Jaipur Literature Festival: What's in store for people on day 7 of literary extravaganza?

Day seven of the 15th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival will have enlightening sessions on the topics like Indian democracy, electoral process, challenges of the Middle East, the legacy of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and more.

Prolific writers and diplomats, Omar Saif Ghobash, Navdeep Suri and Talmiz Ahmad are in conversation with Navtej Sarna. An urgent and enlightening session on the tides of the Middle East, a region that embodies shifting sands - changing borders, visions, socio-political structures, hands of power, and the world stage.

As the region and the world align and re-align, most vigorously today, what are the future hopes, challenges, and states of metamorphosis for the vast and dynamic Middle East? The session will throw light on those issues.

Justice Madan B Lokur, an eminent jurist and retired judge of the Supreme Court of India; Guru Prakash Paswan, the author of Makers of Modern Dalit History and a National Spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party; and Navin B Chawla, the former Chief Election Commissioner of India and the author of several books including, Every Vote Counts will take part in a session which explores the narratives and counter-narratives of the electoral process and democratic systems.

In conversation with the academic Vijay Tankha, they discuss the political and electoral process, the paradoxes of democracy, and its triumphs and discontents.

Vijay Gokhale, Bruno Maçães, Mahfuz Anam and Jyoti Malhotra will be engaging in a chat around the political, economic, strategic and cultural dimensions around the emergent forces among Asian nations, its intra-Asian dynamics and external powers and how it is likely to unfold with the future of global architecture. They will be in conversation with TCA Raghavan, discuss the evolving world order and visions for the future.

Two recent biographies evaluate the life and legacy of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Author and historian Vikram Sampath's two-volume biography, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past and Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, maps Savarkar's journey from a fiery revolutionary to a social worker against the world-shaping events culminating in the independence and partition of India.

Journalist, political analyst and writer, Uday Mahurkar's Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition, co-authored with Chirayu Pandit, examines Savarkar's role as a pioneer of India's national security system and the evolving nature of his ideology. In conversation with journalist Mandira Nayar, they discuss the contested legacy of a man whose presence looms large over India's current political narrative.

Odia writer Paramita Satpathy, who received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2016 and, more recently, the prestigious Sarala Puraskar for her novel Abhipreta Kala, will have a conversation with journalist and writer Saket Suman, Satpathy and Upadhyay as she discusses the wonder and worlds of fiction.

Day 6 Round Up:

The 'Greatest literary show on earth' began with a bright sunny morning at its new home, Clarks Amer, in the pink city of Jaipur. Early risers flocked to grab seats to devour the calming strains of the morning music at the front lawn of the rich celebration. Music led the way to the inaugural session with a scintillating performance of Raag Miya Ki Todi by Ujwal Nagar, maestro of Hindustani classical music and lead classical singer of the Indian fusion band Advaita.

Nagar began the performance by expressing that it was his pleasure to be performing at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2022. He first presented a slow tempo composition and then he did a faster medium tempo composition. It was an exciting performance and an astounding start to the 15th edition of the celebration. After the exhilarating rendition of the song the event proceeded with the inaugural addresses by Keynote Speakers writer Harish Trivedi and UN Resident Coordinator for India since 2021 Shombhi Sharp along with Festival Directors and Producers.

In his welcome speech, Festival Producer and Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, Sanjoy K. Roy said, "We welcome you all to the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival! Last year, we were able to pivot online and through our digital series JLF Brave New World, JLF Words are Bridges, and the 2021 Jaipur Literature Festival, which was entirely digital - reaching over 27.5 million people across the world. It's the first year that we took the festival hybrid, which started on the 5th of March till the 14th of March. So it's a ten day programme of incredible riches! This year, it's not just new additions to the festival but a new home too. We are extremely delighted to be celebrating the 15th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival at Hotel Clarks, Amer."

Addressing the audience, Festival Co-director, Namita Gokhale said, "Though i am deeply honored to be receiving the Sahitya Akademi Award, yet i am here for the festival in Jaipur and not in Delhi to receive it because my award is you and this prestigious festival." She also added, "Coming back again to the festival makes me emotional as I remember previous editions of the literary extravaganza featuring various writers and their stories."

Author, historian & Festival Co-director William Dalrymple said, "I think the pandemic has been hard for everyone but the performing arts, in particular, have found it an existential threat... with music, with dance with theatre - have had their lives very very severely threatened by the economics of the lockdown. But now we are back and how, in this wonderful new venue and as Namita said with four Nobel Prize winners".

Talking about the festival, Keynote speaker Harish Trivedi said, "The body sheds all clothes and puts on new ones. The spirit sheds all bodies and puts on new ones. I'll also say this festival sheds an old venue and begins to inhabit a new one."

Concluding the inaugural address, UN Resident Coordinator for India since 2021 Shombi Sharp said, "I am the luckiest to be here in the original Jaipur version of this amazing festival...Since arriving in India, I have been deeply impressed by the deeply rooted philosophy and values of sustainability that I see everywhere in Indian culture. India's ambitious targets demonstrate to the world that climate action does not and cannot mean sacrificing equitable development."

For registrations and more info visit Jaipur Literature Festival Website