If the best way to discover country is to travel through it, the second best way perhaps is to sit back in your armchair and read its books. This is what booklovers in London have the opportunity to do this April. The British Council is presenting a festival of Indian writing to strengthen cultural relations between the UK and India. Seminars and readings will take place across the UK from 18 to 24 April 2009, as part of our long-term partnership with The London Book Fair to support their Market Focus programme.

This is also part of the British Council’s literature programme, India ’09: Through Fresh Eyes, which was launched in India in November 2008. The India Market Focus was highlighted through our participation in a series of literature festivals, workshops and readings in India.

Festival of Indian writing

More than 45 leading Indian writers, translators, critics, academics and industry professionals will be coming to the Fair, to take part in a varied programme of events based on themes of cultural and linguistic diversity, designed to enable better market understanding through contemporary literature between India and the UK.

The names are: Amartya Sen, Amit Chaudhuri, Amruta Patil, Anita Nair, Antara Dev Sen, Anuja Chauhan, Bolwar Mohammad Kunhi, Bhalchandra Nemade, Chetan Bhagat, Chiranjib Basu, Daljit Nagra, Girish Karnad, Gopi Chand Narang, Harish Narang, Indrajit Hazra, Jaishree Misra, Javed Akhtar, Jeet Thayil, Jiwan Namdung, K Satchidanandan, Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, Mamang Dai, Namdeo Dhasal, Namita Gokhale, Nandan Nilekani, Neel Mukherjee, Pavan K. Varma, Prasoon Joshi, Prayag Shukla, Ramachandra Guha, Salma, Sangeeta Datta, Sankar, Satish Alekar, Shafi Shauq, Soumya Bhattacharya, Sudeep Chakravarti, Suketu Mehta, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Supriya Chaudhuri,  Sutinder Singh Noor, Tarun Tejpal, Temsula Ao, U R Ananthamurthy, Udaya Narayan Singh, Urvashi Butalia, Varsha Adalja, Vikram Seth, Viswanath Prasad Tewari and Y D Thongchi.

The richness and diversity of contemporary Indian literature, with over 15 Indian languages represented across a total of 40 events will be represented through events that these writers will participate in.

Sujata Sen, Director East India, British Council, said: “We are very excited about contributing to the Market Focus Seminar Programme. This comes at a time when Indian writing is coveted, read and followed internationally. There is a wide range of exciting Indian writing which is still not accessible to the international market and readers outside India. India writes and speaks in 32 languages that have more than 1 million speakers in each language, and several hundred other languages also have their own literatures. Our programme in and around the fair will reveal why India is such an exciting market for writing, reading and publishing."

In addition to the London Book Fair seminars there are scheduled six events as part of the English PEN Literary Café Programme. Authors taking part are Girish Karnad and UR Ananthamurthy; K Satchidanandan and Amit Chaudhuri; Vikram Seth; Anita Nair and Javed Akhtar; Ramachandra Guha and Tarun Tejpal; and William Dalrymple.

Nobel Prize  winning writer, economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, will give the keynote speech entitled “India in the Modern World” at the prestigious Chairman’s Breakfast on 20 April, and Vikram Seth, award-winning novelist and poet, will be Author of the Day on Tuesday 21 April.

In London and beyond

The festival spans out outside the London Book Fair as well. The British Library, Foyles, International PEN’s Free the Word! Festival, The Nehru Centre, Wasafiri Magazine and Writers’ Chain are hosting a series of public events with the British Council’s guest authors during the week of The London Book Fair. “Many people in the UK feel they know India and her writers, which is not surprising given their justified success in this country; many readers in India  feel they are au fait with British contemporary literature. In fact all of us will benefit hugely from this opportunity – a major part of an ongoing British Council programme – to discover more about each other’s literary cultures and societies,” says Susie Nicklin, Director Literature, British Council.

For more information, please visit www.londonbookfair.co.uk