Yesterday was the most explosive of all at the Festival. Interestingly it coincided with a full moon.
While we were dealing with a flood of people, social issues and emotions in the Mughal tent, protests began outside the Diggi Palace. Whilst talking about corruption, sociologist Ashish Nandy managed to offend the Dalit, tribal and OBC castes. There are all sorts of legal threats and the Police Commissioner has told Sanjoy and Sheuli not to leave Jaipur until further notice. I'm sure it's not quite as sinister as it sounds, but they are transcribing Ashish's exact words into Hindi.
It's hard for westerners to understand how inflammatory this debate is, as it concerns what's called 'reservations', which in essence is affirmative action for women and lower castes. Finding a place on the reservation lists is easy if you have any sort of connection, but if you don't it leads the lower castes to corruption. This is the point that Ashish Nandy was making and of course it's been taken completely out of context and certain castes and tribes have taken serious offence to the notion that they are corrupt (the inference being that the higher castes are not - which is ridiculous, this is India!!!!). It's intensely political and complex so I'm bound to be oversimplifying the furore, but the police presence outside the festival has been significant as the protests continued right through the final few days.
Luckily Dalit author Kancha Ilaiah, has put out a statement that it was "a bad statement with good intentions" which has helped somewhat. The fact is that the winner of the DSC Literature Prize at JLF this year (the brilliant poet and now novellist Jeet Thayil) is under 24 hour security guard protection after reading from 'The Satanic Verses' last year. Plus, at one of our panels at the Mughal tent, he chose to read a passage from his book that basically offended different regions around India and has caused more controversy. Not a very smart move, from a very smart man. One must learn to read your audience, slightly reminds me of Rhys Muldoon getting it SO wrong at our opening at Dungog Film Festival 2011. Sydney and Bombay are very different places to Dungog and Jaipur!
I must warn you that I'm supposed to check out in an hour, I haven't packed nor decided where I'm going to next.....
Ok-doke, so Day 4 began with a session on Russian literature that was focused on British novellist Orlando Figes' (pronounced Fygees) book, alongside the fascinating Elif Batuman (feeling dreadfully sick, but thoroughly eloquent and provocative - yes, a common theme here) in discussion with John Kampfner, a serious ex-journo who ran the Russian BBC bureau for many years. Following this insightful discussion, American philosopher Michael Sandel hosted the debate for Radio 4. There was the odd technical hitch, but the BBC crew got what they needed and Michael expertly involved the audience in heated discussions about the Delhi rape case, women's rights, foetus sex-scanning and freedom of speech.
We had four mikes roving the audience and Michael chose people based on their differing points of views and often got them to talk directly to each other. The audience was mostly divided about every issue - thank the lord noone attempted to justify rape, though according to Tehelka a lot of Indian men don't see it as a crime. It was a full hour of debating the hottest issues in India today and he covered a lot of ground. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him weave in and out of the issues and controlling the crowd, but also giving voice to a huge cross section of the audience. He never let his views be known, he simply presented issues and asked people to share their thoughts. Such a simple concept and seriously effective.
Directly afterward the session, I felt the urge to defend our team. I used the fact that even though we'd just had a full hour for questions, only a small amount of people could be heard despite best intentions. I appealed to everyone to be patient and to trust us, that we were doing our best to give a diversity of people a go. There was a positive response, which was a relief and I got a lot of support from people afterwards.
A seriously grown-up panel followed for which the Chairman of Tata Steel had flow in by jet especially to witness Director H M Nerukar join the wonderful Kota Neelima, Shoma Chaudhury and Tarun Das in conversation with John Eliot to discuss, "Whose Legacy is it Anyway? Land, People and Development". We were under pressure to start on time, which was near impossible, as the BBC had really pushed things (as they needed to record at least an hour to make a 40 minute show). Nerves were fraught as these heavyweights fiercely debated the future of industry and land rights in India. Yet another frantic Q and A session, that reflected the gravity of the subject matter.
A welcome break for lunch and then we hosted 'the gay panel' entitled "Literature of Love and Longing", which was fantastic. Andrew Solomon, Tahar Ben Jelloun (an incredible French writer, with a translator on stage), Saleem Kidwai and the heavenly Devdutt Pattanaik were moderated by Sandip Roy, for yet another heartfelt discussion. The fact that we didn't need security shows how far this country has come, though it's clear there's still a long road towards gay rights and equality here. As is true of most of the world.
Benoy Behl then gave a wonderful presentation on "The Aesthetics of Impermanence", introduced by Sujata Chatterjee. Followed by "The Epic Imagination" with Devdutt back on stage, the sparrow-like Madeline Miller again, joined by Sitanchu Yashaschandra (try that surname out loud) in conversation with the divine Vayu Naidu, who launched her new book at the session. These fantastically diverse discussions lead on to art expert B.N. Goswamy, who gave a lecture on the influential artist Nainsukh. Would you believe he was introduced by Pramod K.G. who is the art curator I met in Delhi, when I went to see the photographic exhibition of Ghosh' film stills? Such a small world.
This ending to the day was like floating in a warm bath, Mr Goswarmy's voice was like velvet and I was drawn in by the audience's enthusiasm. With each new slide and description, I could see everyone on the edge of their seats with wide smiles of delight. It was almost the polar opposite to the previous day's ending.
I am fast running out of battery and time, so can't write now about the music and the evening's hilarity. I indulged in whiskey, which I never drink, after two dry days at all events (due to the Republic Day). But must turn to our final day, which was epic and wonderful tinged by melancholy as the Festival came to a close in lush style at the Amber Fort.
In fact, I will have to save it for the next post. I really must pack and book a train/bus or something....
Forgive any typos and here's hoping the police allow Sanjoy and Sheuli to leave Ragasthan.
