Dispatched with Love
Reporting from India on Literature, Translation, and Cultural Life
These dispatches were written for Asymptote in my capacity as Editor-at-Large for India, reporting on literary and cultural developments, writers, books, translations, festivals, commemorations, and the traditions and communities that sustain literary life, with particular attention to voices and traditions that remain underrepresented in international literary conversations. My reporting often follows the connections between literature and the wider social worlds in which it is created, performed, remembered, and circulated.
This page brings my dispatches together in one place as a growing archive. The original publications remain on Asymptote, while this archive gathers my contributions as they appear, allowing the work to be read together over time.
A February of Books, Voices, and Gatherings
28th August, 2026
As the birth of one of the founding fathers of Dalit literature, Anna Bhau Sathe (1920-1969), falls in August, the last couple of weeks saw a flurry of literary events commemorating his legacy, beginning with the Government of Maharashtra declaring August 1 as Lēkhana Prēraṇā Dina (Writing Inspiration Day). It’s a fitting occasion to mark the prolific career of a writer who had completed only one and a half days of schooling, but went on to write thirty-five novels, fifteen short story collections, fourteen plays, twelve screenplays, several pōvāḍās (traditional ballads) and hundreds of lāvaṇīs (traditional folk songs).
Additionally, Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded organized a week-long fesitval, Lēkhana Prēraṇā Saṃvāda, that culminated in a Poets’ Meet on August 8. Renowned poets such as Adinath Ingole and Maroti Kasab, among others, presented their poems that eulogized Anna Bhau and gave voice to both contemporary Dalit and Adivasi experiences and aspirations. The program also included performances by traditional bards (śāhīra) who presented pōvāḍās by and about Anna Bhau, including the trailblazing “Aṇṇābhāū sāṭhē āmacā sakhā rē” (Annabhau is our dearest friend) by the illustrious śāhīra and Dalit activist Vamandada Kardak, whose birth was also celebrated this month.
August 20 was observed as the thirteenth anniversary of the passing of Narendra Dabholkar, a social activist and author who was assassinated by right-wing Hindu fundamentalists in 2013 for his work as the founder and president of the Committee for Eradication of Superstition in Maharashtra since 1989. To honor his memory, the Committee organized a poetry recital in Pune on August 20 titled Māniyalē Nāhī Bahumatā (I never bowed down before the majority opinion), in which eminent poets and writers like Pradnya Pawar and Pradip Kokare, among others, recited poems by such legendary Marathi poets as Tukaram, Ram Joshi, Jyotirao Phule, Bahinabai Chaudhari, Kusumagraj, and many more, extolling the virtues of scientific temper and rationalism. The next day, the Committee released Marathi biographies of Narendra Dabholkar and other contemporary activist-authors Govind Pansare (Maharashtra), M.M. Kalburgi (Karnataka), and Gauri Lankesh (Karnataka), who were all similarly assassinated in broad daylight between 2015 and 2017 for their progressive thinking. All four biographies are penned by Anil Chavan, the co-editor of the mouthpiece of the Committee. Remembering these sacrifices, let’s strive to ensure that no efforts to suppress such progressive voices are ever successful.
A Pilgrimage of Literature: Maharashtra's Vārī
17th July, 2026
The monsoon has finally arrived on the west coast of India and with it, the time to visit Lord Vitthal. Vārī, or the on-foot pilgrimage to Pandharpur, has been a defining feature of Marathi culture for aeons, taking place twice every year in the lunar months of Āṣāḍha and Kārtika. It is this vārī from which the Varkari tradition derives its name, and it is this tradition to which belong the iconoclastic Marathi saint-poets such as Dnyandev, Namdev, Janabai, Ekanath, Tukaram, and many more. Every year, palanquins of these saints are carried to Pandharpur by devotees who sing the abhaṅga (poems) and dance to the rhythms of ṭāḷa and pakhawaj throughout the journey, which lasts up to three weeks.
