A literary festival is not an event that usually interests a scientist unless she happens to be a lover of literature. The keynote address of a literary festival, if delivered by a scientist, is, therefore, an oddity. If that address proves to be of special relevance to an uncertain global future and to global literacy, it is perhaps unique. Based on newspaper reports, this year’s Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF), arguably the most glitzy and publicised literary festival in India, was indeed unique in that respect.
The keynote address at JLF 2025 was delivered by Venki Ramakrishnan, a scientist of Indian origin, who shared the Nobel prize in chemistry with two others in 2009. His talk, titled ‘Bridging the Divide between the Arts and Sciences,’ highlighted the urgent need for a view of culture that does not divide it into that of science and humanities. Both evidence-based scientific knowledge and literary sensibility must find their rightful places in what is generally understood as culture.
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