Stay tuned.
Lx
While we were dealing with a flood of people, social issues and emotions in the Mughal tent, protests began outside the Diggi Palace. Whilst talking about corruption, sociologist Ashish Nandy managed to offend the Dalit, tribal and OBC castes. There are all sorts of legal threats and the Police Commissioner has told Sanjoy and Sheuli not to leave Jaipur until further notice. I'm sure it's not quite as sinister as it sounds, but they are transcribing Ashish's exact words into Hindi.
It's hard for westerners to understand how inflammatory this debate is, as it concerns what's called 'reservations', which in essence is affirmative action for women and lower castes. Finding a place on the reservation lists is easy if you have any sort of connection, but if you don't it leads the lower castes to corruption. This is the point that Ashish Nandy was making and of course it's been taken completely out of context and certain castes and tribes have taken serious offence to the notion that they are corrupt (the inference being that the higher castes are not - which is ridiculous, this is India!!!!). It's intensely political and complex so I'm bound to be oversimplifying the furore, but the police presence outside the festival has been significant as the protests continued right through the final few days.
Luckily Dalit author Kancha Ilaiah, has put out a statement that it was "a bad statement with good intentions" which has helped somewhat. The fact is that the winner of the DSC Literature Prize at JLF this year (the brilliant poet and now novellist Jeet Thayil) is under 24 hour security guard protection after reading from 'The Satanic Verses' last year. Plus, at one of our panels at the Mughal tent, he chose to read a passage from his book that basically offended different regions around India and has caused more controversy. Not a very smart move, from a very smart man. One must learn to read your audience, slightly reminds me of Rhys Muldoon getting it SO wrong at our opening at Dungog Film Festival 2011. Sydney and Bombay are very different places to Dungog and Jaipur!
I must warn you that I'm supposed to check out in an hour, I haven't packed nor decided where I'm going to next.....
Ok-doke, so Day 4 began with a session on Russian literature that was focused on British novellist Orlando Figes' (pronounced Fygees) book, alongside the fascinating Elif Batuman (feeling dreadfully sick, but thoroughly eloquent and provocative - yes, a common theme here) in discussion with John Kampfner, a serious ex-journo who ran the Russian BBC bureau for many years. Following this insightful discussion, American philosopher Michael Sandel hosted the debate for Radio 4. There was the odd technical hitch, but the BBC crew got what they needed and Michael expertly involved the audience in heated discussions about the Delhi rape case, women's rights, foetus sex-scanning and freedom of speech.
We had four mikes roving the audience and Michael chose people based on their differing points of views and often got them to talk directly to each other. The audience was mostly divided about every issue - thank the lord noone attempted to justify rape, though according to Tehelka a lot of Indian men don't see it as a crime. It was a full hour of debating the hottest issues in India today and he covered a lot of ground. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him weave in and out of the issues and controlling the crowd, but also giving voice to a huge cross section of the audience. He never let his views be known, he simply presented issues and asked people to share their thoughts. Such a simple concept and seriously effective.
Directly afterward the session, I felt the urge to defend our team. I used the fact that even though we'd just had a full hour for questions, only a small amount of people could be heard despite best intentions. I appealed to everyone to be patient and to trust us, that we were doing our best to give a diversity of people a go. There was a positive response, which was a relief and I got a lot of support from people afterwards.
A seriously grown-up panel followed for which the Chairman of Tata Steel had flow in by jet especially to witness Director H M Nerukar join the wonderful Kota Neelima, Shoma Chaudhury and Tarun Das in conversation with John Eliot to discuss, "Whose Legacy is it Anyway? Land, People and Development". We were under pressure to start on time, which was near impossible, as the BBC had really pushed things (as they needed to record at least an hour to make a 40 minute show). Nerves were fraught as these heavyweights fiercely debated the future of industry and land rights in India. Yet another frantic Q and A session, that reflected the gravity of the subject matter.
A welcome break for lunch and then we hosted 'the gay panel' entitled "Literature of Love and Longing", which was fantastic. Andrew Solomon, Tahar Ben Jelloun (an incredible French writer, with a translator on stage), Saleem Kidwai and the heavenly Devdutt Pattanaik were moderated by Sandip Roy, for yet another heartfelt discussion. The fact that we didn't need security shows how far this country has come, though it's clear there's still a long road towards gay rights and equality here. As is true of most of the world.
Benoy Behl then gave a wonderful presentation on "The Aesthetics of Impermanence", introduced by Sujata Chatterjee. Followed by "The Epic Imagination" with Devdutt back on stage, the sparrow-like Madeline Miller again, joined by Sitanchu Yashaschandra (try that surname out loud) in conversation with the divine Vayu Naidu, who launched her new book at the session. These fantastically diverse discussions lead on to art expert B.N. Goswamy, who gave a lecture on the influential artist Nainsukh. Would you believe he was introduced by Pramod K.G. who is the art curator I met in Delhi, when I went to see the photographic exhibition of Ghosh' film stills? Such a small world.
This ending to the day was like floating in a warm bath, Mr Goswarmy's voice was like velvet and I was drawn in by the audience's enthusiasm. With each new slide and description, I could see everyone on the edge of their seats with wide smiles of delight. It was almost the polar opposite to the previous day's ending.
I am fast running out of battery and time, so can't write now about the music and the evening's hilarity. I indulged in whiskey, which I never drink, after two dry days at all events (due to the Republic Day). But must turn to our final day, which was epic and wonderful tinged by melancholy as the Festival came to a close in lush style at the Amber Fort.
In fact, I will have to save it for the next post. I really must pack and book a train/bus or something....
Forgive any typos and here's hoping the police allow Sanjoy and Sheuli to leave Ragasthan.
Stay tuned.
Lx
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