Founded in 2006, Literaturforum Indien e.V. is dedicated to bringing contemporary literature from India and other South Asian countries to the attention of German-speaking audiences.
Literature from India in English has already gained worldwide recognition. Far less known, however, is the literature written in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Urdu, Marathi and other South Asian languages — a body of work that looks back on an equally significant tradition.
Literaturforum Indien e.V. seeks to contribute to a fuller picture of South Asian literatures and to promote the dissemination of ambitious works — especially by contemporary authors — that convey an authentic picture of the lived reality and cultural diversity of the Indian subcontinent.
To this end, we engage the public through readings and seminars. We support smaller publishers with grants towards the translation and printing costs of German editions of literary works from South Asia. See Funded Books.
Short articles on the life and work of notable authors from the Indian subcontinent — often supplemented by reading excerpts in German translation — are available on the Authors page.
News
2027
Conference 2027: Violence and Compassion upcoming
7–9 May 2027 · Evangelische Akademie Villigst (Schwerte) South Asia between Collective Trauma, Literary Witness and the Ethics of Storytelling
The literatures of South Asia have borne witness to violence in all its forms: the Partition of 1947, caste violence, religious and ethnic conflict, violence against women, against Dalits and Adivasis. At the same time they are a place where compassion arises — where a narrative lifts the individual out of the mass of victims and gives them a voice. The conference pursues this tension across languages, genres and periods and, drawing on landmark works from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, asks about the possibilities and limits of literary witness: who has the right to write about the suffering of marginalised groups?
Draupadi Verlag Wins the German Publishers' Prize for the Third Time
The Heidelberg-based Draupadi Verlag is among the winners of the Deutscher Verlagspreis 2026 (German Publishers' Prize) — its third award after 2020 and 2024. The prize carries 18,000 euros and will be presented in October at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Draupadi Verlag is the leading German-language publisher of South Asian literature, and Literaturforum Indien has supported many of its translations. Our warmest congratulations to Christian Weiß and his publishing house!
Reading Tour: Banu Mushtaq — September 2026 completed
14–24 September 2026 · Linz, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Berlin
Literaturforum Indien e.V. supports the reading tour that brings the author Banu Mushtaq to Germany and Austria, organised by her German publisher Kjona Verlag. Banu Mushtaq was awarded the International Booker Prize 2025 together with her translator Deepa Bhasthi; her collection of stories appeared in German in August 2026 as Meistens bleibt ja die Frau zu Hause, translated from the Kannada by Katrin Binder.
For the individual dates see Readings.
Raw Umber — Sara Rai in Conversation with Claudia Kramatschek completed
Sunday, 20 September 2026, 10:00–11:30 am (CEST) / 1:30–3:00 pm (IST) · Online (Zoom)
An online event organized by Literaturforum Indien e.V. in cooperation with the Dept. of Indology and Tibetology, University of Göttingen. Sara Rai, a renowned author writing in Hindi and English, a frequent visitor to Germany, and recipient of the Coburg Rückert Prize, comes from a prominent Indian family of artists. Her background forms the core of her book Raw Umber, recently translated into German by Dr. Johanna Hahn and Reinhold Schein and released by Draupadi publishing house, Heidelberg. Literary critic Claudia Kramatschek spoke with Sara Rai about her memoirs and her literary work.
📄 The poster as a PDF
Fictions of Ideas — Author Reading and Conversation with Saikat Majumdar completed
Tuesday, 7 July 2026, 6:30 pm · CATS Library Courtyard, Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University
The Indian novelist, critic and scholar Saikat Majumdar (Ashoka University) read from his novel The Scent of God and spoke about his work as well as the role of the humanities in the age of AI. An event by the South Asia Institute (SAI) of Heidelberg University in cooperation with Literaturforum Indien e.V.
📄 Programme (PDF, in English) · see Events.
South Asia in the Mirror of its Literatures completed
A conference to mark the 20th anniversary of Literaturforum Indien
Friday, 5 June 2026, 3:00 – 7:00 pm
Aula am Waldweg, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, 37073 Göttingen
Led by Namita Khare and Heinz Werner Wessler. Within the framework of the Toledo Programme ViceVersa. Application deadline: 30 April 2026.
International Mother Language Day — 21 February 2026
An article by Heinz Werner Wessler on the languages of South Asia, published on suedasien.org.
Mahasweta Devi: Online Conference for her 100th Birthday completed
Saturday, 7 February 2026, 10:00–12:00 (CET)
Zoom · Meeting ID: 615 7877 9307
The programme is available here.
2025
Annual Conference 2025: "When Love Is Political" completed
9–11 May 2025, Evangelische Akademie Villigst (Schwerte). Theme: Between romantic feelings and social constraints: the spectrum of love in South Asian literature. During the conference, Syed Kashif Raza read from his novel Vier Derwische und eine Schildkröte (Four Dervishes and a Turtle). The conference programme. Read the conference report here.
Reading Tour: Syed Kashif Raza — May 2025 completed
Pakistani author Syed Kashif Raza read from Vier Derwische und eine Schildkröte at various venues in Germany. Further details on the Readings page.
International Booker Prize 2025: Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi
The International Booker Prize 2025 was awarded to author Banu Mushtaq and her translator Deepa Bhasthi for the short story collection Heart Lamp from the Kannada — the first time a work originally written in a South Asian language has won this prize. Further information at thebookerprizes.com.
Conference "Birsa Munda and Decolonizing Janjatiya Studies"
7–8 August 2025, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Prof. Heinz Werner Wessler participated with a paper in Hindi. Organised by the Centre for Indian Languages (CIL) at JNU.
Online Conference: Mohan Rakesh and Krishna Sobti on their 100th Birthday completed
17 January 2025, 2:00–5:00 pm (Vishwa Hindi Diwas). Organisers: Universities of Göttingen and Uppsala, Tagore Centre, German Embassy New Delhi, Literaturforum Indien.
Zoom · Meeting ID: 643 2369 0802 The poster as PDF.
Prof. Dr. Dieter Riemenschneider has died
The distinguished Anglicist and editor of the anthology Shiva tanzt. Das Indien-Lesebuch (Unionsverlag) passed away on 6 October 2024. A collection of his essays is available online here.
Conference "Birsa Munda and Decolonizing Janjatiya Studies"
