The New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF), one of the most-awaited literature festivals of India, will begin on February 10. The 10-day long book fair will be held at Pragati Maidan’s Bharat Mandapam with ‘Multilingual India: A Living Tradition’ as its theme, which aims to honour the multilingual fabric of India through the popular fair.
The book fair will be inaugurated by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday, who will also launch the National Digital Library at the event. Several authors and thousands of literary enthusiasts will attend the festival from across the globe to exchange their ideas over culture, literature, traditions and history from their part of the world.
With a long list of performers, the NDWBF will also host plays, poetry, music and dance performances over the course of 10 days to entertain the visitors as well as to promote the culture and tradition of India.
Saudi Arabia will attend the New Delhi World Book Fair as the guest country. Other countries to participate in the book fair include the UK, Austria, France, Iran, Spain, Turkey, Russia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.
Talking about this year’s theme, NBT chairperson Milind Sudhakar Marathe said that the aim is to honour the “multilingual fabric” of India through the fair.
“India has a rich diversity of languages. In Schedule 8, there are 22 languages listed but we don’t limit ourselves to that. We have got a number of languages, dialects and they are all living, they are used day-to-day in different parts of this country. Those languages and dialects have their own rich heritage of their literature,” Marathe said as quoted by news agency PTI.
The theme pavilion will host book launches, author interactions, and panel discussions in different Indian languages and dialects. The book fair will also feature performances by folk fusion bands, Sanskrit rappers, and rock bands from different regions of India.
The NDWBF will also host a new initiative, ‘Festival of Festivals’, which will bring together seven literature festivals from across the country under one roof. A total of seven literature festivals, including Ahmedabad International Literature Festival, Bharat Literature Festival, The Great Indian Books Tour, and Pragati Literature Festival will take part in the fair.
The tickets for the book fair are priced at Rs 10 and Rs 20 for children and adults, respectively, and are free for school children and senior citizens. They can be purchased online or from metro stations.
