Gandhi and Music
An illustrated lecture by Dipankar De Sarkar

The talk explores Gandhi’s world of music – the songs and hymns that inspired him through the darkest hours of India’s freedom struggle

Dipankar De Sarkar is a journalist and amateur musician who writes on politics, music and the politics of music
 

Concert presented by Chitra Srikrishna, Carnatic vocalist, writer and teacher of music appreciation

Chitra Srikrishna (vocal & narration) 
Accompanists: Arvindd Narayanan (violin) and Vignesh Jayaraman (mridangam).

Udaan explores the melodic realm of Indian poetry, focusing on birds as literary symbols. From the common crow to the partridge, Indian poets through the ages, have used birds as literary devices to compose captivating melodies. The concert will explore these themes through bhajan, classical and folk music compositions in Bengali, Kannada, Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu. With live accompaniment in the Carnatic idiom, the music is interspersed with short narrations in English
 

No. Join us for an evening of an enchanting story that travels across Vietnam, China and Japan. An ancient Asian Epic written between1766-1820. And with this a chance to rediscover our Asian neighbours, their culture, their politics and some of their policies. An initiative in soft diplomacy…

Storytelling by Neha Bansal, Founder Director ‘Asianism-Retold’ – an initiative in preventive diplomacy and new models of development based on the influence that Asian values including China have in shaping global geo-politics, development frameworks and international concepts

Introduction: Akshay Mathur, Senior Director (Head), Asia Society Policy Institute, Delhi

Programme Details

Workshop on “Familiarization with Quantum Sciences and Technology”
 

Opening Remarks: Dr. D. Shailaja Donempudi, Vice Chairman, Zaheer Science Foundation (ZSF), New Delhi, Distinguished Scientist BD Group, CSIR HQ and former Chief Scientist and Head, BDRM, CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad

About the Workshop: Dr. Zahid H. Khan, Advisor, ZSF, UNESCO- National Node for India for IDL2025 and former Professor of Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Keynote Address: “Quantum Light: Celebrating the International Day of Light and the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology”
By Prof. John M. Dudley, International Day of Light 2025 Steering Committee Chair; Professor, University of Franche-Comté, France

(Collaboration: Zaheer Science Foundation, New Delhi)
 

Curated and introduced by Sunit Tandon

CONCERT
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor
(106 min; 1991; dvd)

Florence Quivar, contralto
Tölzer Knabenchor
Chorus Master: Gerhardt Schmidt-Gaden
Women of the Enrst-Senff-Chor
Chorus Master: Hellwarth Matthiesen
Berliner Phlharmoniker
Conductor: Bernard Haitink

Mahler's Third Symphony is one of his sunniest, most extrovert scores. It is also his longest symphony, lasting at least an hour and a half. It needs large-scale performing forces and is, indeed, unconventional and all-encompassing. It ended up being six movements but started out as seven. Perhaps most interestingly, the Third Symphony also offers one of the most complete musical statements of Mahler's world view that the composer ever penned. Mahler used the sounds of nature to represent the "worldly tumult," a tumult not only of birdcalls, rustic dances, military marches, and other mundane sounds, but also of emotions. For Mahler, nature meant everything; it was the world. Jean Sibelius recalled Mahler saying something similar to him when the two met in 1907: "The symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything."
 

Viksit Bharat @2047: Governance Transformed
Edited by C.K. Mathew, Surendra Nath Tripathi, C. Sheela Reddy and A.P. Singh (2025)

Discussants: Shri V. Srinivas, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare, Government of India; Shri Surendra Nath Tripathi, Director General, Indian Institute of Public Administration, co-editor of the book; Dr. A.P. Singh, co-editor of the book; and Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma

An intimate journey through the narrow streets and quiet corners of an old city as seen through the eyes of the artist
Exhibition of watercolour, ink and charcoal by Mohd. Israr

Inauguration on Tuesday, 24 June 2025 at 18:30

Indian National Congress: From Dominance to Decline or Hibernation?
By M.P. Singh and Rekha Saxena (Routledge India: 2023)

Discussants: Prof. Zoya Hasan, political scientist, former Professor of Political Science and Dean, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. E. Sridharan, political scientist and Director & Chief Executive Officer, University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India (UPIASI); Dr. M.P.Singh, former Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Delhi and co-author of the book; and Prof. Rekha Saxena, Head of Department and Senior Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi and co-author of the book