Report: Kerala Literature Festival 2024
The seventh edition of the Kerala Literature Festival, held in Kozhikode, was a literary spectacle with just the right dash of history, technology, politics, and celebrity appearances
Every January, the city of Kozhikode hosts the Kerala Literature Festival, one of the largest in Asia, on its historic beach. With great books available at the DC Books pop-up store, vendors selling an assortment of fruit brines, promising author sessions all day long, and the city’s famous Paragon biryani just waiting to be devoured, KLF 2024 was a four-day-long extravaganza.
The festival kicked off on 11 January 2024 with a session featuring Tamil writer Perumal Murugan whose novel, Fire Bird (translated by Janani Kanan), won the 2023 JCB Prize for Literature. Reiterating how the core theme of the novel — the division of a joint family’s farm land and the emotional repercussions that follow — runs parallel to his own life, the author spoke of being part of a society in transition. The power struggles and the search for belonging, he asserted, doesn’t just revolve around a piece of land but are the crux of declining familial relationships.
Murugan’s thoughtful discourse was followed by discussions with some famous faces who made their debuts as authors this year. Stand up comic and actor Kanan Gill had a full house at the launch of his novel, Acts of God, and former model-turned-travel influencer Shehnaz Gill giggled through a session that recalled the many breakups of her life as chronicled in All He Left (Me) Was a Recipe. Expert commentary on money matters was provided by Ankur Warikoo and Monika Halan, both of whom have new books out — Make Epic Money and Let’s Talk Mutual Funds, respectively.
The excellent sessions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) deserve a special mention. While graphic novelist George Mathen aka Appupen wondered about the ethics of deep fakes and generative AI’s impact on art, AI activist Jibu Elias favoured AI’s efficacy with respect to geopolitics in his conversation with Tamil Nadu’s Minister of Information Technology and Digital Services, Palanivel Thiagarajan. They believe this technological inflection point can help countries like India leapfrog into leadership roles, and also touched on the use of AI at the state level. “AI tools are being used regularly in many states to empower rural Indians. In Tamil Nadu, the e-Paarvai, an AI-based mobile app, detects the level of cataracts by taking pictures. Similarly, Telangana has a pensioner identification tool. All these innovations are part of an AI revolution that will transform public service delivery in the country,” he said.
Non-fiction was well represented with sessions featuring authors like Manish Gaekwad (The Last Courtesan), who chronicled his mother’s life as a tawaif in Calcutta and Bombay, Manoj Mitta (Caste Pride: Battles for Equality in Hindu India), who detailed the social history of caste in the country through the lens of the law, and Ashok Gopal (A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of BR Ambedkar). Sessions by Shrayana Bhattacharya whose book, Desperately Seeking Shahrukh, on King Khan’s fandom and how it intersects with the lives of his female fans, and Radhika Iyengar, whose Fire on the Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras is an examination of lives of the Dom community that performs funeral rituals, were also well attended.
Academic and author Suraj Yengde and podcaster Anurag Minus Verma had an insightful conversation on everyday politics. “You’ll find the biggest unorganised literature festivals happening at chai ki tapris where people discuss socio-political issues. Last time I was at one, the owner gave me 10 reasons why America is an interventionist nation in the Russia-Ukraine war,” said Verma about political discussions in the northern states.
Politics is ubiquitous in Kerala too and cultural events are incomplete without debates on the subject. Actor and politician Prakash Raj needed no introduction when he appeared before an enthusiastic audience to reaffirm his views on how star power can be a good thing for political and social activism. Senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat’s session on the implementation of the much-debated women’s reservation bill too witnessed a full house. Karat pointed out the discrepancies in the revised bill as opposed to what was proposed originally in 1996, “The Modi government has added a strategic clause in this bill which says that the bill will come into operation after the exercise of delimitation of Lok Sabha seats and after the next census. The census 2021 is already on, the next census is in 2031, and the delimitation is going to take at least three to four years starting 2026, so this bill, which is a revised bill, is not the bill that we had fought for, which was an immediate implementation mechanism.”
Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s session on the first volume of his three-part memoir (Memoirs of a Maverick: The First Fifty Years) had him recounting anecdotes about his upbringing during the Nehru era, as a result of which,he says, all his ideas are rooted in Nehruvian secularism. “After the colonial period ended, the leaders of the freedom movements became heads of their respective governments and they went back to an authoritarian model. India was the grand and great exception and that was because Nehru particularly but Gandhi too, had been deeply influenced by the Westminster model of parliamentarianism. They were deeply committed to human rights and the right of an individual to dissent, and these values were not only part of our Constitution but also our consciousness,” he said.
Author Amish Tripathi and Bhavna Roy, in their session with journalist Smita Prakash, spoke about the concept of idol worship as explained in their book, Idols: Unearthing the Power of Murti Puja. “There is no one way of worshipping an idol or a form of an idol. Every temple can have its own tradition,” said Tripathi.
Literary fiction was well represented by a range of writers including Vivek Shanbhag, whose Sakina’s Kiss is an account of middle-class family life and Mamang Dai, whose novel Escaping the Land captures the political landscape of Arunachal Pradesh.
Appupen, author of the AI-infused Dream Machine spoke about collaborating with Perumal Murugan on his next graphic novel on Jalikettu while Krish Ashok, author of the wildly popular Masala Lab, spoke about the application of science in cooking and the element of engineering in its craft. Meena Kandasamy’s session on her translation of the third part of Tamil poet-saint Thiruvalluvar’s The Book of Desire, focussed on the text’s deep understanding of female sensuality and agency.
A discussion on two major battles that shaped Kozhikode’s colonial past as chronicled in Dr Oliver Noone’s The Forgotten Battles of Calicut, 1503 and 1790, served as a fitting tribute to this city on the Malabar coast.
From current affairs to historical commentaries and culturally-rich dialogues, the Kerala Literature Festival 2024, which saw a footfall of more than half a million people this year, left attendees satiated intellectually, culturally and gastronomically. Burp!
Arunima Mazumdar is an independent writer. She is @sermoninstone on Twitter and @sermonsinstone on Instagram.