I wish I hadn't listened to Rushdie: Writer William Dalrymple

It is hard enough to organise a literature festival, but that is not the end of it, as William Dalrymple found out. He should know because he is the founder of Asia’s best known lit fest, the Jaipur Literature Festival.

The star speaker on the second day of the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF), Dalrymple recounted some of the difficulties he had faced over the years in Jaipur.

After working hard to make the fest a success with more that 1,20,000 footfalls last year, he had to deal with zealots and others with their own agenda trying to hijack the festival.

Dalrymple bristled at a question put to him asking if the controversies at JLF had been planted by the organisers themselves to gain attention. In fact, they had done their best to avoid controversy last year by leaving out Salman Rushdie’s name from the schedule of speakers for the festival. But Rushdie would have none of that: “I don’t want to be like a white rabbit coming out a hat. So put out my name in the list,” he told Dalrymple.

To this day Dalrymple regrets going along with Rushdie, because as soon as the JLF invites went out with Rushdie’s name, all kinds of groups found it a convenient handle to exploit for their own ends. Ultimately, they had to ban the Rushdie session, which was a double whammy – it was perceived as a copout while at the same time the JLF lost out on the Rushdie appeal, which had been an important factor in the festival becoming a noteworthy event.

From just 14 guests turning up in 2005 – “most of them were tourists who took the wrong turn” – this year the festival recorded 1,20,000 footfalls.

The festival may last just five days but it takes nine months of preparation to set up, explained Dalrymple, which makes it all the more irritating for him when all the media attention is hogged by one controversy or the other.

It proved to be an enlightening exchange between moderator Vikram Sampath and Dalrymple on the nature of literature festivals. Sampath quizzed him on Amitav Ghosh’s comment on JLF – “literature is coming to be embedded within a wider culture of public spectacles and performances” – and Dalrymple laughed saying the remark was disingenuous coming from Ghosh as he has seen him at several literature festivals.

“Some people feel that literature festivals are slightly elevated cocktail parties. But there is absolutely no question that everyone of our sessions, including ones on Punjabi Dalit poetry or Marwari poetry, are packed chockablock,” he said.

He disagreed with Sampath’s suggestion that while literature festivals in India have many western writers, Indian writers hardly get invited for fests held abroad. Recalling that the direct inspiration for starting the JLF came to him while attending Hay-on-Wye, where many Indian writers were present. In fact, the running joke at Hay is to try and spot one Indian writer who hasn’t won a Booker, he said.

Listening to Dalrymple recount the growth of JLF, it became clear that it’s early days yet for the BLF but an exciting road lies ahead, controversial or not.

What’s on today
10am – 11am: “Thoughts that breathe: words that burn”: a morning of poetry readings:  Ashok Vajpeyi, Satchidanandan and Nabanita Dev Sen, moderated by Mamta Sagar

12 noon – 1pm: “Voices of India: young literateurs of Bhasha” : Arindam Borkataki, Dharmakirti Sumant , Vempalli Gangadhara and Farooq Shaheen moderated by Jayant Kodkani (Presented by Central Sahitya Akademi)

1pm – 2pm: Kannada mooladha maruvyaakhyaana: the history & antiquity of Kannada: Venkatachala Shastry, MM Kalburgi, Padekal Vishnu Bhatt, moderated by Shrinivas Murthy.

4pm – 5pm: 69 Shades of Grey: scripting Erotica: Sheba Karim, Ashok Ferry, Minal Hajratwala, moderated by Harish Bijoor