4 min readFeb 14, 2026 07:27 AM IST
First published on: Feb 14, 2026 at 07:05 AM IST
Readers greeted the shutting of the book pages of The Washington Post with the expected laments. This was the end of careers and the demise of sections. But this same story has been playing out in India for a long while now. Unlike The Post, where the loss of jobs heralded the closing of pages, in India it all happened with far less frenzy, but insidiously.
Over the last two decades, the features and literary sections of all the major newspapers in India have all but disappeared. Listicles have replaced analysis. Celebrity Instagram posts masquerade as news. Books are the postscript, scrambling for the margins.
Most editors/proprietors of newspapers and magazines believe books are a waste of space. No one wants to read a book review, we are told. No one cares what authors have to say.
Interestingly, while the coverage of books has vanished, the literature festival in India has only grown. There was a recent kerfuffle about an article in an international publication that said Indians don’t read, so why do we have so many literature festivals? I do not wish to prise apart its arguments, but having attended literature festivals for nearly two decades, it needs to be said that festivals are reimagining books in vital ways.
It is easy to cavil about sessions that were held and topics that were avoided. It is easy to be cynical about the selfie-takers and the shops that mushroom across the venues. It is easy to believe that crowds emerge for reasons of show rather than substance. But the naysayer dismisses the hordes because of a sense of superiority. It is the nature of the intellectual to scorn the masses. Sure, not every attendee is a bibliophile, but if they come for the tamasha and leave with a book, it is a win for literature. The sceptic will decry the crowds saying they cheer for only influencers and pulp writers. But what if they do? They are leaving homes, travelling distances to show up for a festival that is anchored in books.
Those who do a disservice to books and the literary community are those who bemoan the lack of readers, scorn literature festivals, and asphyxiate literary coverage.
The well-curated literature festival shows us the power of democratising knowledge; of bringing books out of libraries, and extracting authors from their studies. Festivals show us reading is communing. Books and authors, with the right mix of pomp and gravitas, maketh a good show. Instead of scorning youngsters in their Crocs and crop tops who flock to literature festivals, we should celebrate them. They understand the currency of books. If books have a future, it will be because of them. Instead of shutting down literary sections, editors would do well to heed them and decipher ways to reach them.
The death of book pages and the rise of festivals show that we need to make much ado over books. The Jeff Bezoses of the world see books as commodities, festivals prove that they are totems. Books need to be seen not as an exclusive elite pursuit, but as foundational. And the unwieldy raucous literature festival is the best testament that books are for all.
The writer is associate director, The New India Foundation, Bengaluru, and a literary critic
There is hardly any interdisciplinary, translational or applied research. It is high time that our institutions undertake research that transcends disciplinary boundaries and eschews academic tribalism. 
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