Against the august backdrop of the Jagiellonian University—one of Europe’s oldest and most storied centres of learning—the 17th edition of the Conrad Festival unfolded this week with a resounding sense of urgency and optimism. Curated under the theme “Radical Hope,” the festival brought together writers, scholars, translators and thinkers from across the world to examine how literature responds to crisis, change and the moral demands of the present moment.
Among the festival’s key international conversations was “India Writes: Hope in Many Languages,” a session that placed contemporary Indian literature at the heart of a wider global dialogue. The discussion featured Indian journalist, critic and cultural historian Murtaza Ali Khan, and was moderated by Prof. Marzenna Czerniak-Drożdżowicz and Prof. Lidia Sudyka of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Jagiellonian University, the event’s academic partner.
India, Khan argued, cannot be understood through a single literary lens. “India is not one language dreaming in many dialects,” he noted during the session, “but many languages dreaming in different directions—sometimes in conflict, sometimes in harmony, but always in conversation.” This plurality, he suggested, is precisely what makes Indian writing relevant to a world grappling with fragmentation, identity politics and environmental anxiety.
The discussion traced how writers across India’s linguistic spectrum—whether working in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi, Urdu or dozens of other languages—are engaging with some of the most pressing issues of our time. From women’s rights and minority struggles to caste, labour, climate change and grassroots environmental movements, literature in India, Khan observed, is increasingly rooted in lived realities rather than distant abstractions.
Literary festivals themselves became a point of reflection. Referencing platforms such as the Jaipur Literature Festival, Khan described such gatherings as “temporary republics of ideas,” where writers, readers and thinkers meet beyond rigid institutional or political frameworks. In an era of polarisation, he suggested, festivals offer rare spaces where disagreement can coexist with dialogue.
A significant portion of the conversation focused on India–Europe literary exchange. Which Indian voices deserve closer attention in Europe today? How do Polish and European authors travel within the Indian reading public? And what role does translation play in shaping these encounters? Khan emphasised that while interest in Indian writing is growing, it often remains filtered through a narrow Anglophone prism. “If Europe wants to truly listen to India,” he said, “it must listen to its languages—not just its exports.”
The moderators enriched the discussion with scholarly insight, situating contemporary Indian writing within longer South Asian literary traditions and comparative global frameworks. Prof. Czerniak-Drożdżowicz highlighted the importance of academic institutions in sustaining long-term cultural dialogue, while Prof. Sudyka underscored the need for deeper engagement between scholars, translators and publishers.
Held within the historic precincts of the Jagiellonian University, the session carried particular symbolic weight. The university’s association with the Conrad Festival reinforces Kraków’s position as a crossroads of literary and intellectual exchange, and its collaboration with the Institute of Oriental Studies underscored a commitment to nuanced, research-driven engagement with non-European cultures.
Murtaza Ali Khan’s participation marked a significant moment in India–Poland cultural relations, offering European audiences a textured understanding of India’s literary present—one shaped as much by resistance and dissent as by imagination and hope. In keeping with the festival’s theme, the session suggested that hope, when radical, is neither naïve nor escapist, but grounded in language, memory and the courage to tell difficult stories.
As the Conrad Festival continues in Kraków, India Writes: Hope in Many Languages stands out as a reminder that literature remains one of the most powerful tools for crossing borders—linguistic, cultural and political—and for imagining futures that are both plural and shared.
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