On 21 January 2026, a discussion was held at the Central History Point in Warsaw about the two-volume album From the “Inhuman Land” to the Land of the Maharajas. Polish Refugees from the USSR in India, 1942–1948, prepared by the IPN Archive. The event was attended by the Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance, Prof. Karol Polejowski.

The album From the “Inhuman Land” to the Land of the Maharajas. Polish Refugees from the USSR in India, 1942–1948 recalls the history of approximately six thousand Polish refugees evacuated from the USSR after 1941, who spent several years in settlements in India. The largest group among them were children and young people—often orphans or half-orphans.

The story of how this album came into being is, in a sense, a story about how the Institute of National Remembrance carries out its mission, which essentially comes down to ensuring that no fragment of our history, no element of it, is forgotten; that everything that makes up our historical experience is preserved and passed on to future generations. This is our mission, which we have been fulfilling—deeply convinced of its success—for a quarter of a century,
emphasized the Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance, Prof. Karol Polejowski.

The book discussed by its authors—Anna Płońska and Wojciech Kujawa—together with Andrzej Chendyński, President of the Association of Poles from India 1942–1948, and Dr habil. Janusz Wróbel, offers not only an account of the tragic fate of Poles deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan, but also a portrayal of the everyday life of refugees in Polish settlements in India, a country where they experienced great kindness and support. The narrative is interwoven with numerous quotations—recollections of eyewitnesses who, after the trauma of deportation, found a new home in the “Little Poland of Valivade.” The annex presents selected profiles of notable Poles who stayed in India between the years 1942 and 1948.

Among those who attended the discussion were the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of India in Poland, Minister Mohan Lal; the Undersecretary of State at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, Rafał Leśkiewicz; former Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to India, Prof. Krzysztof Maria Byrski, accompanied by his wife Barbara; Iwona Ryszkowska, a representative of the Association of Poles from India 1942–1948; and Marzena Kruk, Director of the IPN Archive.

The publication was based primarily on the collection of the London-based Association of Poles from India (1942–1948), donated to the IPN holdings in 2019 as part of the Archive Full of Memory project.