Indranil Chakravarty The Power of Intercultural Dialogue: Octavio Paz Between Mexico and India

Based on his recent book, The Tree Within: Octavio Paz’s Years in India (Penguin, 2025), Chakravarty explains how the Mexican Nobel Laureate poet and diplomat, Octavio Paz, became a cultural bridge between two parts of the Global South that are separated by geography, language, culture and history. As Mexico’s ambassador to India in the 1960s, Paz immersed himself in the country’s contemplative traditions, travelled widely, forged deep friendships with some of India’s finest minds, and produced some of his most inspired poetry and essays. By his own admission, he experienced a ‘second birth’. While exploring the poet’s inner journey by delving into multilingual archives, declassified diplomatic files, personal letters and intimate interviews, Chakravarty explains how Paz prepared, emotionally and intellectually, for a deep engagement with India, allowing it to reshape him. While he gave poetic form to several Indian philosophical concepts and became a mentor to an entire generation of avant garde painters, he opened pathways through which Latin American writers and artists could draw inspiration from Indian culture.