7/29/2019 Patrons of Jaipur

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EYE CULTURE

MIHIR S SHARMA

There is something daintily aristo-cratic about the Jaipur LiteraryFestival. It isnt just that it is held

amid the trappings of faded gentility thatcharacterise the more touristy parts ofRajputana; or that Diggi Palace, which it

occupies like a Mongol-style empire oftents, is filled with the drawling accents ofupper-class Britons charmed into turn-ing up by festival organiser WilliamDalrymple. No, particularly remarkableis how very how very discreetly expen-sive it must be, and how easily it wears allthat expense. There are dozens and

dozens of writers and critics and journal-ists from all over the world; theyre ferriedto India and ferried around Jaipur frompalace to palace, fed and entertained asare sundry other individuals waving theirtags of privilege, green and blue and red,demanding cars on call and enormousamounts of alcohol.

I dont know what the finances are ofsomething like this, but something thatadmits tens of thousands of people freeis unlikely to be able to pay for itself, andit shouldnt be expected to. (Its good toknow that JLF does, at least, make mon-ey off the on-site bookstore. Apparentlypeople buy books after lis-tening to authors, the sortof little fact that at firstmay seem obvious but, ifyou really think about it,warms your cynical heart.)JLF, Ive said before, is thesort of gilded bubblewhere normal rules seemto cease to apply except

they dont, and the mostbasic of rules in this most heartless oferas is that things have to be paid for.And thus, of course, you have sponsors.Oddly, that doesnt take away from JLFsgenteel air, quite the opposite whatsmore aristo than a bit of Patronage ofthe Arts, anyway?

It isnt easy to line up sponsors, and Idont envy Mr Dalrymple and his co-organisers, Sanjoy Roy and NamitaGokhale, the task of persuading Indiasnotoriously tight-fisted and quite unlit-erary companies to hand over a cheque ortwo with a murmured prayer to Culture.Yet, surely, theres something to be

deduced from how JLF, Indias most vis-ible globalised cultural event, has weath-ered the storms that have buffeted thiscountrys economy.

And it is easier to make that deduc-tion than you would expect. You need nospecial information; you can ignore anygossip whispered eagerly in your ear; youdont need to eavesdrop on whisperedconversations in Diggi Palaces famously

public private spaces. No, all you need isto turn you eyes upwards, and look at thesponsors banners. In the past, the namesemblazoned across them reflected thosewho made a fortune or wished to maketheir fortune from the brash, resource-driven capitalism of that increasingly dis-tant era that gave India eight per cent-plus growth and made it the toast of theworlds investors. Vedanta, for example.

Shell, for another. Those nice Jindals, too.The good people of Rio Tinto got them-selves an entire tent. And then, of course,there are the erstwhile Masters of theUniverse. Merrill Lynch/Bank of Americawas a major sponsor at one point. So wasthe chosen popular villain of the 2008financial crisis, Goldman Sachs the

company Matt Taibbi cuttingly describedas a great, insatiable vampire squidjammed around the face of humanity.

And now, what do you see? Google,Messrs Dont-Be-Evil themselves. TataSteel, the self-appointed moral exem-plars of India Inc. And, in case you some-how miss the point, theyre happy to

bang it in with polite remorselessness:the banners say Tata Steel: the Carnivalof Values. Indeed.

True, things are tighter. Presumablythe old, evil patrons were also a little moreopen-handed, because now we have toput up with advertisement breaks on the

PA system between sessions.And, of course, Suhel SethsCounselage is still a majorsponsor I write this fromwhat used to be theCounselage Press Terrace,thanks awfully, Mr Seth andso he, as always, expects to beable to hold forth on stage onany subject under the sun.

Patronage has a price, asNayansukhs famous self-portrait, bowinglow to his overdressed royal patron,makes clear. Youre very foolish if youthink aristocracy is ever classy.

But truly discreet patronage has itsown, intriguing, effects, too. Heres justone example, from Thursday evening.

As I headed dutifully to the wine bar, Isaw, shuffling shyly ahead of me,Binayak Sen. When he got his drink, hedidnt seem to pause to consider exactlywhich company he despises paid for it.That, too, is the magic of aristocracy, ofthe patronage it delivers how the pow-er to expropriate is somehow transmut-

ed into almost celebratory moments inwhich everyone can thoughtlessly, joy-fully participate. Times change, andeconomies with them; social structureschange, and change our minds withthem; but some things, it appears, areso basic to the way that societies pay forculture that they cant ever be changed.

mihir.sharma@bsmail.in

The patrons of Jaipur

Theres something tobe deduced fromhow JLF, Indias mostvisible globalisedcultural event, hasweathered thestorms that havebuffeted thiscountrys economy