er­a­ture re­mains an es­sen­tial part of glob­al con­ver­sa­tions.

The Jaipur Lit­er­a­ture Fes­ti­val has be­come a key event in In­dia’s cul­tur­al cal­en­dar and al­so a sig­nif­i­cant mo­ment in the glob­al lit­er­ary land­scape. It is a fes­ti­val where the sto­ries of the past and present meet, where ideas clash and con­verge, and where lit­er­a­ture’s pow­er to tran­scend bor­ders and in­spire change is on full dis­play.

Ed­i­tor’s note

Ira Math­ur is a par­tic­i­pant in JLF 2025. In the con­ver­sa­tion ti­tled “hy­phen­at­ed iden­ti­ties” and bor­der-cross­ing lives, Math­ur’s mem­oir, Love the Dark Days, of­fers a re­flec­tion on the com­plex­i­ties of em­pire, gen­der, race, and iden­ti­ty, en­cap­su­lat­ing the ex­pe­ri­ence of an In­di­an im­mi­grant to Trinidad.

In her ses­sion at JLF, Math­ur, along with Sheena Pa­tel and Cau­very Mad­ha­van, ex­plored the in­tri­ca­cies of hy­phen­at­ed iden­ti­ties and how shared hu­man ex­pe­ri­ences be­come the bridge in such nar­ra­tives. Their con­ver­sa­tion il­lu­mi­nat­ed the nu­anced ways in which mi­gra­tion, cul­ture, and his­to­ry shape the sto­ries we tell, prov­ing that the in­ter­sec­tions of iden­ti­ty are as di­verse as the fes­ti­val it­self.

Ira Math­ur is a Guardian Me­dia jour­nal­ist and the win­ner of the 2023 Bo­cas Prize for Non-Fic­tion for her mem­oir, Love The Dark Days. Web­site: www.iras­room.org. Au­thor en­quiries: iras­room@gmail.com