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Author Namita Gokhale reflects on multilingual literature, emerging voices, and why the right to dream continues to shape India’s most influential literary gathering.
Namita Gokhaale, co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, whose curatorial vision has shaped one of the world’s most influential multilingual literary gatherings.
In a world increasingly defined by speed, spectacle, and singular narratives, Namita Gokhale has spent decades doing something quietly radical: insisting on plurality. As a writer and as the co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, she has helped build a cultural institution that resists easy categorisation, one where literature is not confined by language, geography, or hierarchy. At its heart lies a belief that stories gain power when they are allowed to speak in many tongues, and that a literary festival can be both global in reach and deeply rooted in its own soil.
From its earliest editions, the festival carried a clear intention: to showcase what Gokhale describes as the “treasure house of Indian literature.” Working alongside William Dalrymple and Sanjoy Roy, she helped shape a curatorial vision that privileges plurality over hierarchy. The result is what she calls a “vast and dynamic canvas,” where no single language or literary tradition dominates.
Language as Bridge, Not Barrier
Multilingualism lies at the heart of the festival’s identity. While resolutely inclusive of India’s many languages, the Jaipur Literature Festival recognises English as a bridge language that allows conversations to travel across borders, alongside Hindi’s expansive reach within India. Together, they enable the presentation of third languages in ways that remain accessible without erasing nuance.
One of the festival’s defining moments came when the iconic Bangla writer Manoranjan Byapari was first platformed using a spontaneous, simultaneous translation model. This ensured that his voice rooted in lived experience and social reality could reach a mixed audience directly and powerfully. Such experiments reflect the festival’s belief that access should never come at the cost of authenticity.
The Right to Dream
The philosophical core of the Jaipur Literature Festival was articulated memorably in 2013, when Mahasweta Devi declared in her inaugural address that the right to dream was the most fundamental of rights. That idea continues to guide the festival’s spirit. Jaipur is not merely a forum for debate, but a space where creativity, imagination, dissent, and empathy are allowed to coexist.
By welcoming conflicting viewpoints and encouraging free expression, the festival nurtures what Gokhale describes as the “dreaming mind”, one that remains open to the endless possibilities of the universe. This openness has become one of Jaipur’s most distinctive strengths.
A Writing Life Shaped by Risk and Renewal
Gokhale’s own literary journey reflects a similar resistance to creative limitation. Her debut novel, Paro, first published in 1984, surprised its author by remaining continuously in print for decades. Recently reissued in the UK and recognised as a Penguin Modern Classic in India, its success never became a template she felt compelled to repeat.
Instead, Gokhale moved deliberately across genres, themes, and narrative styles. The Sahitya Akademi Award in 2021 for Things to Leave Behind marked a moment of affirmation, strengthening her belief in herself as an Indian writer working within a uniquely fertile literary moment.
Orality, Folk Wisdom, and the Living Archive
Across 26 published books including fiction, drama, mythology, religious studies, and Himalayan scholarship, Gokhale has repeatedly returned to the power of oral traditions. Her latest book, Voices in the Wind, co-authored with Dr Malashri Lal, gathers folk tales, folklore, and spirit stories from the Himalaya. It follows an earlier, beautifully illustrated volume for young readers based on similar themes.
These projects reflect a deepening engagement with community-based storytelling and an understanding of folklore not as static heritage, but as a living, evolving archive. For Gokhale, orality continues to shape how societies remember, imagine, and narrate themselves.
Reading the Present, Imagining the Future
The 19th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival arrives at a moment of global transition. As technology reshapes access to knowledge and expression, the 2026 programme reflects both curiosity and critical inquiry. Sessions explore the implications of artificial intelligence across disciplines, while others turn toward ghosts, the paranormal, crime fiction, noir, and suspense.
Literature, poetry, history, and the arts remain central pillars, offering audiences ways to interpret uncertainty and make sense of a rapidly changing world. Across genres and disciplines, the festival continues to ask how stories help us navigate the present.
Nurturing New Voices and Literary Ecosystems
Beyond the stage, the festival plays an active role in strengthening the publishing ecosystem. Jaipur BookMark, its dedicated industry platform, brings together publishers, editors, designers, distributors, booksellers, and cultural practitioners to engage with the realities of making and circulating books.
The 2026 edition places special emphasis on Tamil writing and translation outreach, supported by the Tamil Nadu Translation Board, alongside a focused engagement with Marathi writing and publishing. These initiatives encourage dialogue across India’s 22 official languages, opening pathways for new literary collaborations within India and globally.
Many Languages, One Literature
For Gokhale, multilingualism is not a curatorial preference but a cultural responsibility. India’s linguistic plurality embodies the idea of “Many Languages, One Literature.” In a society where bilingualism and trilingualism are common, challenging monolingual norms expands intellectual horizons and deepens cultural understanding.
While English remains an invaluable global language, the festival has consistently drawn younger audiences back toward their mother tongues and inherited traditions—often through unexpected literary encounters that reshape reading habits and creative ambitions.
A Festival That Continues to Dream
At a time when cultural spaces are increasingly driven by speed and spectacle, the Jaipur Literature Festival stands apart for its commitment to depth, dialogue, and dreaming. Under Namita Gokhale’s stewardship, it continues to affirm that literature’s greatest power lies not in consensus, but in its ability to hold contradictions and in its insistence that every voice, in every language, has the right to be heard.
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