Lit Sutra was a programme that aimed to encourage cultural relations through reading and writing. It builds upon the success of the British Council’s festival of Indian writing at The London Book Fair 2009.

The British Council’s 'India 09: Through Fresh Eyes' cultural programme was the biggest festival of Indian writing ever held outside the subcontinent. Taking place in nine cities across the UK during April 2009, 53 Indian writers took part and more than 90 Indian publishers exhibited at The London Book Fair.

Some highlights from the programme
Taking part in the programme were two graphic narrative authors Woodrow Phoenix and Tony Lee (pictured left). They both were a huge hit with the crowds during their tours.

Born in West London, Tony has been a writer and journalist for television, print and radio for over twenty years. He worked on comics such as X-Men and Spiderman. While on the Lit Sutra programme, Tony conducted workshops on graphic writing at universities of Jadavpur and Manipal. He describes Jadavpur as a ‘magical city’ in his blog and tells an interesting story where a met a boy in his class that would wake up around 4am and then walk ten miles to attend university lectures or event the talk by Tony and the then afterwards he would work part time in a bookstore followed by a ten mile walk back home at the end of day. Read about Tony’s experiences in India on his blog.

Woodrow started off as a letterer early in his career but later went on to create The Sumo Family and The Liberty Cat. Woodrow even commented on his blog that '…arriving in Hyderabad is like being plucked is like being plucked from a tub of yogurt and plunged into a bowl of minestrone soup'. Woodrow attended numerous events and talks. He was even mentioned in the media including Indian ExpressBuzz - click here to read the newspaper article.

Ian Rankin (pictured left) also joined the LitSutra programme. He undertook a five city tour of India followed by appearances at the Galle Literary Festival and British Council events in Colombo. He toured Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Chennai. While touring, Ian was swamped by fans who wanted him to sign books, offer advice on writing crime. He mentioned in his blog that he was impressed by Amit Varma’s book, My Friend Sancho. Ian also recorded a video about his visit to India, click here to watch his video.

Lit Sutra Background
The LitSutra programme started in August 2009. The programme incorporated several different strands of activity in India:
• The introduction of English literature into classrooms through the BritLit programme. This part of the programme is being piloted in the Punjab area and will continue nationwide.
• A series of Creative Writing courses. Beginning in Chennai from October 2009, participants joined an Indo-UK online network of creative writing teaching professionals to exchange latest ideas from India and the UK.
• The discussion of reader development and curriculum development in Indian schools and universities.
• A series of writer exchanges that aimed to foster a very immediate and rich understanding of the UK and of British books. Workshops began in Kolkata and Delhi in August 2009 and continued with writer visits to India and Sri Lanka into March 2010.

These activities took place across India, including the Jaipur Literature Festival, and at Sri Lanka’s Galle Literary Festival.

Writers that have taken part in the Lit Sutra programme are:
(Click on the names to read more about them)
Tony Lee, Jake Arnott, Woodrow Phoenix, Claire Tomalin, Michael Frayn, China Mieville, Denise Mina, Mark Billingham, Andy Diggle, Geoff Dyer, Shrabani Basu and Ian Rankin.

Images from top:
Ian Rankin in conversation with Indrajit Hazra. New Delhi, January 2010
Andy and China in conversation with Amit Varma. Mumbai, March 2010
Phoenix Woodrow in Hydrabad. November 2009
Writers Tony Lee (left) and Jake Arnott meet in Kolkata during their Lit Sutra visit to India. November 2009

All images © British Council