Drone attacks do not deter terrorists and guns do not erase staunch nationalists but words can, maintains acclaimed novelist and essayist Pico Iyer. And just like London was the capital of 19th century writing in English and New York, the capital of 20th century writing, the bustling city of Mumbai has been hailed by Iyer as "the capital of 21st century writing."
Iyer was delivering the prestigious keynote address at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival that kicked off on Thursday morning. His 25-minute-long address was themed on "A world without borders" and Iyer transported his audience in the Pink City to the suburbs of London and beaches of Jamaica as he literally traced the evolution of modern literature, signifying the role it plays, and can play more efficiently, in creating a world without borders.
"In 1970s, I devoted eight years of my life in studying nothing but literature, literature and more English literature. Not a single hour of science or history or languages, just English Literature. Writers don't just open dusty doors and windows to literature but they create new stories, new histories and new ways of telling stories," he said at the onset.
With references moving from Salman Rushdie to Arundhati Roy and Zadie Smith, Iyer caught the imagination of his listeners by dwelling upon the central theme of his address and by explaining its relation to literature. For this, he made a reference to former US President Barack Obama.
"To me it is an astonishing thing that the greatest travel writer who has written most passionately, most searchingly and most honestly about identity was actually, literally the most powerful person on planet Earth for eight years -- Barack Obama. He saw the world differently because he did not look at himself as a Black or a White, he was and is both a Black and a White... All of that seemed in perfect sync in a world in which an average person in England chooses Chicken Tikka masala as his favourite dish," he quipped, highlighting a world without borders that is already in existence.
He also hailed the annual gathering of writers in the Pink City and called it the "most glamorous and romantic lit fest of the world".
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"If I were to meet my British publisher, my favourite book seller from Seattle, or my old school classmate who now lives in Milan, the only place where I can expect to see them together is here at the most glamorous and romantic lit fest of the world.
"A new kind of writer is coming up to speak for a new kind of reader and if London is the Capital of 19th century writing in English and New York is the capital of 20th century writing in English, then the capital of 21st century writing, so far, is certainly Mumbai," he said to thunderous applause from the audience.
Notably, some of the most powerful novels of recent times have been set in the "Maximum City," which has produced literary giants like Salman Rushdie. Gregory David Roberts' "Shantarama"; Rohinton Mistrys'"Family Matters"; Murzban F Shroff's "Breathless in Bombay"; Vikram Chandra's "Love and Longing in Bombay"; Kiran Nagarkar's "Ravan & Eddie" and Salman Rushdie's "The Moor's Last Sigh" are a few highly successful novels set in Mumbai.
"Across the western world, publishers are running scared, bookshops are closing, magazines are dwindling. But everytime that I come here to the world's largest democracy, I find a new publishing house, a new magazine and new readers eager to talk about a certain page number of 'A Suitable Boy' and this is essential to remember that many people are scared of this rainbow flood that I have been describing and would love to return to a simpler world where there is less of us versus them," he maintained.
Iyer also reflected that there has been a rise in nationalism across the planet in recent years and "it's as if the countryside is rising up against the city, the desperate are rising up against what they say are privileged and the past is rising up against the future". In this complex situation, he said, literature is indispensable, precisely because "it is the voice of the individual".
"Even as the world is moving fast towards hard and more distinctions, literature ravels in the soft and the slow. Literature tells us that what unites us is much more important than what separates us and that's how your story becomes mine. Literature tells us that it is much better than waging wars to hold festivals such as this. Literature tells us that drone attacks do not deter terrorists, that guns are never going to erase nationalists. But our words, our ideas, our rigorous imaginings can take us a little bit towards simplicities and remind us that ultimately we change the world by thinking how we change it," he concluded.
(Saket Suman is in Jaipur at the invitation of the organisers of Jaipur Literature Festival. He can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
--IANS
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