The Guardian might want to look more closely at its own back yard before passing off this kind of nonsense as journalism.

SHAMEFUL conduct by the UK’s The Guardian this week as it first disses India’s reading culture with an offensive headline, then changes the headline days later amid backlash, but keeps the BS story in place.

“Most Indians don’t read for pleasure – so why does the country have 100 literature festivals?” ran the now deleted Guardian headline on Feb 9.

Obviously the idiot who wrote that does not follow TNPS, or they’d know 100 lit festivals is just the tip of the iceberg. Millions – many millions – of Indians head to book fairs every year and buy millions – many, many millions – of books.

Amid severe backlash, the Guardian has replaced the offensive headline with “Music, Bollywood stars and a party vibe: why India’s literature festivals are about so much more than books.”

NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Let me quote one line from the Guardian’s post: “Some affluent people think Reader’s Digest copies are literary heavyweights worth binding in leather to display.”

What is especially sickening about this BS is that the UK’s two top literary festivals, at Hay and Edinburgh, which between them attract less than half of the visitors of Jaipur (400,000 last ,month), both have music, activities, and position themselves as multi-cultural events just like Jaipur.

Pizza, anybody? This from the Hay Festival site: “Join in one of Kitchen Garden Pizza’s daily masterclasses in which imaginations and creativity will be fed alongside bellies. You’ll get your hands messy with freshly grown and foraged ingredients, making and topping your own dough and observing the pizzaioli at work.”

The Hay Festival even has a dedicated sports day. Fencing for kids? Who needs books when we can be sword-fighting and making pizza?

The 2026 edition will feature live music from the Amy Winehouse Band.

Nothing wrong with that, of course. Bringing families in to literary events to hear music is great! But not if it happens in India, it seems.

The Guardian might want to look more closely at its own back yard before passing off this kind of nonsense as journalism.

To Hay, Edinburgh, Jaipur and the gazillion other lit fests around the world that understand books and other culture are not mutually exclusive, keep up the great work!

To the Guardian, let me end with another quote from this shameful post:

“Festivals in India are only partly about books. They are a ‘spectacle’ offering music, dance, handicraft sales and food.”

So just like the UK, then.

Shameful reporting, The Guardian. Just shameful.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.