This year, Sant Tukaram’s palanquin began the vārī on 7 July from his birthplace Dehu. After a journey of more than two hundred and twenty kilometres, the procession will reach Pandharpur on 24 July to celebrate Āṣāḍhī Ēkādaśī the next day. This was the same route and the same schedule that Tukaram himself followed for decades in the seventeenth century, just as his ancestor Vishwambhar did in the thirteenth century, and now, many of Tukaram’s present-day descendants are tracing their ancestors’ footprints along this route today. Similarly, Sant Ekanath’s descendants set out with his palanquin from their ancestral home in Paithan on 10 July, taking the same route that he and his great-grandfather Sant Bhanudas had trod. Accompanied by hundreds of thousands of Varkaris, these processions stop for a nightly rest, but not before singing and reciting the seven centuries of Marathi Bhakti poetry during every evening’s haripāṭha and kīrtana. That’s why Vārī is one of the most unique celebration of literature one can witness!
Not just the traditional devotees of Lord Vitthal, but even renowned Marathi authors like Sahitya Akademi Award winner Shrikant Deshmukh are carrying forward the message of egalitarianism that birthed the Varkari tradition. Deshmukh’s Vārī Vivēkācī (the Pilgrimage of Conscience) which comprises several stalwarts of Marathi Literature, also set out this year on 10 July from Sindkhedraja, singing and dancing for an equal world en route to Pandharpur, three hundred and sixty kilometres away. Let’s join this pilgrimage of equality following the footsteps of Dalit saint-poet Chokha Mela, who proclaims:
Writing Against the Grain, and Acting Too
8th May, 2026
A new anti-caste press has arrived on the Indian literary scene, already making ripples with its debut title, Leaping Towards the Deep Blue Sky: The Poetry of Ambedkarite Women (2025). On the evening of April 30, the Maveli Publicactions brought together poets featured in the anthology for a reading in Mumbai. Stalwarts of Dalit literature like Urmila Pawar and Dr. Pradnya Daya Pawar shared the stage with younger poets such as Sneha Kadam, reading poems that articulated the textures of Dalit feminist experience with urgency and clarity. Aptly titled "Transforming Life into a Song", the event was not merely a literary gathering but a reminder of how Dalit poetry continues to function as a crucial site of resistance and articulation, one that has historically shaped, and continues to shape, the social imagination of a more just society.
Earlier this month, the Progressive Writer’s Association (PWA) celebrated the commencement of the bicentennial year of Mahatma Phule with a two-day National Seminar in Mumbai with the central theme of “The Importance of Literature in the Struggle for Social Justice,” beginning on April 11, Mahatma Phule’s birth anniversary. Following a keynote address by Sukhdev Singh Sirsa, writers from all over India reflected on the need to be socially conscious in one’s writing, rather than sitting in one’s ivory tower while the rest of the world burns. The highlight of the event that also marked the PWA’s 90th anniversary was the multilingual poets gathering on the evening of April 12, titled “Words Against War,” which saw the outpourings of a multitude of poets against the madness of war raging across the globe.
The “cruellest month,” at least according to T.S. Eliot, also saw the Indian literary world hotly debating “Why Almost Every Major Indian Writer Lives Abroad and What It Has Done to Indian Fiction?” While this discussion often gets framed in terms of readership and visibility, the economic dimension is difficult to overlook. The case of Megha Majumdar is illustrative. Her debut novel A Burning earned her the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in India, which carries a prize of INR 50,000, and the Whiting Award in the United States, which carries a prize of US$50,000, approximately INR 3,800,000 at the time. The contrast is stark and points to a structural imbalance that continues to shape where and how Indian writing is produced and recognized.
A February of Books, Voices, and Gatherings
27th February, 2026
The Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Lifetime Achievement Award was announced to the renowned Dalit writer and activist Urmila Pawar on February 8. Her autobiography The Weave of My Life (2009) is a milestone in Dalit women’s literature in India.
Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me was included in the longlist for the prestigious Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2026, announced on February 11. In an unrelated development, Ms. Roy pulled out of the Berlin Film Festival after the head of the festival jury said filmmakers should avoid overtly political films, describing the comment as "unconscionable".
