Set to take place between 23 and 27 January 2020,
the Jaipur Literature Festival returns to its customary home at Jaipur’s Diggi
Palace Hotel for its 13th edition. The programme for the 2020 edition of the
Festival was unveiled at the Mumbai preview held this evening, in partnership
with Avid Learning and Citibank India at the
majestic Royal Opera House, Mumbai.
At its Delhi preview held yesterday, the ‘greatest
literary show on earth’ unveiled the 2020 edition’s list of over 250 speakers, featuring
a stellar line-up of Indian and international names. The speakers consist of writers,
thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular cultural icons representing over
fifteen Indian languages and twenty-four international languagesas well as
major awards such as the Nobel, the Man Booker, the Pulitzer, the Sahitya
Akademi, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature,
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation etc.
The programme, unveiled today, is vast and
kaleidoscopic, with themes ranging from the art, fashion & lifestyle,
biographies, business & economics, climate change, current affairs, food,
living languages, poetry, science & technology, Artificial Intelligence, gender,
and the writing process, etc.
Some highlights from the programme include Nobel laureate
Abhijit Banerjee’s session ‘Poor Economics: Fighting Global Poverty’,
where he talks about his innovative fieldresearch-based approach to development
economics. He explains the need to understand and measure what happens in the
real world to alleviate poverty, and the necessity of making the poor and their
decision-making central to the process. An inspirational session of insights
and learnings vital to understanding our world.
Political philosopher and provocateur Anand
Giridharadastakes on the privileged classes in his scorching new book, the
bestselling Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. The
book investigates the global elite’s efforts to ‘change the world’- except
using ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. Anand
Giridharadas will get into a conversation with entrepreneur and investor
Mohit Satyanand in a session that offers transformative perspectives to
complex societal problems.
Floods have ravaged India’s urban landscapes with
unprecedented fury over the last decade. Mumbai, Surat, Srinagar, Chennai,
Patna, and cities across Kerala have all been swallowed up by floodwaters and
sewage. These were not isolated freak phenomena, but signalled a deeper
ecological devastation. In a panel discussion consisting economist,
environmentalist and politician Jairam Ramesh, authors Viju B and
Krupa Ge in conversation with Marcus Moench, a panel will explore
the shocking truth of a man-made flood and seek insights into the causes and
consequences of societal folly in abusing nature.
In the session ‘Asia Rising’, author and
ex-Portuguese minister Bruno Maçães, ex-national security advisor to the
Prime Minister of India Shivshankar Menon, and Professor of Economics at
Jawaharlal Nehru University Deepak Nayyar will discuss and dissect
Asia’s place in the new world order. Shivshankar Menon’s latest book, Past
Present: India in Asian Geopolitics, takes a profound look at the Asian
story. Deepak Nayyar has authored Resurgent Asia, which highlights
development and economic transformation over the past fifty years and Bruno
Maçães’s recent books include The Dawn of Eurasia: On the Trail of a New
World Order, an account of the coming integration of Europe and Asia.
China’s mammoth Belt and Road initiative,
straddling almost seventy countries, is an infrastructure project of staggering
complexity. Bruno Maçães, the author of Belt and Road: A Chinese
World Order will discuss the ambitions and implications of BRI as it tracks
new trade and energy routes, with particular emphasis of its feasibility and
implications in India and South Asia in a session with Indian authors Manoj
Joshi and Sujeev Shakya in conversation with former Indian Foreign
Secretary Nirupama Rao.
In a session titled ‘Doodles on Leadership’
Director of Tata Sons R. Gopalakrishnan will be in conversation with
entrepreneur and investor Mohit Satyanand through anecdote and example,
about the essential engagement with community and society for the business
world. Moving away from the cut and thrust of operational action,
Gopalakrishnan will reflect on a leader’s journey emphasising the role that
business leaders can play in matters concerning nation and society.
Many have hailed the widespread use of generic
drugs as one of the most important public-health developments of the
twenty-first century. Today, almost 90 percent of our pharmaceutical market
comprises generics, the majority of which are manufactured overseas. We have
been reassured by our doctors, our pharmacists and our regulators that generic
drugs are identical to their brand-name counterparts, just less expensive. But
is this really true? With a decade-long investigation into an international,
high-stakes brinkmanship with big money at its core, Katherine Eban
reveals how the world’s greatest publichealth innovation has become one of its
most astonishing swindles in the session ‘Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of
the Generic Drug Boom’.
