Cricket Conquers Censorship at Jaipur Literary Fest

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Attendees at the Jaipur Literary Festival are outraged that Salman Rushdie was forced to cancel plans to be at the Festival.  When Rushdie wrote his book the Satanic Verses referring to the Holy Quran extremists Muslims clerics issued a “fatwa” calling for Rushdie’s murder as they felt that the book blasphemed Islam.  Though Rushdie has been able to come out of police protection and had even visited India in 2007 did not prevent extremists in India from once again renewed the fatwa offering at least $20,000 to any person who could at least hit the author with a shoe. The Congress Party which governs India at the Federal level is locked in a tight battle in state elections in Uttar Pradesh where the majority of voters are Muslim.  To avoid alienating this significant voting block the Federal government has maintained a rigid silence on what most festival goers say is a basic issue of freedom of expression.
While festival organizers stuck to talking points full of bromides several authors chose to protest the threats of violence against Rushdie by reading excerpts from Midnights Children and Satanic Verses.
But all seemed to be forgiven  when a few hours ago the $50,000.00 award for best South Asian literary fiction was won by Sri Lankan author for his novel Chinaman.  The book is about a dying sports writer spending his final months in a drunken stupor while tracking down an elusive spin bowler named Pradeep Mathews who is thought to be the greatest cricket player to walk on this earth.  To a sub-continent where cricket is more important than almost anything else, a book which features cricket in all its colonial grandeur  as a metaphor for life is a soothing balm.
The crowds here are agog with the news that American TV host and business magnate Oprah Winfrey will be at the festival on January 22nd to interview Deepak Chopra.
Organizers of the Jaipur Festival consider it to be the largest and most charming of South Asian literary festivals.  The 60,000 people in attendance will be able to choose from over  250 writers from every genre. According to the festival organizers 950 media personnel requested accreditation but only 550 media passes were issued.
The Jaipur Festival is different to most other festivals because half of the writers and about 40 per cent of the events will be in a language other than English.  As a result the festival is receiving wide media coverage in all parts of India unlike the Galle Literary Festival in neighbouring Sri Lanka which is only covered by the English language media in that country.
 
Jaipur is also different in that because it is sponsored by a large Indian construction company every event is free.  In contrast at the Galle Festival tickets for certain events are as much as $50.00.
Some of the internationally known authors who will be in Jaipur in the next four days include Chatan Bhagat, Michael Ondaatje, Amy Chau and Ben Okri. Interestingly though while a few authors such as Richard Dawkin who are attending the Jaipur Festival are also attending the Galle Literary Festival, Sri Lankan born Ondaajte has chosen not to visit the festival held in his birthplace.
While it is difficult to choose a crowd favourite Gulzar would certainly be in the top three of any ranking. Gulzar who is known to International movie audiences because of the Oscar and Grammy awards he received for the hit song  Jai Ho in the movie Slum Dog Millionaire  is famous in India for his many collections of poetry and short stories in Urdu as well as for  film scripts, children’s stories, plays, ballets translations and music albums he has penned.
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