India at London Book Fair 2009
18 / 04 / 2009
London, April 18 2009 As India goes into election mode Indian authors and thinkers on their way to The London Book Fair 2009 reveal their visions of a New India.
The British Council is delighted to present the largest ever festival of Indian writers overseas. From 18 April to 24 April 2009, over 50 Indian writers representing 15 major Indian languages will participate in 40 literary events in London and several other UK destinations.
Some of India’s most vocal thinkers will be in the UK to take part in the cultural programme at The London Book Fair and at other prestigious venues in London and around the UK.
The British Council is The London Book Fair's partner for the cultural programme, supporting the Market Focus initiative which this year celebrates India.
Vikram Seth, award-winning writer of ‘A Suitable Boy’, will be the Author of the Day at The London Book Fair on Tuesday 21 April. He says ”I am delighted to be the author of the day at The London Book Fair. Since I know my own thoughts and opinions far too well what I really look forward to is hearing those of my fellow authors”.
Nobel Prize winning writer, economist and philosopher Amartya Sen who will give the keynote speech entitled “India in the Modern World” at the Chairman’s Breakfast on 20 April and Sunil Gangopadhyay, president of the Sahitya Akademi, India’s Academy of Letters, are just a few of the many writers who will be in the UK and will speak about India’s social, economic and political future. “We are discovering India again and again,” says Gangopadhyay, in the context of its literature and diversity.
Social historian Ramachandra Guha, who has recently landed a huge deal in non-fiction publishing in India, says: “As a citizen, I might want to live in a more stable society with a more humane government. But as a historian and writer, I would wish to live nowhere else. For while India is sometimes the most exasperating country in the world, it is at all times the most interesting. This is a country of extraordinary depth and diversity undergoing some profound churnings.”
Sujata Sen, Director East India, British Council, says: “Giving readers in the UK an opportunity to listen to diverse voices from India is what the British Council’s cultural programme is all about. While Indian writing in English has an international readership with Indian writers on top of prize lists and sales charts, international audiences are only beginning to discover the other world of Indian literature in vernacular languages.”
The Indian Constitution recognises 23 official languages, including English, but India writes and speaks in many more. There are at least 32 Indian languages that have more than one million speakers each, and several hundred other languages with a considerable body of oral and written literatures.
Susie Nicklin, Director Literature, British Council, says: “I am delighted that our cultural programme involves so many writers from all over Britain and India, coming together to celebrate and investigate the best each culture has to offer. From Edinburgh to Reading via Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford, and London, British readers will have the opportunity to meet writers from Trivandrum to Srinagar, from Mumbai to Itangar, and to discover India through their writing.”
- ENDS –
MEDIA ENQUIRIES, THE BRITISH COUNCIL
Tracey Jennings / Fiona McMorrough, FMCM Associates, tel: + 44 (0)20 7405 7422
email: traceyj@fmcm.co.uk / fionam@fmcm.co.uk. Mobile: 07712 396902 (Tracey Jennings).
For further information on the full Market Focus Seminar Programme and other seminars taking place at The London Book Fair, please visit www.londonbookfair.co.uk and www.britishcouncil.org/India.
Note to Editors:
THE MARKET FOCUS
The Market Focus programme, now in its sixth year, was first created in 2004 for LBF to draw attention to certain countries and highlight the trade links with this territory, its publishing industry and the opportunities for conducting business with the rest of the world. In the first year of the initiative, the countries highlighted were Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, followed in 2005 by Australia and New Zealand, in 2006 by Mexico, in 2007 by Spain and in 2008 by the Arab World.
THE BRITISH COUNCIL
Celebrating 75 years in 2009, the British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We work in over 100 countries worldwide to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas. We work in the arts, education, science, sport and governance and last year over 128 million people benefited from our projects. We are a non-political charitable organisation which operates at arm’s length from government. Our total income in 2007/8 was £565 million, of which our grant-in-aid from the British government was £197 million. For more information about the British Council's Literature department, please visit: http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-literature.
The British Council has been in India since 1948 and is headquartered in New Delhi, with offices in Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. It runs five libraries in association with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Pune. India and Sri Lanka form one of the 12 regional directorates of the British Council across the world. For more information about this year’s cultural programme at The London Book Fair, please visit: http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-projects-icd-londonbookfair.htm.
20–22 April 20
