The Festival is an Initiative of the Jaipur Virasat Foundation founded by Faith Singh and was started as a segment of the Jaipur Heritage International Festival since 2006. The festival was developed into an independent festival of literature in 2008. Vinod Joshi is its regional advisor.
The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, the Asia’s leading literature event besides being a host to national and international writers also encompasses activities including film, music and theatre.
The festival will enter into seventh year in 2012. Till date the festival has hosted some of the best-known national and international writers including John Berendt, Kiran Desai, Christopher Hampton, Ian McEwan, Vikram Seth, Nadeem Aslam, Salman Rushdie, Pico Iyer, Simon Schama, Thomas Keneally, Anoushka Shankar, Donna Tartt, Tina Brown, Shashi Tharoor, Mohammed Hanif, Paul Zacharia among many others.
The Jaipur Literature Festival is held annually in the pink city of Jaipur. The Diggi Palace Hotel is the venue of the festival since last four years. It is recognized as “the grandest literary Festival in Asia” by Miranda Seymour. It is held each year in Jaipur, Rajasthan during the month of January, usually in Durbar Hall, Baithak and Mughal Tent.
In 2007, the festival featured Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Suketu Mehta, Shashi Despande, and William Dalrymple. In 2008, the following authors shared their thoughts- Ian McEwan, Donna Tartt, John Berendt, Paul Zacharia, Indra Sinha, Uday Prakash, Christopher Hampton, Manil Suri, Miranda Seymour, Sonia Faleiro, Kunal Basu, Kamila Shamsie, Nayantara Saghal, Sarnath Banerjee, Jeet Thayil, Robin Roberston, Tishani Doshi among others.
There were cultural performances which included dance and music by Paban Das Baul, Susheela Raman, Karsh Kale and Anoushka Shankar.
The festival hosted and witnessed the presence of renowned authors like Vikram Seth, Pico Iyer, Michael Ondaatje, Simon Schama, Tina Brown, Hanif Kureshi, Hari Kunzru, Pankaj Mishra, Tariq Ali, Ahmed Rashid, Patrick French, Mohsin Hamid, Mohammed Hanif, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Tarun Tejpal, Sashi Tharoor, U R Ananthmurthy, Alka Saraogi, Anuragh Mathur, Ashok Vajpayi, Asish Nandy, Basharat Peer, Charles Nicoll, Christophe Jafferlot, Colin Thubron, Daniyal Mueenudin, Geetanjali Shree, Mukul Kesavan, Musharraf Ali Farooqui, Narayana Rao, Nikita Lalwani, Paul Zacharia, Pavan K Varma, Rana Dasgupta, S R Faruqui, Tariq Ali, Tash Aw, Udayan Vajpayi, Farah Khan and Sonia Faleiro to name a few. The cultural function included the musical performances by DJ Cheb i Sabbah, Nitin Sawney, and Paban Das Baul. The special theme this year was the oral tradition, in India and elsewhere.
Jaipur Literature Festival Video