Leading British foreign correspondent Christina
Lamb will be in conversation with eminent journalist Suhasini Haidar
in a talk about Nujeen who escaped the hell of war in Aleppo and travelled to
Europe on a wheelchair. Nujeen's story has already touched millions and in this
book written with Christina Lamb, bestselling co-author of ‘I Am Malala’, she
helps to put a human face on a global emergency. Trapped in a fifth-floor
apartment in Aleppo and unable to go to school, she taught herself to speak
English by watching US television. As civil war between Assad's forces and ISIS
militants broke out around them, Nujeen and her family fled first to her native
Kobane, then to Turkey before they joined thousands of displaced persons in a
journey to Europe and asylum.
Two much-loved and inspirational Hindi writers
speak of their work and the process of carving out voice and visibility for
feminine perspectives. Prolific and much-awarded author Chitra Mudgal,
and author of several award-winning poetry collections and novels Anamika
will be in conversation with translator and writer Rohini Choudhury, to discuss
their books, beliefs and the core of conviction that sustains their writing in
a session titled ‘Ek Zameen Apni: Writing the Feminine’.
How does one capture the life of a woman in
writing? How different is the feminine biography from that of a man?
Biographers Bettany Hughes, Jung Chang, Lindsey Hilsum and
Hallie Rubenhold will discuss the difficulty of penning the lives of
women in conversation with journalist Anita Anand in a session specifically
concentrated on the lives of women.
In another session celebrated actor Madhur Jaffrey,
iconic ambassador of Indian cuisine, speaks of her rich, intense full-lived
life tracing early years in Delhi, her association with the legendary Ismail
Merchant,James Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, her encounters with the theatre
and film, and finally her recent rap video.She will speak of her intertwined
lives, of the theatre of food and the flavour of memories. A fascinating session with the 86-year-old
actor author in conversation with novelist and essayist, Chandrahas Choudhury.
Over his thirty-year career running the Condé
Nastgroup, Nicholas
Coleridge has witnessed it all. His career in magazines has had him lead the
glossies throughout their glorious zenith - from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s to
the digital iterations of the 21st century. Having cut his teeth on Tatler, and as Editor-in-Chief of Harpers & Queen, he became the Mr
Big of glossy publishing for three decades. Packed with surprising and often
hilarious anecdotes, The Glossy Years
also provides perceptive insight into the changing and treacherous worlds of
fashion and journalism. He reveals all in conversation to the editor of Conde Nast TravellerIndia, Divia Thani.
During the Festival,Namita Gokhale, author
and Festival Co-director, will launch her new novel, Jaipur Journals. Set against the backdrop of the vibrant Jaipur
Literature Festival, it is partly a love letter to the ‘greatest literary show
on Earth’, partly an ode to the millions of aspiring authors who wander the
earth with unsubmitted manuscripts in their bags - and in the end a tribute to
that loneliest tribe of them all: the writers. Namita Gokhale is the author of
18 books, including 9 works of fiction. In conversation with diplomat and
author Shashi Tharoor and poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, she
will discuss the themes of her new novel and how her two personas – writer and
Festival director - come together in it.
In a special session titled ‘The Anarchy’, historian,
author and Festival Co-director William Dalrymple will unfold his
riveting tale of the first global corporate power, the East Indian Company and
its ruthless, methodical plunder of India.Introduced by eminent author Manu
S. Pillai. the session will tellthe
remarkable story of how one of the world's most magnificent empires disintegrated
and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based
thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and
answerable only to its distant shareholders.
Aclaimed author Peter Frankopan’s Silk Roads,
a major reassessment of world history, has sold over 1 million copies
worldwide. Its sequel, The New Silk Roads takes a fresh look at the
relationships being formed along the length and breadth of the ancient trade
routes today. In a session titled ‘The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future
of the World’, following the Silk Roads eastwards from Europe through to China,
by way of Russia and the Middle East, Peter Frankopan in conversation with
author Frank Dikotter, will assesses the continual cycles and shifts in
the centre of global power.
In a session focused on fiction, five of the
world’s celebrated novelists— Elizabeth Gilbert, Leila Slimani, Avni Doshi,
John Lancaster and Howard Jacobson share their insights on the art of the
novel with Damian Barr. The session will give answers to all the questions like
where does fiction come from? What is the process of its creation? How does one
make up characters and situations that are believable- and why should the
reader care?
