Kozhikode in Kerala became India’s first UNESCO City of Literature — option 2.

The designation. Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, was admitted to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the literature category in October 2023, and the formal declaration was made in the city on 23 June 2024, which Kerala now observes as City of Literature Day. It is the first Indian city in the literature category.

Why Kozhikode. The city has an exceptionally dense literary life — more than five hundred libraries, a long tradition of publishing houses and little magazines, the Kerala Literature Festival held on its beach, and an association with writers such as S. K. Pottekkatt, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, M. T. Vasudevan Nair and Thikkodiyan. It is also historically important as the port where Vasco da Gama landed in 1498 and as the seat of the Zamorin.

The Creative Cities Network. Started in 2004, it covers seven fields — literature, film, music, crafts and folk art, design, media arts and gastronomy. Other Indian members include Varanasi and Chennai for music, Jaipur for crafts and folk art, Mumbai for film, Hyderabad for gastronomy, Srinagar for crafts, and Gwalior and Kozhikode admitted together in 2023, Gwalior for music.

Notice that Varanasi and Hyderabad, offered as options 3 and 4, are indeed members of the network — but for music and gastronomy, not literature, which is what makes them effective distractors.

Hence, the answer is Kozhikode.