Cultural Relations and people to people contacts

While the interest of Bulgaria in India existed since many centuries,
during the 19th century, the Bulgarian revolutionary Georgi Rakovsky
expressed support and sympathy for the people of India on the occasion of the
India’s First War of Independence in 1857.

Indian culture has enjoyed considerable popularity in Bulgaria right from
the days of Rabindranath Tagore’s visit to Bulgaria in 1926 which was an
important milestone in developing literary relationship between the two
countries. Indian classics like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vedas, Upanishadas,
Bhagvat Gita and Panchatantra as also the modern authors like Prem Chand,
Mulk Raj Anand and Amrita Pritam are very popular among Bulgarians. Some
of the eminent Bulgarian poets like Hristo Botev, Hristo Smyrensky and Nikola
Vaptsarov have also been widely translated to Indian languages.

Existence of many Yoga centres, daily telecast of Hindi serials dubbed in
Bulgarian, popularity of Indian cuisine, music and dance and increasing tourist
traffic are pointers to the keen interest which Bulgarians have in Yoga,
Ayurveda, Bollywood films and spiritual heritage of India.

Sofia University has an Indology department within its Centre for Eastern
Languages and Cultures. This department, which completed 30 years of its
establishment in 2013, plays an important role in spreading awareness about
Indian languages, philosophy, history and culture in Bulgaria. It has been
conducting courses at graduation and post-graduation levels and some
students from this department go to the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan in Agra to
learn Hindi every year.

Four India-related friendship / cultural societies – Friends of India Club,
East-West Indological Foundation, UNESCO Club of Varna and Namaste
Bulgaria- are involved in spread and propagation of Indian culture with support
from the Indian Embassy. Some other factors which contribute to the two
countries’ goodwill and friendship are – visiting chairs of Hindi at Indology
Department of Sofia University and of Bulgarian at Delhi University; Indira
Gandhi High School in Sofia; Indira Gandhi Kindergarten in Pravetz and Georgi
Stoikov Rakovsky Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Delhi.

Government of India offers scholarships under ITEC programme to
Bulgarian nationals. Bulgarian Diplomats have also been attending the
Professional Courses for Foreign Diplomats organised by the Foreign Service
Institute.