Books and writers help us understand our world and in these troubled, confusing times we need them more than ever. The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) which was attended by over 170 authors and 20 moderators, provided an opportunity to people from across languages, countries, and disciplines to listen, talk, argue, brainstorm and thus bond with and understand each other.

The five-day festival took place in the old world comfort of the Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur. Despite the full agenda and thousands of visitors/participants, it was an extremely well-organised event. There were no unpleasant surprises and the rich and varied programme unfolded on schedule. The whole show was organised flawlessly by Sanjay Roy of TeamWork.

Within Diggi Palace, four spaces were reserved for the JLF and visitors could choose from three or four parallel sessions. The interviews, panel discussions, readings and Q and A sessions that took place from 10 am to 6 pm daily were followed by music and dance concerts by celebrities from Karachi, Bengal, Mali, Benaras and, of course, Rajasthan.

The co-directors of the JLF were William Dalrymple and writer and publisher Namita Gokhale.

It was wonderful to see that 'VIP culture' had been abolished. It was a classless and unrestricted event. All sessions were free and seating was on a first come, first serve basis. There were no sofas, special rooms for meals or roped enclosures. I saw Nandita Das seated cross-legged on the carpet as all seats were taken, and celebrity authors and top government officials lining up for a cup of tea. Only the frail and elderly were given special treatment; nothing was reserved for grandees.

It was heartwarming to see young students attending the festival. They were provided transport and accommodation by the organisers. Students were even provided with a space on the Diggi Palace lawns to display and sell their paintings. Festival rules were enforced equally. The special themes this year were the spoken word, oral traditions and travel writings.

I loved Vikram Seth's (A Suitable Boy) interview in which he admitted that he was obsessed with a novel in verse by Pushkin and was a poet himself who had 'strayed' into prose. He said he wrote when 'the muse tapped him on the shoulder' and when he had something compelling to say. 'A dressing gown, a hot water bottle, a little bit of whiskey' also helped a writer. He casually sipped wine during the interview and I discovered later that he was criticised for this in the Hindi media.

Seth said a translator was not just a conduit, but brought some originality to the work. He hoped translation facilities would be upgraded to facilitate the literary discourse of India otherwise regional languages and literature would get boxed in resulting in segregation in the literary world. This is also true of Pakistan. Creative intercourse between languages leads to plurality and inclusiveness. The multiplicity of languages is enriched and grows when people writing in one language know another.

Another gripping session was the one which featured Nadeem Aslam, Maps for Lost Lovers and Wasted Vigil. Aslam studied at an Urdu-medium government-run school in Gujranwala until the age of 14 when he moved to England with his parents during Zia ul Haq's regime. He arrived there unarmed with English but mastered it enough to write three award-winning novels in English. He claimed he could can write in Urdu with equal ease. His mother came from a deeply religious Tablighi Jamaat family while his father was a total bohemian and liberal. His mother's family didn't consider him a Muslim but he didn't care until 9/11. Then he declared he was a Muslim, because he wanted to send a message to Osama bin Ladin that he could not decide Nadeem's way of being a Muslim.
Nadeem feels that the ordinary people of India and Pakistan want friendship and goodwill and exchange of writers, musicians, and dancers, but the leadership in both countries promoted war. He said that this generation of people of influence has to be replaced if things were to change. The moderator, Shoma Chaudhry of Tehelka, intervened at this point and said there was no dissent in the Muslim world to which Nadeem strenuously disagreed and said Urdu newspapers in Pakistan are full of dissent.

Author Tarun Tejpal, also of Tehelka, said all greats like Nehru and Obama were shaped by the books they read. The books introduced them to new ideas and showed them new ways of seeing the world. He regarded journalists as soldiers or warriors who worked within a framework of time and context whereas writers were bound by no such grid and could sit back and see and write about the big picture.

Moderating a session on Kashmir with Basharat Peer, the Kashmiri author of Curfewed Night and Hari Kunzru, a British-Indian son of a Kashmiri Pandit and English mother and author of three novels, Tarun said Nehru was obsessed with Kashmir and that Pandits had been displaced from their own land and were now living as refugees. Hari, who quoted his father as saying he was an Indian first and Kashmiri second, said Pandit families had a strong element of Muslim culture with regard to food and language.

He said Pandits were being used as pawns to back the right-wing state policies and Kashmiris should be able to determine their own future. He felt India should not sacrifice its ideals for security and that the behaviour of security forces in Kashmir had made Kashmir India's Guantanamo.

Peer added that neither India nor Pakistan would give up their claims nor Kashmiris theirs and young Kashmiris were politically engaged with both Muslims and Pandits bearing the brunt of the violence. He said Pakistan's involvement could not be denied and a solution was a referendum as the status quo was not sustainable. Tejpal was of the opinion that a referendum would not be held.

The theme of diaspora was a common thread that ran through the JLF. Nadeem Aslam spoke of it at length. Tahmima Anam, who was born in Bangladesh but grew up in Paris, New York and Bangkok, said her feelings of displacement were part of her being a writer. Hari Kunzru said displacement and migration gave writers flexibility. Pico Iyer, author of two novels, seven books on non-fiction including a book on the Dalai Lama, was born in England, raised in California is fully Indian although he cannot speak any Indian language. He said he was free from the rigidity of nation-states because parts of him were in many different places. He said 'I am an ex-citizen of nowhere and sometimes I get homesick.'

William Dalrymple interviewed Pico with much empathy and humour. Dalrymple admitted that he was bringing up his children in India to make them think of England as exotic. When his children arrived at Heathrow, he said, they were wide-eyed with wonder.

The English-Urdu 'Jugalbandi' session of the Urdu poet and lyricist Gulzar and writer, diplomat Pavan K. Varma was a highlight of the festival. Gulzar read from his poetry in Urdu while Pavan read the English translation; this was followed by a discussion on poetry and popular culture. Pavan's book Being Indian is a must-read.

The session which included Ashis Nandy was riveting. A leading Indian social, cultural and political critic, he spoke on 'Nations, Nationalism, and Nationality'. According to Ashis Nandy, nationalism has nothing to do with patriotism which is a state of mind that is built on territorialism. Even cats and dogs in his opinion are territorial. Nationalism is an ideology in which citizens are Indians first and Hindus and Muslims second. He described India as the world's most nationalist country and Bangladesh the second. He added that Hinduism should be subservient to the needs of the Indian nation-state and that the Hindutva image of a homogenised India was dull. He claimed Pakistanis were obsessed with Hindus and that Pakistan was a disowned part of India.

Christopher Jaffrelot, of the Institute of Political Science, Paris, who was also on the panel described the mainstreaming of Dalits and the Tamils/Dravidians into the fold of the political system as two great achievements of India. He said young Indian Muslims felt discriminated against in jobs and housing and it was crucial for India to escape this vicious cycle. He suggested that the recipe that worked for Dalits could be used for Muslims but required courage by politicians. He pointed out that political entrepreneurs such as Modi polarised society in order to gain power. India is in a Hindutva spiral as Muslim attacks fostered Hindu nationalism.
Attending the Jaipur Literature Festival was like opening countless windows to new vistas, flavours, spices and smells.

The writer is Managing Director of Oxford University Press, Pakistan.