Asia's largest literary fest, DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2012, was held in the capital of India's desert state of Rajasthan from Jan. 20 to 24.

The festival in its fifth year attracted over 70,000 visitors, readers and writers from across the globe including America, Europe, Africa and South Asia.

A range of performances, talks, book-launch events, debates and workshops made it a huge success despite the threat of violence from a Jaipur-based Milli council over India-born writer Salman Rushdie's personal or virtual presence at the event.

More than 160 writers from all over the world participated in the five-day-long festival that featured award-winning writers like Fatima Bhutto, Mark Tully, Simon Schama, Pico Iyer, Colin Thubron and Tina Brown and other best-selling authors such as Richard Dawkins, Tom Stoppard, Michael Ondaatje and Oprah Winfrey.

Check out the pictures.

Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the worlds fastest-growing publishing markets.
Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the world's fastest-growing publishing markets. JLF
Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the worlds fastest-growing publishing markets.
Swami Agnivesh, Engineer Salim, Richard Dawkins, Javed Akthat, Suhel Seth, Qaisra Shahraz during the debate at Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the world's fastest-growing publishing markets. Chinmay Sharma
Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the worlds fastest-growing publishing markets.
Indian author Chetan Bhagat at Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the world's fastest-growing publishing markets. Chinmay Sharma
Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the world039s fastest-growing publishing markets.
Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the world's fastest-growing publishing markets. Chinmay Sharma
Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the worlds fastest-growing publishing markets.
Poet and writer Fatima Bhutto at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. Chinmay Sharma
Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. The five-day-long festival aims to showcase the best of Indian, South Asian and international writing in one of the worlds fastest-growing publishing markets.
American television presenter Ophra Winfrey at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. JLF
Jaipur Literature Festival 2012
Barkha Dutt, NDTV’s group editor; lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar; Tehelka editor in chief Tarun Tejpal; Actor and activist Rahul Bose; Shoma Chaudhury, Tehelka’s managing editor; and others. They invited Prof. Salim Engineer, the national secretary of Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind, to join them on stage. Chinmay Sharma
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