On February 11, Sipra Mukherjee and Mrinmoy Pramanick were announced as the winners of the A. K. Ramanujan Prize for Translation 2026 for the poetry collection I Belong to Nowhere by Kalyani Thakur Charal, a Dalit feminist poet who writes in Bengali. Mukherjee and Pramanick became the first Bengalis to receive this coveted award.
The State Awards for Marathi Literature in 35 categories were announced on February 13. Among others, Sunita Daga won the Kavi Keshavsut Award for her poetry collection Tujhan Shahar Hajaro Mailanvar and Heenakausar Khan won the Hari Narayan Apate Award for her novel Itranama, while Dr. Padmanabh Keskar won the Divakar Krushna Award for his short story collection Hallucinations.
In the face of the poorly researched Guardian article about the realities of the Indian literary scene, the five-day-long Jaipur Literature Festival, described as the world's greatest literary show, was attended by more than 300,000 literary aficionados and came to a grand conclusion on February 20. Continuing the 147-years-old tradition of literary festivals in Maharashtra, Mahabaleshwar will host the 14th All India Marathi Farmers’ Literature Meet on February 21-22 with renowned literary critic Dr. Dnyandev Raut as its Chair, who is known for his ecocritical farmer-centric approach to literary criticism. Also, flying the anti-establishment colors high, the 20th Vidrohi Marathi Literature Meet, which provides a platform to Dalit and other marginalized writers, will be held on February 28 and March 1 in Nanded, Maharashtra under the chairmanship of eminent Dalit poet and translator Loknath Yashvant.
Read on Asymptote
Chandrakant Kaluram Mhatre is a bilingual poet, translator, performer, and independent scholar working between Marathi and English. His work is rooted in the landscapes of what has now become the city of Navi Mumbai and engages with Bhakti traditions, caste, and the intertwined questions of language, memory, and social history.
Trained in English literature, he has taught at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with a focus on Dalit literature, Bhakti poetry, literary theory, and translation. His scholarly work has been closely engaged with Marathi Bhakti poetry, particularly in its linguistic, historical, and philosophical dimensions.
Alongside his literary and scholarly work, he has practiced the pakhawaj for more than three decades within Varkari, Bhakti, and related devotional traditions, including prasadik bhajan, haripath, kirtan, kakda, and dindi. This long engagement with rhythm, recitation, collective singing, and oral performance informs his approach to Bhakti poetry, translation, and literary transmission.
As a translator (भाषांतरकार), he has brought several key Bhakti texts into English, including One Hundred Poems of Tukaram (2015), One Hundred Poems of Chokha Mela (2015), and The Autobiography of Sant Bahinabai (2023). His translations of Tukaram and Chokha Mela have been included in postgraduate English curricula at the Central University of Tamil Nadu and the University of Mumbai respectively. More recently, his work on a cluster of fourteenth-century Marathi Dalit saint-poets received the PEN Presents × SALT award (2025).
His ongoing translation projects include Maharshi Vitthal Ramji Shinde’s The Problem of Untouchability in India, currently shortlisted for the New India Foundation Translation Fellowship and a forthcoming set of translations of anti-caste writings by Mahatma Jotiba Phule. Alongside these, he is translating W. B. Yeats’s The Tower into Marathi as part of a larger effort to bring major works of world poetry into the language.
His creative works include the bilingual poetry manuscript The City of Graves and the short story collection Nine, both of which examine the erasure of agrarian and ecological worlds during the making of Navi Mumbai. Drawing on memory, oral histories, and lived landscapes, these projects reflect his broader engagement with questions of land, displacement, and continuity.
He is the founder-president of the Sitaram Mhatre Foundation, where he leads initiatives in digital humanities and oral history. The Foundation has developed a comprehensive Unicode corpus of Marathi Bhakti literature and is currently undertaking computational work on the Dnyaneshwari. Its oral history initiative documents the experiences of project-affected communities in Navi Mumbai and Sangli.
He serves as Editor-at-Large at Asymptote Journal, with a focus on bringing Marathi literature—especially Bhakti traditions—into a wider international conversation.
He holds an MA, BEd, and MPhil in English, a Postgraduate Diploma in Translation, and has qualified the UGC-NET and SET examinations.
(Read more: Why & How do I translate?)