Seattle, Sep 19 (IANS) : Indian American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal urged readers to resist censorship by continuing to read challenged books and support silenced writers, telling the Jaipur Literature Festival in Seattle that literature was essential to defending free expression.
“In my mind, to read is the ultimate act of nonviolent resistance,” Jayapal said at the opening of the festival’s third Seattle edition.
Addressing a gathering at the Seattle Public Library, she placed the celebration of books against what she described as growing restrictions on speech, dissent and democratic debate in the United States and elsewhere.
Her remarks linked the festival’s international reach with an appeal to protect the exchange of ideas across borders and cultures.
Jayapal criticised the US president over an announcement that she said would bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.
She cited restrictions on books in the United States, including Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”, “The Kite Runner”, “Milk and Honey” and “The God of Small Things”.
Jayapal argued that such actions threatened fundamental freedoms and pledged to oppose them.
“And we intend to do everything in our power to reclaim our democracy and to refuse to allow our fundamental rights to be shut down,” she said.
Alongside voting and community organising, she urged the audience to keep reading, share their own experiences and engage with stories written by people whose voices were being suppressed.
“It critiques powerful institutions and it expands the boundaries of our dialogue and our thinking,” she said of literature.
“It refuses to let anyone muzzle our imagination so that we can truly begin to share ourselves and our journey forward.”
Jayapal also described the festival as a response to hostility towards Asian Americans, international conflict and restrictions on civil liberties.
“It is our home for exchanging ideas and for dreaming the impossible,” she said.
She welcomed its growth beyond India to the United States, Britain, Spain, the Maldives and Australia, saying it had brought Indian and South Asian authors, filmmakers and artists to new audiences.
For Jayapal, the occasion also carried a personal connection to India and to writing.
She recalled arriving in the United States alone at 16. Her parents, she said, believed the country would offer her opportunities and the freedom to be herself. Becoming a US citizen took 17 years.
Years after arriving, she returned to India and spent two years living in villages, exploring her relationship with her birthplace and her identity.
That experience informed her first book, “Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland”, published by Seattle’s Seal Press and subsequently by Penguin India.
She also discussed “Use the Power You Have: A Brown Woman’s Guide to Politics and Political Change”, expressing hope that it could encourage other women to recognise and exercise their own influence.
Jayapal thanked the festival organisers, readers and the Seattle Public Library. She celebrated the city’s independent bookshops, small presses and writing community, describing them as essential to its literary life.
Jayapal became the first Indian American woman elected to the US House of Representatives. Her account of migration and return to India forms part of a writing career that she discussed alongside her public role at the Seattle gathering.
