Inaugural Address Address by Namita Gokhale, William Dalrymple and Sanjoy K. Roy

Inaugural Address Address by Namita Gokhale, William Dalrymple and Sanjoy K. Roy | Jaipur Literature Festival 2026

Namita Gokhale is the author of twenty-six books and the co-founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, along with William Dalrymple. Her debut novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion (1984), has remained in print for over four decades and was recently issued as a Penguin Modern Classic. Her work spans multiple genres, including twelve works of fiction, as well as writings on Himalayan studies and mythology. She received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2021 for Things to Leave Behind. Her recent and forthcoming works include Whispering Mountains, Never Never Land, Mystics and Sceptics, Treasures of Lakshmi, and Voices in the Wind, due in 2026.

William Dalrymple is the author of the Wolfson Prize-winning White Mughals, Duff Cooper Prize-winning The Last Mughal, and the Hemingway and Kapuscinski Prize-winning Return of a King. His book, The Anarchy, was shortlisted for the Duke of Wellington medal, the Tata Book of the Year, and the Historical Writers Association Award, and won the 2020 Arthur Ross Medal from the US Council on Foreign Relations. Dalrymple has held visiting lectureships at Princeton, Brown, and Oxford, where he is currently a Visiting Fellow at All Souls. He was presented with the President’s Medal by the British Academy and was named one of the world’s top 50 thinkers for 2020 by Prospect Magazine. He is a founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Sanjoy K. Roy, an entrepreneur of the arts, is Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which produces over 30 festivals in 45 cities and 19 countries, including the world’s largest literary gathering — the Jaipur Literature Festival and international editions of JLF. He is a founder-trustee of Salaam Baalak Trust, working to provide support services for street and working children in the inner city of Delhi where over 1,30,000 children have benefited from education, training and residential services. Roy is the Co-chair of the Art and Culture Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and former President of Event and Entertainment Management Association. He lectures at and works in collaboration with leading universities across the world and has been conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of the University honoris causa by University of York, UK, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the arts and society. His debut book, There’s a Ghost in my Room: Living with the Supernatural, published by HarperCollins, was released in October 2025. It is a kaleidoscopic portrayal, rich in period detail, of his dramatic life, interspersed with enigmatic experiences of supernatural visitations.

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