Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler unveils plan to promote French literature in India

Alexandre Ziegler, the French Ambassador to India, was at the Jaipur Literature Festival this year to announce the winner of the 2019 Romain Rolland Book Prize, which recognises he best translation of a French title into any Indian language, be it English, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali or Marathi. The aim is to promote the diversity of languages to reach a broad audience.

The award comes with an invitation to the Paris Book Fair 2019 in March for the publisher of the work and an invitation for the translator to attend a one-month residency in France. The winning title was The Life of an Unknown Man by Andrei Makine, published in France by Le Seuil, in India by Kalachuvadu, and translated into Tamil by SR Kichenamourty.

The Romain Rolland Book Prize is part of a series of actions aiming at the promotion of French culture in India, alongside the Tagore Publication Assistance Programme. India will be the focus country of the 2020 Paris Book Fair, while France will be the guest of honour of the 2022 New Dehli Book Fair.

The embassy thus co-organises a translations workshop with the Jawaharlal Nehru University, after the success of its January edition, starring acclaimed translator Ros Schwartz, which brought together more than 60 participants from various universities in Delhi.

For more enlightening insight into the specitificities of Franco-Indian relationships and of their respective book markets, have a look at Scroll In's last article on the topic.