New Delhi, Dec 17(UNI): Reviving Argentine cultural ties with India that date back nearly a century, Argentina's Ambassador to India, Mariano Agustín Caucino, on Wednesday expressed Buenos Aires's excitement about co-hosting the International Kolkata Book Fair 2026, further strengthening cultural connections between the two nations.
"We are the partner country for the International Kolkata Book Fair," Caucino said while addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.
He spoke about how Argentina has found a place in Bengali culture and literature, beyond the popular passion for football.
"People on the street knew about the friendship between Rabindranath Tagore and Victoria Ocampo. It was a very moving feeling. We felt we needed to do something to carry forward this relationship," the ambassador said, announcing Argentina's participation in the 49th International Kolkata Book Fair, to be held at Boimela Prangan in Salt Lake, Kolkata, from January 22 to February 3, 2026.
Argentina will be the focal theme country at the event, which will feature programmes showcasing Argentine literature, cinema, theatre, food, and broader cultural traditions.
Revisiting the history of Rabindranath Tagore's engagement with Argentina, Tridib Kumar Chatterjee, general secretary of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, said, "Tagore remains one of the most widely known Indian authors in Argentina. Many of his works were published in Spanish in Buenos Aires during the 1920s and 1930s."
He added that Tagore visited Argentina in 1924, where he formed a close intellectual friendship with writer Victoria Ocampo.
Marking 101 years of this literary friendship, the book fair will host special sessions on Tagore and Ocampo, including poetry recitals of Tagore's works in Spanish, Chatterjee said. The festival will also screen the India–Argentina co-produced film - Thinking of Him.
This year's book fair will also host the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, Spain, Peru, Costa Rica and several other Latin American countries, according to a press statement issued by the International Kolkata Book Fair organisers.
Responding to a query on Bangladesh's participation, Chatterjee said the organisers would be happy to host the neighbouring country, but Bangladesh has to seek permission from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for participation.
Apart from creative luminaries from around the world, the festival will also host several prominent Indian authors, including Amitav Ghosh. Major national and multinational players in the publishing industry, such as Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Bloomsbury, Rupa Publications, Pan Macmillan, Orient Blackswan, Oxford University Press, Om Books International, and Pearson, will have dedicated pavilions at the International Kolkata Book Fair 2026.
Publishers from states like Delhi, Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal), Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have taken spaces at the book fair.
---UNI JRC MBJ KK