First UK Indian Literature Festival at Ullet Road Church

2 Jun 2026

On Saturday 30th May 2026, Ullet Road Church had the great pleasure of hosting the LEKH Literature Festival, the first UK Indian Literature Festival, here in Liverpool.

From the moment people began arriving, the church was filled with colour, warmth, conversation, and life. Guests came dressed in beautiful clothes, bringing with them a sense of celebration and occasion. There was a wonderful vibrancy in the building: people greeting one another, sharing stories, listening to poetry, enjoying food, and taking part in a rich cultural gathering that brought together literature, spirituality, music, language, and community.

The festival was organised by Shri Sandip Chatterjee, President of BAMNE, and Smt Swapna Das, founder member of Swapnabesh UK, along with their dedicated colleagues and supporters. Their love, commitment, and passion were evident throughout the day. Events of this kind do not happen by accident. They take vision, energy, patience, and an enormous amount of unseen work. We are grateful to Swapna and everyone involved for bringing such a significant and joyful event to Ullet Road Church.

We were also honoured by the attendance of the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, who formally inaugurated the festival. In her remarks, the Lord Mayor spoke of Liverpool as a city of “firsts”, a city shaped by welcome, culture, migration, creativity, and bold beginnings.

In my own remarks, I reflected that when we look more closely at some of Liverpool’s great “firsts”, we often find Unitarians somewhere in the story: dissenters, reformers, educators, writers, abolitionists, and civic pioneers who helped shape the moral and cultural life of this city. In that spirit, it felt deeply fitting that this important celebration of Indian literature should take place at Ullet Road Church, a church rooted in freedom of thought, spiritual exploration, and the meeting of different traditions.

The programme was ambitious and wide-ranging. It included reflections on Rabindranath Tagore, Indian literature and cinema, contemporary British Indian writers, translation, women and Indian literature, South Indian languages, North East Indian literature, indigenous languages, Urdu influence, poetry recitations, children’s contributions, video presentations from India, and words of wisdom from sacred texts.

It was a long day, but it was also a deeply memorable one. What shone through most was not simply the programme itself, but the spirit behind it: people gathering to honour language, memory, heritage, imagination, and wisdom.

One of the most special moments for me personally was meeting Smt Visakha Dasi, Temple President of Bhaktivedanta Manor and a disciple of ISKCON’s founder, Srila Prabhupada. She offered words of wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita, speaking of literature and life in a way that felt both ancient and deeply relevant.

I had the joy of speaking with her before and afterwards, and she very kindly gave me a signed copy of her book, Harmony and the Bhagavad-Gita. As I began looking through it, I was struck by how much it reminded me of Walden by Henry David Thoreau… that sense of wilderness, simplicity, reflection, and the search for a life lived more deeply. When Visakha Dasi mentioned that she quoted both Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, I smiled and told her that my own son is called Emerson. It was one of those small, unexpected moments of connection that seem to gather meaning as they unfold.

For me, that moment captured something of the whole day. At its best, literature is not merely words on a page. It is encounter. It is conversation across cultures, across centuries, across spiritual traditions, and across human lives. A book may begin in India, Canada, America, or Liverpool, but if it speaks to the soul, it belongs everywhere.

Ullet Road Church was proud to host this festival because it reflects something central to our own Unitarian spirit: the belief that truth is not confined to one tradition, one language, one people, or one book. Wisdom is found in poetry, scripture, art, philosophy, conversation, food, music, and in the simple act of people coming together with open hearts.

We offer our heartfelt thanks to the organisers, speakers, poets, contributors, volunteers, guests, and everyone who attended. We thank the Lord Mayor of Liverpool for joining us, and we thank Swapna Das and her colleagues for their extraordinary dedication in making this first festival possible.

The next LEKH Literature Festival has been announced for May 2027. We look forward to seeing how this beautiful seed, planted here in Liverpool, continues to grow.

With gratitude to all who made the day so vibrant, generous, and memorable.