MNC-supported Jaipur Literary Festival begins in London following unprecedented "outrage" against Vedanta

Boycott festival poster

By A Representative
The top British metals and mining company Vedanta Resources-sponsored Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) began on Saturday in London following a growing number of writers and activist groups showing their displeasure with the sponsorship, calling for a boycott of the high-profile event.
While an open letter, signed by over 100 writers, called upon participating writer to keep away from the festival, questions were being raised about whose ‘freedom of speech’ was being prioritised over others, and about the legitimacy and relevance of the festival itself.
Earlier years’ festivals were sponsored, among others, by DSC Limited, Tata, Shell, Rio Tinto and Coca Cola. The Jaipur festival, set up in 2006, attracts thousands of guests every year to the Indian city of Jaipur, and is billed as the largest free literary festival in the world. JLF has travelled to London for the third consecutive year.
This year’s festival in London has been directed by writers Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple, “exoticising Jaipur as the colourful city of Maharajas, elephants, dance and music”, wrote Kavita Bhanot, a top literary expert, ahead of the festival in a scathing article ahead of the meet. ‘James Joyce meets Monsoon Wedding,’ is how Dalrymple described JLF.
Two speakers pulled out of the JLF's London edition just three days back. They are scientist and broadcaster Aarathi Prasad and K Satchidanandan. The organizers, however, declared, "While we appreciate the concerns of those who have posted the open letter, we remain an open platform that allows for free thought and expression."
Said filmmaker Surya Shankar Dash in a social media post, “So Adivasi writers and activists can’t go to London to speak but all the useless Savarna writers will assemble at Southbank for Vedanta’s shit fest.” Dash was referring to Gladson Dungdung, a Jharkhand based human rights activist who has long been asking ‘difficult questions’ about illegal land acquisition in Adivasi areas.
Dungdung, author of seven books, including “Mission Saranda: A War for Natural Resources in India…”, was on his way to attend a workshop on Environmental History and Politics of South Asia at University of Sussex, when his passport was impounded and he was offloaded from a Delhi-London Air India flight.
Dungdung in his book has questioned what he considers as illegal land acquisition by the state and by multinational companies, such as Mittal, Jindal and Vedanta in India, saying it has led to displacement, pollution of land, air and rivers, and industrial waste, as well as murder, torture, violence.
“Is it a coincidence that Vedanta signed an MoU with the Jharkhand government for an investment of Rs 5,000 crore, and just two days later I was offloaded from Delhi-London Air India Flight?”, Dungdung asked.
Vedanta has reportedly been offered 700 hectares of forestland in Dhobil Ankua reserved forest for iron ore mining, which is one among seven hundred hills in Saranda Forest. “After Niyamgiri Hill”, apprehends Dungdung, “Vedanta is ready to destroy the Saranda Forest, which is the largest Sal Forest in Asia and needs to be preserved to sustain the ecology. We cannot allow them to destroy the forest anymore in the name of economic growth.”
This is likely to happen as, following the successful campaign of the Dongria Kondh tribals in Odisha, Vedanta has been forced to abandon its alumina project in Niyamgiri Mountain.
“How can Vedanta claim to promote Indian literature and culture, when it doesn’t even respect the human rights of Adivasis and ecology?” asks Dungdung. “Vedanta intends to manufacture consent in its favour in order to ensure the loot of the natural resources of India.”

Comments

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

From protest to proof: Why civil society must rethink environmental resistance

By Shankar Sharma* As concerned environmentalists and informed citizens, many of us share deep unease about the way environmental governance in our country is being managed—or mismanaged. Our complaints range across sectors and regions, and most of them are legitimate. Yet a hard question confronts us: are complaints, by themselves, effective? Experience suggests they are not.

Kolkata event marks 100 years since first Communist conference in India

By Harsh Thakor* A public assembly was held in Kolkata on December 24, 2025, to mark the centenary of the First Communist Conference in India , originally convened in Kanpur from December 26 to 28, 1925. The programme was organised by CPI (ML) New Democracy at Subodh Mallik Square on Lenin Sarani. According to the organisers, around 2,000 people attended the assembly.

Dalit woman student’s death sparks allegations of institutional neglect in Himachal college

By A Representative A Dalit rights organisation has alleged severe caste- and gender-based institutional violence leading to the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman student at Government Degree College, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and has demanded arrests, resignations, and an independent inquiry into the case.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

The architect of Congolese liberation: The life and legacy of Patrice Lumumba

By Harsh Thakor* Patrice Émery Lumumba remains a central figure in the history of African decolonization, serving as the first Prime Minister of the independent Republic of the Congo. Born on July 2, 1925, Lumumba emerged as a radical anti-colonial leader who sought to unify a nation fractured by decades of Belgian rule. His tenure, however, lasted less than seven months before his dismissal and subsequent assassination on January 17, 1961.

Venezuela and the crisis of global order: Erosion of rules-based international order

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The American attack on Venezuela violates every principle of international law that the collective West claims to uphold. The response from the European Union—“we are monitoring the situation”—exposes the hollowness of these claims. WhatsApp gossipers may celebrate this as an act of “bravery,” but what kind of bravery is it to intimidate a neighbour that is neither large in size nor strong in military power?

Search This Blog