THE first Indian Cultural Congress is to take place in Kochi on December 20-21-22, 2026. The larger idea behind it is that in a context where the forces of bigotry and authoritarianism have occupied positions of power and prominence, the cultural and artistic community needs to send out a message of hope and positivity, to assert values of secularism, peace, justice, and equality. The Indian Cultural Congress, by bringing together a large number of artists and cultural practitioners, will send out just such a message.

The Indian Cultural Congress has the active support and backing of leading cultural practitioners and intellectuals such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Ashok Vajpayee, Ganesh Devy, Githa Hariharan, Gulammohammad Sheikh, K. Satchidanandan, M. K. Raina, Malini Bhattacharya, Mammooty, Moloyashree Hashmi, N. Ram, Ratna Pathak Shah, Sumangala Damodaran, T. M. Krishna, and many others. The Cultural Congress is supported by the Department of Culture and the cultural akademis of the Government of Kerala.

For the three days of the Indian Cultural Congress, the city of Kochi will be swamped with art and performance. The Kochi Muziris Biennale, a massive art exhibition, one of the largest in India which happens every two years, is already on. The Indian Cultural Congress events will be running parallel to the Biennale, so the people of Kochi, and those who visit during the time, are in for a treat.

The Indian Cultural Congress will have some plenary sessions and panel discussions. There will also be several performances during this time – theatre, music, readings from literature, dance, folk arts, and so on. The venues of the Cultural Congress are named after Indian and international greats, such as Rabindranath Tagore, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, William Shakespeare, Pablo Neruda, and Pablo Picasso. A number of artistic and literary icons will be remembered, and several centenaries – such as those of actor P. J. Anthony, thinker P. Govinda Pillai, music director Salil Chaudhury and film director Ritwik Ghatak, the making of Sergei Eisenstein’s classic Battleship Potemkin, and the first publication of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables in Malayalam – will be observed. At the end, the Indian Cultural Congress will issue a declaration, and announce the venue and tentative timeframe of the next Congress.