What facts, data, and objectivity mean for literature and translation in South Asia today? “Making and Unmaking Facts”, a conference on the subject, was organised by Fact or Value, DECISION, and IIM Calcutta in February, 2026 to explore this and related questions.

The conference examined how facts are made, stabilised, challenged and granted authority across different social and political contexts. It feels especially relevant now, when public life is increasingly shaped by debates around post-truth, misinformation, expertise and the question of who gets to decide what counts as fact.

The roundtable extended those concerns into a wider conversation about translation, authority, disciplinary boundaries, science communication, AI and the risks of both rigid certainty and corrosive relativism.

Anuj Misra, Professor of the History of Science and the History of Knowledge, Bill Mak, Professor of History of Science at the University of Science and Technology, John Mathew, Professor of the History of Science, Sourav Bhattacharya, Professor of Economics, Biju Paul Abraham, Professor of Public Policy, and translator Subha Prasad Sanyal were in conversation with academic Doyeeta Majumder at the conference.

Excerpts from the conversation.

Doyeeta Majumder (DM): I would like to begin with the question of language and translation, how the making and unmaking of facts is mediated through, and constantly has to encounter, the issue...

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