Tight security and usual fervour, but no Salman Rushdie

Jaipur: The Jaipur Literature Festival’s security apparatus was more visible than ever before at its Friday opening at the Hotel Diggi Palace, the festival’s venue since the 2003 inception. Following threats to the safety of the event over a scheduled appearance by writer Salman Rushdie, the scene outside Diggi House was uncharacteristically serious, with multiple levels of security and identity checks, as well as a highly visible police presence.

The mood within, however, was as upbeat as in previous years, with audiences jostling for space to listen to writers on subjects as varied as Leo Tolstoy, the poetic vision of the Sikh gurus, the US presidency of Barack Obama, and tulips.

“I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to ‘eliminate’ me,” Rushdie said in a release issued by the organizers. “While I have some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence, it would be irresponsible of me to come to the festival in such circumstances; irresponsible to my family, to the festival audience, and to my fellow writers.”

In spite of the intimidating security arrangements, the festival appeared to run without any delays, as thousands of people wound in and out through brisk queues.

Arrangements have been designed to accommodate more than 70,000 people, nearly 20,000 more than last year’s audience count, said Diggi Palace proprietor Ram Pratap Singh.

“Along with our own security and a private agency, we’ve also had excellent support from the government,” he said. “We have an agency scanning every card (handed to all festival entrants) that sends information to the police. What we’re doing is 20 years ahead of everyone else.”

The 262 speakers and performers scheduled over the five days of the event will have a multitude of things to talk about, but the morning’s mood was set by the theme of bhakti poetry, with keynote speaker Purshottam Agarwal emphasising India’s living tradition of a multicultural, multilingual and thoroughly modern form of religious poetry. As gurbani singers from Amritsar’s Golden Temple sounded the day’s opening notes, festival producer Sanjoy Roy of Teamworks Productions reiterated the event’s commitment to democratic values.

“In India, we are all born with a sense of theatre,” he said in his opening remarks. “Our right to expression sets us apart. And without it, we are no different from any other fascist state.”

Over the day, audiences focused on the writers who did appear. Speaking to a full house about his 2009 biography of Obama, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, The New Yorker editor David Remnick conducted a clear-eyed assessment of the US President’s own liberalism, in a session called “The Disappointment of Obama”.

“I think Barack Obama is tremendously disappointed in his own presidency in some ways,” he said in response to a question from the audience. “But he’s not a dictator. Stalin was never disappointed in himself.”

British biographer Rosamund Bartlett explained the massive social influence of 19th century Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, whose correspondence with a like-minded religious thinker, Mohandas Gandhi, is a crucial intellectual link in modern Indian history.

Writers R. Raj Rao and Hoshang Merchant talked about the dilemmas of writing about gender and sexuality in India, while two of the world’s best-known playwrights, Girish Karnad and David Hare, conversed about the social dimensions of literature.

And Rushdie’s presence was felt often. Hari Kunzru, Amitava Kumar, Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi all read from Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in their sessions, defying interruptions. Earlier on a panel, Pakistani novelist Mohammed Hanif quipped, “We’re all talking to each other about him, anyway.”

“These Deobandis have cousins in Pakistan. They recently banned hair transplants,” he said, to laughter. “Nobody took them seriously; I wish people would do the same here.”

The festival continues until 24 January, with speakers including Ben Okri, Tom Stoppard, Annie Proulx, Jamaica Kincaid and Amy Chua.

supriya.n@livemint.com