Jaipur is the capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan where every year takes place the biggest free literature festival of the world, known as Jaipur Literature Festival. The seventh edition run between 17th and 21st of January 2014.
Cristiano Gianolla
ALICE Team
22-01-2014
The festival was opened by the Indian Nobel laureate and Harward University professor Amartya Sen, who addressed the big audience of the Diggi palace with a brilliant exposition of his imaginary conversation with the Goddess of Medium Things (GMT) to which he could express seven desires. In these seven desires Sen made his proposal for India, its social sphere and its inclusive development. It’s desires where directly and indirectly taken bank in discussion during the other 175 panels of the festival.
Sen desires were: 1. to revive classical education in India in order to balance the business oriented education with language, literature, music and arts; 2. to have a real right-wing secular and non-communal pro-business party, which he would not vote but that would welcome as a possibility for the people of India to have a real electoral choice; 3. a stronger and clear minded left-wing more focused on Indian practical issues than on international obsolete geopolitics; 4. a more responsible media, because, although Indian media is vibrant, it needs to focus and raise awareness to the necessities of the poorest as opposed to privileging news that are simply easy to sell in the media market; 5. correct deprivation and improve universal education, provide health, promote and protect woman and children rights, including vaccination and sanitation and foster a prominent and educated labour force, which is the key feature of the Asian model of development; 6. Reverse Indian high court decision that criminalises homosexuality; 7. that India would be able to recognize its strength deriving from the nature of the country and of its democracy. The Aam Aadmi Pary (AAP) is the latest manifestation of the democratic potential of the country although, Sen underlines, AAP needs to developed a programme and define who are the common people they work for. Sen Affirmed that, after independence, Indian democracy was able to achieve great results such as eradicate famine, alleviate AIDS, become free from polio and implement an effective disaster management system able to minimise the consequences of catastrophes.
Some of the session of the festival where grouped by the thematic “Democracy Dialogues”. These has been the privileged space to bring further the debate about the topics mentioned by Sen. Particular attention was given to India’s democracy strength, able to survive chaos and challenges after independence. But the discussion ranged also current political issues such as the raise of the prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (Bharatiya Janata Party – BJP), by many considered the favourite of the next general elections later this year. Surely one of the most talked topics has been the emergence of the AAP, a young party that entered Indian politics with a very positive results in the Delhi election of last December and is growing consistently all over the country. For many speakers, including the sociologist Dipankar Gupta (Shiv Nadar University), the anthropologist Mukulika Banerjee (London School of Economics) and the political scientist Sunil Khilnani (King’s College London), the AAP represents a change that has already taken effect since the political discourse of all parties is now centered on the people’s need rather than on general electoral issues. For Gupta, AAP is still in a movement phase, struggling against corruption and to clean Indian politics. After accomplishing this objective it will become a party with a proper programme and vision. Would be unfair to evaluate the AAP simply on the base of its inexperience. For Banerjee, AAP provides a manner of reconnecting politics with people by way of consultation, a features that the “VIP Culture” had heavenly neglected. This way, affirms Banerjee, the AAP links people needs with growth. Khilnani said that the AAP has brought uncertainty to the results of the next national elections and has raised the interest of people for politics, in particular by increasing commitment of qualified professionals which implies an amelioration of Indian political class.
Among the many authors there was Oscar Guardiola-Rivera who will also be one of the lecturer of the ALICE Summer School 2014. One of the panels in which he participated was titled “Who will rule the world?”. Guardiola-Rivera, opposing the discourse based on the national interest of emerging world powers and their capacity of imposing themselves as world rulers, gave an insight of the latin-american perception of world priorities. He proposed Ecuador and Bolivia as paradigmatic cases of a new way of considering politics not limited to anthropocentric and capitalistic interest but embracing a different and more harmonious dialogue and consideration for Nature. He therefore proposed a paradigm based on the respect of cosmologies and ecology as the model for the future of the world politics.
The Jaipur Literature Festival is a space to talk and read. Many books has been sold by the book shop and autographed by authors at the end of each session. This year’s edition has provided space and time to many different speakers in order to convene about a big number of topics. One of the limits of the programme was the lack of authors from continents others than Asia (primarily India) and America (primarily North America). This is a gap that can be filled in the future provided that the stimulating atmosphere, the pleasant location and openness to the audience – which could intervene with short questions at the end of each session – will be maintained and further improved. To revive humanities is indeed the first wish that Amartya Sen made to its Goddness and it would surely be beneficial that this wish is not restricted to India but extended to the world.
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