Jaipur Literature Festival Announces Programme for Virtual 2021 Edition

Set to take place between 19th to 28th February 2021, the Jaipur Literature Festival returns with a stellar online programme, spread over 10 days, for its 14th edition. Covering the ongoing pandemic, doctors and co-authors Randeep Guleria, Chandrakant Lahariya and Gagandeep Kang will discuss their exciting new project in conversation with award-winning journalist Maya Mirchandani. The focus of the session will revolve around whether India wins the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Marina Wheeler, a Queen’s Counsel in England, will open the portals of memory as the daughter of a woman traumatised by the Partition of 1947 that divided British India into Pakistan and India. In conversation with Navtej Sarna, the former High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, she will explore the meaning of the Punjabi Sikh identity as it survives through cultural transitions. In a special session, director and writer Devashish Makhija’s latest book, Oonga will be launched followed by a conversation exploring the book. At a special session, a distinguished panel consisting of author and the 16th Chief Election Commissioner of India Navin B. Chawla, former Chief Election Commissioner of Nepal Neil Kantha Uprety and the Chief Election Commissioner of Bhutan Dasho Kunzang Wangdi will decipher and evaluate the electoral process in conversation with anthropologist and writer Mukulika Banerjee. In conversation with celebrated author and Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, Michael Sandel will offer an ethic of dignity and solidarity that points the way to a new politics of the common good.The Festival will remember legendary Indian actress Devika Rani through award-winning author and playwright Kishwar Desai’s book The Longest Kiss: The Life and Times of Devika Rani which charts the life and career of the celebrated actress.