The Hindu Lit Fest 2024 to be held on January 26 and 27 in Chennai

The 12^th edition of The Hindu Group’s flagship event Lit Fest 2024 will be held at Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, Chennai on January 26 and 27. 

The festival once again promises to provide a platform that encourages and nurtures the exchange of ideas, allowing participants and audience to engage consciously with the important questions of the day.

The Hindu Lit Fest ensures that it actively makes room for an experience that both fosters and champions, above all, “free speech, the highest ideals of democracy, and a pluralism of expression in the arts and literature”.

As The Hindu Group Chairperson Nirmala Lakshman puts it, these are the “underlying core values that reflect the newspaper’s ethic”. They reflect the principles on which the festival, Dr. Lakshman’s brainchild, was founded back in the year 2011.

Beyond Books

As always, The Hindu Lit Fest, 2024 will go beyond books, expanding to include conversations that turn the spotlight on some incredibly important and urgent issues — from sessions on the global shift to hyper-nationalism to a discussion on countering viral falsehoods; from a conversation on Sangam poetry to the journey of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO); and from a panel on understanding the history of idol worship to another on the Indian economy.

This year, focusing on both current affairs and larger societal shifts, programme director Rachana Singh Davidar and programme consultant Prasanna Ramaswamy have ensured that the panels offer conversations and food for thought on a wide and inclusive range of subjects, from politics and the economy to food, sports, fashion, and stand-up comedy. There is something for everyone, and the line-up will feed your existing interests while also encouraging new ones.

The panellists, too, are experts, change-makers and leaders from a wide range of fields. The line-up includes Ramachandra Guha, Shashi Tharoor, Amish Tripathi, Devdutt Pattanaik, Manu Chandra, Neerja Chowdhury, Anuja Chauhan, Tarun Tahiliani, Cyrus Broacha, Sreenivasan Jain, Kanan Gill, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, T.M. Krishna and Perumal Murugan.

Discussing the great diversity of brilliant speakers, Dr. Lakshman points out that “not all of them do the ‘festival rounds’, and [many of them] have come exclusively to us. For instance, S. Somanath, ISRO Chairman, will deliver a lecture on ISRO’s spectacular recent achievements at this year’s festival”.

Month-long events

One need not wait till January-end to begin experiencing the festival. Starting from the second week of the month, Chennai will see a series of on-ground engagements that include a kind of sampler of the things to come — from a mobile library to curated walks, sessions and workshops on storytelling, quizzes and contests — all designed to lead up to the main event.

Speaking about the event, Suresh Balakrishna, Chief Revenue Officer of The Hindu Group, said, “We are thrilled to host a literary festival that goes beyond books. Our goal is to champion knowledge inclusivity by sharing diverse stories and experiences and fostering meaningful conversations. This event aims to bring together some of the greatest minds to a city that takes pride in its rich literary heritage and the diverse art it has inspired.”

The endeavour to ensure the event's success and creating a larger impact is supported by many like-minded brands. The Hindu Lit Fest 2024 is presented by GSquare Group, In Association with NITTE Education Trust & Christ University, FIITJEE is the festival’s associate partner. The Bookstore Partner is Higginbothams, VFS Global is the Author Lounge Partner and Repute is the water partner