Jaipur Literature Festival and Gujarati Writers

By Harish Trivedi
© 2011

Recently a revered Gujarati scholar and journalist Deepakbhai Mehta lamented about the absence of Gujarati writers and the absence of a vast majority of writers from other states in India at the prestigious Jaipur Literature Festival.
Deepakbhai’s article appeared the Gujarati daily Mumbai Samachar under the section that is called Dialogue, but in effect it was a monologue.

This is my humble effort to turn that monologue in to a true dialogue.

Deepakbhai starts out by mocking at the festival being described as The Greatest Show on Earth.

Background about the phrase:
It is said that the great impresario and circus owner P. T. Barnum coined the phrase The Greatest Show on Earth and by1872, Barnum was already referring to his enterprise as 'THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH' - and it was! 'P.T. Barnum's Traveling World's Fair, Great Roman Hippodrome and Greatest Show On Earth' It covered five acres and accommodated 10,000 seated patrons at a time ... and, to reach more people, took to the rails and traveled across the country and also took the show to England. Queen Victoria is reported to have been very impressed and amused by the show.

The phrase The Greatest Show on Earth is a copyright phrase owned by P.T. Barnum and Bailey Circus. (The full name is RINGLING BROS.-BARNUM & BAILEY COMBINED SHOWS, INC.) The company has filed lawsuites to protect their copyright for the phrase and has won it everytime in the courts of law in the United States.

In 1952 there was a movie titled The Greatest Show on Earth. It was a drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The movie had lavish production values, actual circus acts, and documentary, behind-the-rings looks at the massive logistics effort which made big top circuses possible. Bosley Crowther, the esteemed New York Times critic called the movie a "lusty triumph of circus showmanship and movie skill" and a "piece of entertainment that will delight movie audiences for years"

Richard Dawkins' 2009 best seller is titled The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.

For over a century the phrase is used to describe any big or spectacular event. It is in this sense that Tina Brown described the Jaipur event as the greatest show on earth.

Tina Brown, the legendary editor of such internationally known magazines as the Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, described the Jaipur Literature Festival as the Greatest Literary Show on Earth. She is the founder and editor of the webzine the Daily Beast. Recently the weekly news magazine Newsweek merged with the Daily Beast. Tina Brown acts as an Executive Editor for both the publications.

Deepakbhai is critical of the construction company DSC for being the major sponsor of the Jaipur event. Forget the fact that the Sahitya Academy, the National Book Trust and nearly a dozen Gujarati publishers stage book fairs each year and some even host similar events (Pustak Melo) fair many a times during the year. Gujarati publishers host such events at their own expense. The Sahitya Academy and the National Book Trust host such events by using taxpayers’ money. These government bodies even participate in international book fairs at the taxpayers’ expense. So why is Deepakbhai criticizing the DSC and its many sponsors?

Further on Deepakbhai states that the Jaipur Literature Festival is not similar to (meaning not as good as) the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan.

On one hand the scholar criticizes the lack of marketing by the Sahitya Academy affecting sales of its publications, but then he is quick to mock the Jaipur event as a product of modern marketing and criticizes the advertising agencies that supports the Jaipur Festival. This does not make any sense, does it?

The advertising agencies or major multi-nationals that sponsor such events look at the audience, the demographics, and the segment of population that would attend such event and the prestige of participating in such event itself.
Can the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad provide the demographics that these agencies are covet?

Then Deepakbhai accuses that the sponsors of the Jaipur Festival look for English publications that are either popular or controversial. Nothing could be farther from truth. Just look up the names of literary celebrities that attended the Jaipur Literature Festival – 2011 in the attached document.

The Jaipur event is open to all; any one can attend the event. Folks who want to attend as a ‘Delegate’ have to pay fees that cover their lunch etc. I am sure some of the multi-national publishing houses pick up the tab of ‘their’ writers to showcase those writers’ work. Are there any Gujarati publishers who are willing to pick up a tab for their writers?

How many Gujarati publishers advertise their publications in newspapers and magazines? How many novels, short story and poetry collections are reviewed in Gujarati newspapers? How many Gujarati books are sold each year? The publication scene for the Gujarati language is pathetic, to say the least. Here is a question: Since the Jaipur Literature Festival was open to all, did Deepakbhai attend the event and write a first hand review of the event? How many Gujarati newspapers sent their reporters to cover this major international publishing event?

How are people from beyond Gujarat to know about Gujarati literature if the Gujarati literary establishment and governmental agencies do not make concerted effort to publicize the works of major Gujarati writers? Why criticize modern marketing methods - the potent tool of marketing in this age of globalization?

Deepakbhai laments the absence of writers from many other Indian states… The event, as mentioned above was open to all so if writers from any state could have attended the event if they wanted to attend. Why blame the Jaipur event sponsors for it? The sponsors of the Jaipur festival are not obligated to have representation from every state of India. Where did Deepakbhai get this idea?

Name-calling the English literary works is not productive and diminishes not only good writers but it also diminishes the person who makes such ignorant remarks.
Deepakbhai wonders if prominent public servants such as Kapil Sibal, Manishankar Aiyar or Nirupama Mennon Rao have written any books and thus casts a shadow on the ability of these individuals to write anything worthwhile. So for record, let me say a few words about these people who were unnecessarily maligned by Deepakbhai.

An Anthology of Kapil Sibal's poems titled \"i witness\" was published by Roli Books in 2008. He has also contributed several articles on various topical issues in national dailies and periodicals.

Manishankar Aiyar has written several books including Remembering Rajiv", Rupa, New Delhi, 1992, "One Year in Parliament", Konark, New Delhi, 1993, "Pakistan Papers", UBSPD, New Delhi, 1994 and numerous newspaper articles.

Nirupama Menon Rao is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, and the current Foreign Secretary of India, serving the External Affairs Ministry.

She has also served as Ambassador of India to China, High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Moscow and as a Minister at the Indian Embassy in Washington DC. Nirupama Rao has written a book of poetry, named Rain Rising. Her poems have been translated into Chinese and Russian.Nirupama Rao’ speech/article at Singapore Consortium for China-India Dialogue titled Rabindranath Tagore’s vision of India and China: A twenty first century perspective should be a ‘must’ reading to any self professed Tagore expert.
Now everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions. Unfortunately the opinion expressed by Deepakbhai are tinted by his provincial and myopic understanding of how international literary events are organized, his views are based on mere speculation, and he does not provide any evidence to substantiate his rant.

We have a phrase for such attitude. It is called sour grapes. The phrase refers to envious behaviour, especially pretending to not care for something one does not or cannot have, a condition called cognitive dissonance.