Nestled in the cultural heart of Europe, The Tagore Centre at the Embassy of India in Berlin is quietly scripting a new chapter in India’s soft power diplomacy. At its helm is Trisha Sakhlecha, who effortlessly straddles two vastly different worlds: a high-ranking cultural diplomat and an internationally acclaimed novelist. With her latest novel The Inheritance garnering global recognition, Sakhlecha is fast becoming one of the most compelling Indian voices of her generation.
Yet, even as she enjoys literary acclaim, she remains deeply invested in reimagining India’s cultural narrative abroad through her work at The Tagore Centre. “Berlin is a very important city in the cultural space,” Sakhlecha says. “It drives the cultural conversation in Europe, and The Tagore Centre is well-primed to assume a pivotal role in shaping global perceptions about India.” For Sakhlecha, cultural diplomacy is far more than hosting a few gala evenings and exhibitions.
As Director, her responsibilities extend into the very fabric of Berlin’s vibrant cultural landscape. The Centre curates an ambitious calendar that ranges from classical music concerts and cuttingedge theatre productions to yoga and wellness workshops, contemporary art exhibitions, film screenings, and panel discussions. “Our goal is to break old stereotypes and create new pathways for understanding India,” she explains. Whether it’s a Hindustani classical concert in the auditorium or India’s largest non-commercial film festival abroad, the challenge is always finding ways to present India in its richest, most authentic diversity.
The Centre has an auditorium with state of the art facilities, but the reach goes far beyond the walls. “By partnering with prestigious venues across Germany, we showcase Indian culture in the broadest sense and serving as a platform for Indian art, philosophy and literature,” she rejoices. Sakhlecha sees the role of the Centre as a catalyst that goes beyond mere cultural consumption. “The Centre also serves as a catalyst and facilitator promoting institutional and professional collaborations among cultural bodies, community groups and individuals across both countries. This can take the form of cultural exchanges, establishing academic chairs and facilitating grants and competitions,” she explains.
While her diplomatic calendar is brimming with engagements, Sakhlecha’s writing life is equally prolific—and often just as demanding. Her latest novel, The Inheritance, was born under rather unusual circumstances: an off-grid solo retreat on a remote Scottish island in 2017. “I didn’t see or speak to a single person the entire time I was there,” she recalls. “The isolation and the landscape – at once rugged, breathtakingly beautiful and threatening – created the strange feeling of living in a bubble where normal rules didn’t apply, the sense of which found its way into the novel.” The novel centres on the Agarwal family, modern royalty with a ₹3,000 crore business empire. It peels back the polished veneer of wealth to explore loyalty, betrayal, and the lengths people will go for those they love.
Before The Inheritance made waves, Sakhlecha had already turned heads with her earlier novels, including Can You See Me Now? and Your Truth or Mine?—books that peeled back the layers of ambition, deception, and moral compromise. “We are so used to seeing the white character as the insider and the person of colour trying to break in,” she observes. In The Inheritance, the Agarwals are the untouchably wealthy inner circle, and Zoe, a white woman from a workingclass background, is the outsider, which creates a completely different tension by flipping the narrative. Sakhlecha’s storytelling is deeply informed by her own cross-continental life. Born in New Delhi, she moved to London at 22 for further education and later found herself in Berlin, working at the intersection of diplomacy and culture. “In many ways, I feel like the perpetual outsider,” she reflects. “Having lived abroad for so long now, I feel like an outsider when I am in India.
But I am very much an outsider in London or Berlin as well, which is very interesting from a creative point of view it gives me a completely different vantage point to most people.” It also fuels her commitment to pushing back against lazy, one-dimensional depictions of India and Indians in the global imagination. Perhaps it’s her own diverse professional background that allows her to slip between these roles so seamlessly. Before her diplomatic stint, Sakhlecha worked in fashion, business consulting, and trend forecasting across multiple countries. “Having worked in so many creative fields has given me a 360-degree perspective,” she says. “Whether I am curating a cultural festival or crafting a plot twist, I am always thinking globally but rooted in something authentic.”
The balancing act of running a major cultural institution while writing awardwinning novels would drain most people. But for Sakhlecha, the two roles feed each other. “I feel incredibly privileged to inhabit both these worlds,” she says. Her ability to navigate both spheres has made her a sought-after speaker at literary festivals and cultural forums. Her UK tour earlier this year took her from London to Aberdeen.
Later in the mother, she will appear at the renowned Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate before heading into the paperback launch of The Inheritance in September. Ask her what drives her, and she doesn’t miss a beat. “As our economic footprint expands and India becomes all the more important on a global stage, it’s important for us to ensure more and more aspects of our culture – both traditional and modern – find acceptance across the world.”
From the corridors of cultural diplomacy in Berlin to the quiet solitude of her writing desk, Trisha Sakhlecha is doing exactly that: reshaping how the world sees India, one page and one conversation at a time.
