It was the opening day of Spring Fever, a literature festival organised by Penguin Random House at India Habitat Centre in the Capital.

Noted historian Ramachandra Guha was soon expected to address the gathering on the challenges of contemporary history.

Somewhere in the crowd, I sat reading William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. "The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey," wrote Blake and I wondered if writers ever asked their audience at such gatherings about what they wanted to hear.

Blake was long gone before this popular culture of literature festivals set in but there, of course, were poetry and prose recitals then and one of the fundamental aspects of these readings was to read not just those that the writer wanted but also those that the audience demanded.

On the contrary, speakers at such gatherings today seem almost unaware of the aspirations of their audience and speak their minds out but not their hearts.

What one misses at most of such gatherings is the "spirit of pluralism" and contradicting voices as such discussions are routinely hijacked by panelists from one ideology or school of thought even as the floor is habitually bombarded by popular slogans.

"Expect poison from the standing water," mentioned Blake in the same book. Sometimes words can be poisonous too, particularly when they are not "checked and balanced" by those with a different point of view!

Guha said Indian historians have been obsessed with colonial history and then went on to describe the challenges that a historian faces while writing about contemporary history. "When the clock struck 12 (on 14 August, 1947)," he said, "History ended and Political Science began."

Guha made sense but then he lost track. "It is true that our universities are colonised by Leftists and that has to change.

But that cannot change with people like Smriti Irani and Anupam Kher on top," he said before dubbing "the founders of RSS" as the "most antiintellectual set of people" and the BJP as the "most anti-intellectual party".

He even compared the presence of Hindus in India to that of "Muslims in Turkey" and "Jews in Israel"! One does not differ with his right to say that but with the principle of monologue that is sadly a part and parcel of our lit fests. "Without contraries there is no progression,” wrote Blake in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Guha is certainly one of the most credible voices on Indian history but his scathing political remarks reaching the audience without any views from the other point of view reflects the dangerous tool to propagate one set of ideology that lit fests are slowly turning into.

It wasn’t a lecture and, therefore, what was the point of a monologue at a lit fest, otherwise thought to stand for equity, pluralism and democracy that run through the veins of sessions with speakers from diverse opinions and schools of thought? "Dip him in the river who loves water," wrote Blake, very much near to what lit fests do to their visitors.

The very nature of monologues is antidemocractic in principle. There was, however, a good question and answer session after Guha’s speech and the historian took several questions and answered them all gladly.

Two days later, a power-packed panel participated in an intense discussion on "Pakistan is in the eyes of the beholder".

Discussions around Pakistan have become an almost inseparable part of our literature festivals, as is also true with the large volume of non-fiction titles pouring in both about as well as from the neighbouring country.

But what does a speaker like Shashi Tharoor, who is invited to speak on the same subject again and again, do? In the words of Blake, "The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest."

Tharoor, in his own words beholds Pakistan with "the heart of a dove" but with "the head of a hawk" and said the real problem with Pakistan is not "Kashmir or the unfinished business of Partition.

It is instead the very nature of Pakistani establishment. In India, we have the army to protect the country while Pakistan has an army to run the state.

"Tharoor also batted for increasing trade relations with Pakistan to increase their stakes "in peaceful relation with India". Wait!

This column had last week carried an article on Karachi Halwa, a witty but insightful portrayal of Zia ul Haq&’s rule in Pakistan, authored by former Ambassador Prabhu Dayal.

And Tharoor, who spoke at the launch, said exactly these same words!

One is reminded of Mani Shankar Aiyar’s question later at the launch, "What is the point of snakes and ladders game that Shashi Tharoor plays with such aptitude?"

On the following days, there were sessions where popular Bollywood celebrities, including Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Sonali Bendre Behl, Twinkle Khanna and Gulzar, participated.

"Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius," were the last lines from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell that I read at Spring Fever. Guess the visitors to lit fests follow the roads of Genius!