Jahan-e-Khusrau, India's globally renowned World Sufi Music Festival, is back in the capital. Mark your calendars for March 27 to 29, 2026, when the ancient Purana Qila in New Delhi will once again provide the setting. The brainchild of Muzaffar Ali—a filmmaker, painter, and cultural force—the festival remains a vibrant celebration of Sufi music, poetry, and spiritual traditions. It also serves as a gathering place for artists, scholars, and music lovers from around the globe.
Over the years, Jahan-e-Khusrau has grown into an internationally respected cultural platform dedicated to the timeless legacy of Amir Khusrau, while also reviving the mystical traditions of Rumi, Baba Bulleh Shah, Lalleshwari, and other Sufi saints.
The 2026 edition will feature an extraordinary musical lineup with celebrated voices of the subcontinent, including Satinder Sartaj, Sukhwinder Singh, Hansraj Hans, and Lakhwinder Wadali as headline performers. Alongside them, the festival will present distinguished artists such as Jassu Khan Manganiyar, Shivani Verma, Sahil Agha and Sanjukta Sinha, with further artist announcements expected to be confirmed later this week.
Reflecting on the continuing journey of the festival, Muzaffar Ali shares, “Jahan-e-Khusrau was born from the whispers of saints and the melodies of mystics. For over two decades it has been a sanctuary where music, poetry, and devotion dissolve boundaries and remind us that love is the ultimate path to unity.” Meera Ali, co-curator of the festival, adds, “Jahan-e-Khusrau continues to evolve as a cultural movement. With every edition we attempt to create a space where art heals, traditions converse, and audiences reconnect with the spiritual depth of our shared heritage.”
As the festival enters its 26th year, Jahan-e-Khusrau moves forward not as a pause but as a journey. The theme for this year is "The Steed of Longing | Safar-e-Ishq Continues," which invokes the powerful symbol of the horse not as an emblem of conquest but as a metaphor of movement and spiritual longing. Across civilizations the horse has carried seekers across deserts, across frontiers, across uncertainty. In Sufi imagination the journey, a safar, lies at the heart of spiritual awakening. The path from self to surrender, from ego to ishq, from separation to union is never still. It moves, it pulses, it gallops. The horse becomes the embodiment of this restless longing, strength without arrogance, power guided by trust, and energy harnessed by devotion. In the rhythmic echo of hooves, one hears the heartbeat of zikr, and in its forward surge one feels the urgency of love.
For the Sufi, the real voyage is inward, yet every inward journey demands courage, the courage to move beyond fear, beyond identity, beyond division. After the Silver Jubilee year that affirmed endurance, the 26th year of Jahan-e-Khusrau affirms movement: the movement of poetry across languages, music across borders, and hearts toward harmony.
Conceived by Muzaffar Ali under the aegis of the Rumi Foundation, Jahan-e-Khusrau has for more than two decades remained a space where tradition and contemporary expression meet. Jahan-e-Khusrau 2026 will be more than just musical performances. It will be a cultural experience that shows the many layers of India's artistic and spiritual heritage.
TEH Bazaar (The Exploration of the Handmade) will show off India's best traditional crafts and artisanal traditions. It will bring together master craftsmen and modern designers to celebrate the handmade. There will also be literary readings and cultural conversations that look at how poetry, philosophy, and mystic thought come together, as well as film screenings that show how Sufi traditions have influenced art forms over time. Along with these activities, there will be a unique Sufi food offering that draws on shared cultural traditions and kitchens that have always been a part of music and devotion gatherings.
All of these things come together to make an immersive space where music, craft, literature, food, and philosophy all come together. This is the open and deeply human spirit that has defined Jahan-e-Khusrau for more than twenty years.
The Steed of Longing rides again, and Jahan-e-Khusrau asks people to go along with it.
Details for the event: Jahan-e-Khusrau 2026
March 27–29, 2026
Place: Purana Qila in New Delhi
Muzaffar Ali put this together.
The Rumi Foundation put this on.
More information about the schedule and programming will be available soon.
Start a Conversation
Post comment