Why the Jaipur Literature Festival is a success

The annual five-day Jaipur Literature Festival, which began once again on Thursday, is the biggest such festival in all of Asia, and counted among the top five such festivals in the world. All the other four - Edinburgh, Hay-on-Wye (in Wales), Berlin and Sydney - are much older and located in the developed world.

When it started in 2006, the Jaipur festival was part of a bigger Jaipur Virasat (heritage) Festival, and it was only in 2008 that it became an independent entity.


"When I did my first reading at this festival in 2006, there were just 14 listeners," says William Dalrymple, one of the festival's directors. The numbers have skyrocketed since - in 2012, it had 205 speakers and 125,000 visitors. This year 285 men and women are scheduled to speak while the number of registrations has crossed 200,000.

What accounts for this success? Namita Gokhale, Co-director of the festival along with Dalrymple, attributes it to "the total commitment and dedication of the people behind the festival".

But hard work alone hardly guarantees success.

Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Productions, which organises the festival, believes the impression the festival leaves on visitors has made all the difference. "Everyone who has come to the earlier festivals has gone away as an ambassador for the festival," he says. He also maintains that the location, Jaipur, the venue (Diggi Palace grounds), and the large presence of young people has given the festival a vibrancy other such gatherings lack.

Amrita Chowdhury is part of a team of researchers from Harvard Business School, which includes Hillary Greene, Tarun Khanna and Dennis Yao. The team has written a case study on the festival.

Called "Jaipur Literature Festival: Beyond the Festival Template" it takes a close look at the festival's programming, financing and administration. "The programming at Jaipur is different from that of many other festivals that are managed by professionals," she says. "Here, it is writers who decide, and that makes a big difference." She also stresses that the inclusiveness and democratic nature of the festival is responsible for its success. "Since entry is free, unlike, say, at Edinburgh or Hay, people of all kinds visit. And once inside everybody is treated the same, which visitors find most attractive."