The Festival will start each day with the calming
strains of Morning Music. The stage will be graced by acclaimed artists like exponent
of Konnakol through spoken percussion and Mrindangam, BC Manjunath;sitar
maestro, recipient of the President’sAward for best instrumentalist at age 15, Purbayan
Chatterjee; leadingCarnatic veena-player
Saraswati Rajagopalan; Carnatic vocalist based in the UK and founder of Manasamitra,
Supriya Nagarajan.
Some more musical performances will be presented by
popular folk fusion artist Aabha Hanjura; Dublin-based singer-songwriter
Gavin Jameswhose videos have been viewed almost two billion times; contemporary
Indian music band Parvaaz, who were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone India’s May 2018 issue
with the magazine calling them ‘India’s most exciting band’; internationally-renowned
Indian music composer, environmentalist and professorRicky Kej, a Grammy
award winner.
The Festival will also present a power-packed
Heritage evening at an iconic and historic venue in Jaipur. Supported by
Rajasthan Tourism, this majestic evening at Amer Fort will feature a
mesmerising performance by Pandit Rajendra Gangani, one
of the leading practitioners of the Jaipur Gharana of Kathak. He will pay
tribute to the age-old classical form, along with an ensemble of Kathak
dancers. Les Souffleurs or The Whisperers, an
artistic group created by Olivier Comte, will enthral
audiences with a unique production where they whisper poetic secrets into their
ears, using a hollow cane. To end the evening on a musical note, world-renowned
sitarist Shubhendra Rao will present 'East marries West—A Legacy'
as a celebration of his Guru, the sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar's
100th birth year. He will be joined by his wife, Saskia Rao-de Haas,
who is hailed as a pioneer for introducing the “Indian Cello" to classical
Indian music.
At the Festival, the EkPrana Foundationwill conduct
a 15-minute sessionevery morning to demonstrate easy and effective ways to a
more relaxed, happier and healthier state of wellbeing for all visitors to the
Jaipur Literature Festival 2020.
Speaking on
the occasion of today’s preview, author
and Festival Co-Director Namita Gokhale said,“Come January, a
galaxy of writers and thinkers will converge in the heritage city of Jaipur to
celebrate the human imagination and the dreaming mind. We are the largest free
festival in the world and also perhaps the youngest with 60% of our audiences
below 25. We look forward to these crucial conversations between cultures,
communities, and generations.”
Writer and Festival Co-Director William Dalrymple said, “This is our strongest Jaipur line up ever. We have
an especially triumphant line up in non-fiction with a world-beating roster of
award-winning historians, biographers, memoirists and travel writers including
our biggest haul of Pullizer Prize winners ever with major international stars
like Stephen Greenblatt, Dexter Filkins, Anand Gopal and Suketu Mehta. We also
have an astonishing line up of Booker-winning novelists including Howard
Jacobson and John Lanchester, Leila Slimani from France and Elizabeth Gilbert
from the US. We also much look forward to hearing our most talented ever pool
of poets including Lemn Sissay, Simon Armitage, Forrest Gander & Paul
Muldoon. Above all we'll have a special focus on Climate change with
world-leading experts like David Wallace-Wells.”
Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, producers of the
Jaipur Literature Festival, said,“Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 will feature over 250
speakers from across India and the world who will focus on a variety of themes
and issues including climate emergency, women’s voices, travel, science and
technology, economics and history.”
Maharanisaheba Kumudkumariji of Gondal says, “We are happy to collaborate with
this global literary phenomenon that is the Jaipur Literature Festival! The
Gondals have a long legacy of supporting education and further learning through
our schools and programs and we are glad that the Opera House can help further
this agenda in Mumbai by supporting programs such as these to create further
awareness of books, literature and reading.”
AVID shares sister concerns and passions for the
future trajectory of literature with the festival. Asad Lalljee, SVP, Essar
Group, CEO of Avid Learning and Curator, Royal Opera House Mumbai says, “AVID has long admired and
supported the festival’s uncompromising vision to serve as a democratic,
non-aligned platform offering free and fair access to the finest literary minds
here in India and finds synergy with its aims to make literature inclusive,
educational and accessible whilst maintaining rigour and depth. We are honoured
to continue our annual tradition to host this iconic festival’s Mumbai curtain
raiser, which we have done for a few years now and present panel discussions at
the main event in Jaipur.”
