Why did tens of thousands of people flock to the Diggi Palace in Jaipur on the morning of 22 January 2012? Why did hundreds of men mob the same venue on the afternoon of 24 January 2012? And who were the others, milling in the shadows, trying to catch each other's attention?
Diggi Palace has been hosting the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival for five years now, but this year's program attracted more attention than in any of the years past. The Indian press seemed to have finally awoken to the magnitude and significance of the festival, but the focus of each section of the press was on wildly different facets of the festival: some questioned the very utility of literature festivals, while others focused on the nature of – and need for – freedom of expression and censorship in India. God made his presence felt, and atheists threw insults at him. The local press, as in past years, published pictures of smartly dressed women smoking cigarettes and drinking wine, enthralled by the opportunity to witness at close quarters evidence of supposed moral decay.