For me, the idea of India resides in her Sahitya, in her words, her poetry, her songs, and the oldest, richest and most diverse traditions of oral and textual literature in the world. India lives in her languages: Twenty-two scheduled languages, including English, six classical languages — Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kanda, Malayalam and Odia; 122 spoken languages, 1,635 classified mother tongues, and 1,957 pending classification. This vast linguistic landscape is the backdrop for the annual ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival.