A year-long programme of events aimed at strengthening ties between Scotland and India has taken place in Kolkata.

Scotland-Kolkata Connections 2009 is an exciting programme of events with a strong focus on literature and publishing and aims not only to explore the many existing links between Scotland and Kolkata, but to actively develop new ideas and relationships as the year progresses.

The springboard for the event was the hugely popular Kolkata Book Fair, which attracted over 2.2 million visitors over 10 days to over 600 exhibitors from the worlds of publishing, newspapers, banking, education, diplomacy and government.

Each year, the Book Fair extends a much sought-after invitation to a particular country to be the ‘Theme Country’ and Scotland was delighted to accept this honour for 2009. In recent years, the USA, Australia, Spain and France have presented their countries’ culture in imaginative and contemporary pavilions.

The centrepiece of the 2009 Kolkata Book Fair was a specially designed Scotland pavilion which over the ten days attracted more than 300,000 visitors.

Scotland Pavilion © British Council                                                                       

The interior of the pavilion housed a collection of displays emphasising Scotland’s historic and contemporary cultural and literary heritage. These included an imaginative display of hundreds of books on Scotland and its literature, an interactive information point promoting Scotland’s higher education institutions and series of large banners depicting Indian collections in Scotland’s National Gallery, Library, Museum and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

A specially commissioned film from three of our regional museums, showing historic links between Kolkata and Dundee, Aberdeen and the Vale of Leven was also screened in the pavillion.

Over the ten days a series of engaging talks and discussions by eminent speakers and writers on their work and on aspects of life and culture in Scotland complemented the activity in the pavilion. These were free events taking place in various venues and book stores throughout Kolkata and headed up by the extremely popular Alexander McCall Smith. In complete contrast, the electrifying sounds of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers brought thousands of people together for an outdoor concert.

Ramesh Chander, Consul-General for India in Scotland said: ‘British Council and many other Scottish agencies deserve to be applauded and congratulated for the impressive programme in India through Scotland-Kolkata Connections 2009.

'Major elements of the programme, Scottish participation in the Kolkata International Book Fair and the Burns Supper, will certainly provide much needed visibility to the traditional and cordial contemporary connections and cooperation between India and Scotland.

'It will revive the global human spirit of Robert Burns and Rabindra Nath Tagore. The proposed institutional links between the National Museums of Scotland and India and also the Bengali Films Showcase will help in establishing people to people contact between the two multi-cultural, democratic and open societies.’

Roy Cross, Director British Council Scotland stated: ‘We are delighted that Scotland is the Theme Country at the Kolkata Book Fair 2009, showcasing the best of Scottish literature to an audience of over 2.2 million people.’

He added: ‘Scotland and India have deep historical links and the further development of ties to India, one of the world’s largest growing economies, with a population of over 1.1 billion people, can only bring about significant impact to Scotland.’

Kolkata-Connection events in Scotland

An initiative illustrating the close bond between Scotland and Kolkata is a proposed partnership between the National Library of India and Scotland which will work on developing joint multi-media projects and professional exchanges.

The programme has already seen Scottish Screen Academy students showcasing their work at the Kolkata Film Festival in November 2008 and this year, a programme of Bengali films will be featured at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Key events included: