Renowned writer, journalist and publisher Ilija Trojanow is an established ‘India hand’. He lived in Mumbai for five years from 1998 and wrote numerous reportages and essays, apart from books like ‘Along the Ganges’, which charted the river’s course through India. Trojanow is now in India to participate in a series of literary events, beginning with the presentation of his new novel with Indian writer and critic Ranjit Hoskote – Confluences: Forgotten Histories from East & West – at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival and at Goethe Insititut in New Delhi on 16 January. In an interview to the German Information Centre before travelling to India, Trojanow spoke about his work and philosophy. 

GIC: How would you describe ‘Confluences: Forgotten Histories From East And West’, your latest book co-authored with Indian writer Ranjit Hoskote, which is being released in New Delhi on 16 January?

Ilija Trojanow: We describe how all cultures are developed from dramatic hybridities among dissimilar contributory factors, and that nothing is as self-sufficient as it appears to be. Thus, confluence is the lifeblood of culture and its development.

GIC: You claim that “Cultures don’t battle -- they flow into one another”, on the other hand, the conflict of cultures resonates all around us today. To what would you attribute this phenomenon of escalating intolerance and inter-cultural hostility?

Trojanow: I would challenge the claim that the conflict of cultures resonates around us today – violent conflicts are an exception and when they take place there are mostly motivated by ideological, economical and political factors. The fanatics are usually deeply suspicious of culture, they are its enemies. Also, they reduce the plurality and diversity of any cultural heritage to a monotonal, simplistic myth and claim to defend this myth.

Enlarge image Ilija Trojanow with Ranjit Hoskote at the Frankfurt Book Fair (© dpa) GIC: In an article few years back, you said that it's easy to die in Bombay but impossible to forget you're alive. What brought you to Bombay in 1998 and how did you live out the experience?

Trojanow: I came for a year, to do research, and stayed nearly six years. Living in Bombay was an invigorating and inspiring challenge.

GIC: Your novel 'The Collector of Worlds' centres on colonial explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton. What made you choose such a controversial personnage? 

Trojanow: Anybody who is interesting is controversial and Richard Burton is particularly so, a giant of contradictions and ambivalences, what better role model for the main character of a vast historical novel on the contradictions and ambivalances of Empire.

GIC: You have described India as caught between ancient tradition and astonishing modernity in your book ‘Along the Ganges’ that charts the river’s journey across the country. Do you think the two aspects can coexist to form a mature society, or are there inherent conflicts which will at some point of time tip the scales?

Trojanow: Well, no idea what a mature society is supposed to be, but India is certainly far away from a reasonably just society. However there is a multitude of people fighting for the rights of different groups, a growing culture of protest and rebellion that bodes well for the future.

GIC: What is your opinion on multiculturalism or “Multikulti” in Germany, and how does it compare in the level of integration with other Western nations?

Trojanow: Germans tend to verge towards the extremes. For decades they claimed that there is no immigration, then they acknowledged the fact and started claiming that immigration has failed. Looking at the official policy and the mindset of many Germans, it is a miracle how well the multicultural society is functioning today, proof of the capacity of individuals to negotiate complex personal solutions in dynamic surroundings.

GIC: The new media has introduced new rules in the game of identities and nation-building. Do you think this open flow of information can lead to free exchange of ideas and better acceptance of the ‘otherness’ amongst us? 

Trojanow: Potentially yes, but only if the internet and other forms of new media are defended againt the corrupting manipulations of capitalistic greed.

GIC: In the 19th and 20th centuries, many German poets, philosophers and scholars were inspired by India. With globalization, do you think the intercultural exchange between our two countries has somehow diminished? What kind of space does contemporary Indian literature occupy in Germany today?

Trojanow: Hardly any – the only well-known authors are NRIs who arrive on the German book market from the USA or England. We shouldn’t forget that the enormous corpus of Sanskrit literature is of course intellectually richer and deeper and more diverse than the contemporary writing and that there was a moment in history when it was “discovered” by European authors, many of them Germans. This was a unique moment in time.