Mizoram, a northeast state distant from India which shares limits with Bangladesh and Myanmar, has one. Surat, a city best known for its diamonds and textiles, has one. Bengaluru, the country’s technological center with a touch of hipness, has one. Kolkata, whose residents have their reputation for learning seriously, has at least three.
And then there is the Great: the Jaipur Literature Festival, which is called the “biggest literary spectacle on Earth” and recently celebrated its 18th year.
While India may seem consumed by Bollywood, cricket and telephone screens, literature festivals flourish, bringing together readers and writers in cities at the top of a hill and rural communities, under the cover of tents by the sea or palaces inside.
Some of the festivals, like that of Jaipur, attract tens of thousands of people. The Mizoram Festival, which was held for the first time in October in Aizawl, the state capital, was a more intimate affair with around 150 guests.
The boom has been motivated by young people who, in a country of dozens of languages, read more and more literature in their native languages alongside books written in English. For these readers, books open worlds that the higher education system of India, focusing on the preparation which takes time to brand or breakup exams, often does not do.
The call for events has expanded as the organizers began to promote Indian writing in languages other than English. The five -day jaipur festival, which was concentrated almost entirely on English language writing, has invited more authors in recent years who write in languages like Telugu and Malayalam, two languages in southern India.
In Namita Gokhale, author and co -founder of the Jaipur fair, the thrust of festivals focused on the book – according to some estimates, there are now up to 150 – signals a more confident nation.
“There is a new generation, more naturally bilingual people,” said Gokhale. “Love and respect for the mother tongue come back.”
The festival season generally takes place from October to March, while time is pleasant in a large part of the country. Most are free to attend. For students, these are places to explore new subjects, meet a favorite author or simply consult the scene.
Self-improvement books like “Atomic Habits” by James Clear to the first best-selling novel by Ravi Mantri, who writes in Telugu, young people read. And they are impatient to develop – and to advertise – their literary experiences, to snatch through stands of festival books, to participate in round tables and often publish their intellectual “credit” on social networks.
“It is a bad status insignia,” said Harish Bhat, an author and former senior marketing manager of Tata Sons, an Indian conglomerate, who attended at least 15 literature festivals in the last decade.
Readers like Neelam Shravani, a 23 -year -old management student, are at the heart of events. In January, Ms. Shravani attended the four days of the Kerala literature festival, held in the seaside city of Kozhikode, “purely for the love of books”.
However, she was delivered with a plan, by choosing group tasks based on the authors she wanted to hear the most and looking for her choices to make her questions “more in -depth”. Listening to the winners of the Nobel Prize, including two at the Kerala Festival, was of particular interest.
The festival began in 2016, when its founder, delighted Deeee, director director of DC Books, who published literary works in Malayalam, gathered a small army of volunteers to clean the stretching of the beach where waste had been thrown to accommodate a gathering of readers and writers.
Most of the festival participants are young people. “It’s a promising thing,” said Deeee.
This year, half of the 354 festival sessions were organized in Malayalam, and the rest in English and other languages, including French.
Literary classics in regional languages are not the only ones for sale; A new writing also has a moment.
In 2023, Mr. Mantri, the author who wrote in Telugu, published his first book, a Love Story entitled “A few pages of Mother’s Diary”, expecting to sell a few hundred copies. His publisher, Swetha Yerram, AJU publications, said that he sold more than 185,000 copies, after young readers created memes on the way they were moved by the book. Based on its sales analyzes, the majority of its readers are between 25 and 35 years old. It will be translated into English and other Indian languages this year.
Mr. Mantri, who left his job as a commercial analyst in Dublin to pursue a literary career, embodies an ambitious Indian for the country’s growing middle class – a prosperous professional who is at home in the world and proud of his roots.
“No matter how far you are traveling, your mother tongue keeps you rooted,” he said. “This is the only language you can speak with your mom, which brings you home.”
Mr. Mantri said he had received daily emails from new readers saying that they had touched all academic sms before picking up his novel. His book, he said, acted as a bridge towards Telugu literature-and literature more broadly.
“Reading is dependence,” he said. “If you start reading, you can’t stop one.”
Prarthana Manoj, a 24 -year -old woman who moderated panels and volunteered in literature festivals, said young participants were more curious about subjects such as class, caste and gender.
“Even if they haven’t read much, they are trying to be more inclusive,” said Ms. Manoj. “They have these real questions, and you are like, ok, it’s a beautiful crowd.”
Many organizers have borrowed the Jaipur Festival game book, which includes group tasks, book signatures, a festival bookstore and other cultural events, but put their own rotation.
The four-year Shillon literary festival in the northeast country of Meghalaya, celebrates local poetry and the traditional narration of indigenous communities, with a cherry background. Wayanad, a district of the state of southern India, the Kerala, is distinguished by organizing the “greatest rurally held festival” in India. The Vidarbha literary festival in the city of Nagpur in the western state of the Maharashtra says that it is “dedicated exclusively to the writing of non-fiction in English in India”.
Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, a venture capital and co-founder of the Bangalore Literature Festival, said that fairs had taken off after governments and cultural organizations adopted them as a means of presenting regional writing and culture. “People have seen the merit of the model,” he said.
For the Mizoram Festival, in the northeast hilly and wooded, the intention was to keep it small and to invite people to explore the history and culture of the state, which has the second highest literacy rate in India.
The event connected well -known literary personalities among the Mizo ethnic group with the public largely of Mizo, and presented to others the language and complexity of the region, said Sanjoy Hazarika, journalist and author who helped bring the festival.
It was “both looked inward and reaching out,” said Hazarika.
For the authors, book festivals are a gift. They have a chance to talk about their work on stage, to meet admirers and writers’ colleagues and to sign books.
At the Jaipur festival, fans of the author Sudha Murty queue for more than an hour to have his signs of his new book. Ms. Mounty is the wife of Nr Narayana Murthy, the billionaire co-founder of Infosys, and the mother-in-law of Rishi Sunak, the former British Prime Minister, both in the audience.
Many authors, especially those who have new books, end up going from the festival to the festival. Mr. Bhat, the former executive of the sons of Tata, said that in the past six months, he had attended the festivals of Bengaluru, Kozhikode and Jaipur to promote his book “Jamsetji Tata: powerful learning for the success of the company”, which he co-immunized.
“I feel a bit like a nomad, but a happy nomad, going from one festival to another,” said Mr. Bhat.