The Mumbai Curtain Raiser this evening at Royal
Opera House, saw a session on Namita Gokhale’s latest book Jaipur Journalswhich explores diverse stories of lost love and
regret, self-doubt and new beginnings come together in a narrative as varied as
India itself. William Dalrymple also did a presentation on ‘Art, Forgotten
Masters’. As the East India Company extended its sway across India in the late
eighteenth century, many remarkable artworks were commissioned by Company
officials from Indian painters who had previously worked for the Mughals. These
hybrid paintings explore both the beauty of the Indian natural world and the
social realities of the time, exhibiting astonishing brilliance and
originality.
Shinjini Kumar , Country Business Manager and MD,
Consumer Bank, Citibank Indiasaid, “Jaipur Literature Festival is one of the
country’s most anticipated events amongst book lovers and writers from across
the globe. We are very proud to be associated with this year’s Mumbai Curtain
Raiser.”
There was also a scintillating performance by Harpreet,
who sings original musical compositions in Hindi, as well asin regional Indian
languages and dialects such as Punjabi, Bengali, Assamese, Rajasthani and
Haryanvi. He is known for his rich sonorous voice and a vivid, light classical
style of singing
Information on
Registration for the Jaipur
Literature Festival can be found here:
For media enquiries on the Jaipur
Literature Festival, please contact Edelman India:
About the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020
Described as
the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’, the Jaipur Literature Festival is a
sumptuous feast of ideas.
The past
decade has seen it transform into a global literary phenomenon having hosted
nearly 2000 speakers and welcoming over a million book lovers from across India
and the globe.
Our core
values remain unchanged: to serve as a democratic, non-aligned platform
offering free and fair access.
Every year,
the Festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers,
thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people and
entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in
thoughtful debate and dialogue.
Writers and
Festival Directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple, alongside producer
Teamwork Arts, invite speakers to take part in the five-day programme set
against the backdrop of Rajasthan’s stunning cultural heritage and the Diggi
Palace in the state capital Jaipur.
Past speakers
have ranged from Nobel Laureates J.M. Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk and Muhammad Yunus,
Man Booker Prize winners Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood and Paul Beatty, Sahitya
Akademi winners Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, M.T. Vasudevan Nair as well as the late
Girish Karnad, Mahasweta Devi and U.R. Ananthamurthy along with literary
superstars including Amish Tripathi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Vikram Seth.
An annual event that goes beyond literature, the Festival has also hosted
Amartya Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, the late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, His Holiness the
14th Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Fry, Thomas Piketty and former
president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.
The Jaipur
Literature Festival is a flagship event of Teamwork Arts, which produces it
along with over 25 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary
festivals across more than 40 cities globally.
About Teamwork Arts
The arts of
India are unrivalled in their depth, diversity and mystery and showcasing it to
global audiences requires a deep understanding of our culture, an acute sense
of relevance in programming and an unflinching attention to detail. Above all,
we at Teamwork Arts believe in love and respect for the artist.
Teamwork Arts
is a highly versatile production company with roots in the performing arts,
social action and the corporate world. Our expertise lies in the area of
entertainment and includes documentary and feature films, television, the
conceptualisation and development of contemporary performing/visual arts and
literary festivals around the world, and in nurturing new talents across all
art forms.
For over 25
years, Teamwork Arts has taken India to the world and brought the world to
India, presenting the finest of Indian performers, writers and visual artists
in the cultural and art space in India and abroad.
Every year, we
produce 25 performing/visual arts and literary festivals in 11 countries,
including Australia, Canada, Egypt, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Israel,
Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the USA. Teamwork Arts
produces the world’s largest free literary gatherings, the annual Jaipur
Literature Festival, the Ishara International Puppet Festival in New Delhi, the
annual Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) Festival, international
festivals Shared History in South Africa, India by the Nile in Egypt, Eye on
India in the United States of America, India by the Bay in Hong Kong,
Confluence: Festival of India in Australia, and many more.
Our musical
extravaganza, Bollywood Love Story: A Musical, continues to tour the world and
has sold out shows in Austria, Germany, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain,
Switzerland and Egypt.
Our
international festivals in India have included the bi-annual Bonjour India, a
festival of France with more than 200 events across 18 cities in India and
featuring over 250 artists, designers, researchers and entrepreneurs, and
OzFest, a festival of Australia in India
For more
information, visit: www.teamworkarts.com
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