“A City of Literature”?

Home to the one of world’s largest free literary fests, Jaipur does not feature in the UNESCO-designated list of City of Literature. Currently, 28 cities from 23 countries have been given tags of the “City of Literature” by UNESCO. While cities of smaller nations like Estonia, Slovenia and Uruguay are on the list, there isn’t a single city from India. Even war-ravaged Iraqi capital Baghdad made it to this coveted list in 2015.

There is some consolation that Jaipur is the sole Indian city, among 179 others, to feature in the category of “Creative Cities of Craft and Folk Art” under the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) programme.

I very strongly feel that Jaipur and Kolkata, being their respective cultural and literary capital, are the two Indian cities that can qualify for UNESCO list. Kolkata is gearing up to meet the criteria and stake its claim. Edinburgh Napier University, which contributed much to help the city of Edinburgh become the first UN-designated “City of Literature”, is keen to help Kolkata get to that list. A very dynamic Indian lady, Jai Verma, who helped Nottingham become a UNESCO City of Literature in 2015, is also campaigning for Kolkata. Jaipur too should buck up and submit its bid to the UN in right earnest.

Why a UNESCO tag?

Many may wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze! I think so. I feel that JLF should use its stature and appeal to promote literary creativity in Rajasthan and should not be viewed as a world-class literary jamboree. The Pink City should also look beyond the scenic celebration of the written word and create new infrastructure to expand the literary and cultural capital base. Sadly, no serious effort has been made to approach the UN so far.

UNESCO recognition, which is based on many criteria, would go a long way to confirm Jaipur’s cultural and literary heritage and boost creativity and local language literature. Also, there is much to gain by being a part of a global UN initiative that brings together 1000 libraries, 70 lit-fests and 900 bookshops.

Each city and lit-fest has its own cachet. In contrast to JLF, The Hay Festival of Literature and Arts in Wales takes place in a town with a population of 1600 people and 28 bookstores. But, during the 10-day festival, the town’s population reaches 2,50,000. The famous Edinburgh International Book Festival has the only rail station in the world named after a book by Sir Walter Scott. Small towns and cities have made a big contribution to literary activities to become a part of a global UN network with positive spin-offs.

On the other hand, like Jaipur, Brooklyn, Tokyo, Sydney, Irrawaddy (Mandalay in Myanmar) and other cities hosting famous lit-fests aren’t in the UNESCO list, which recognizes only those cities that place creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans.

Lord Jeffery Archer in a Rajasthani turban

Till Jaipur finds a place in that list, it will remain an unreachable itch. Also, Jaipur culture and tradition blends the people into it. I was pleasantly surprised to see Javed Akhtar, Shashi Tharoor, Devdutt Pattanaik and even Lord Jeffery Archer enjoy wearing the turban at my get-together at ITC Rajputana. What more do we want?

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