Speakers: Amb. Navdeep Suri, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and former Indian Ambassador to Egypt; Prof. P.R. Kumaraswamy, Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Shri Atul Aneja, Editor, India Narrative who has reported conflicts from Baghdad, Beirut and Cairo

Chair: Ms Indrani Bagchi, CEO, Ananta Centre

The visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to Delhi as an honoured guest at the 2023 Republic Day celebrations marks an important moment in the evolution of relations between Delhi and Cairo. India and Egypt today reconnect at a moment very different from the Nehru-Nasser era in the second half of the 20th century. The discussion will explore the contours of a renewed partnership between India and Egypt

(Collaboration: Asia Society Policy Institute, New Delhi)

Songs of Love, Longing and Separation

The Langa and Manganiar are both hereditary musician communities from Western Rajasthan, and have a rich and varied musical repertoire handed down from generations. Songs of longing and separation are one of the most evocative of their repertoire, as is the case in many musical traditions of India. These range from romantic songs sung at weddings for the patrons, devotional songs pining for the divine lover, or those that are part of romantic ballads among others

An evening with Multan Khan Manganiar; Askar Khan Langa and Sardar Khan Langa (vocals & Sindhi sarangi); Firoz Khan Manganiar (vocal & dholak); and Ghewar Khan Manganiar (vocals & kamaicha)

Conceptualised and curated by Shubha Chaudhuri

Vignettes of the personal and magical world of Premola Ghose

Inauguration by Shri N.N. Vohra, Life Trustee, IIC on Saturday, 21 January 2023 at 18:30

About the exhibition

An exhibition to celebrate and remember Premola Ghose, ex-Chief, Programme Division IIC, who passed away in 2019. The works  exhibited today, most of them done from 1996 to 2018 reflect her personality as well as her passions: her quirky, often irreverent,  sense of humour, her playful  sense of mischief and eye for the absurd;  her deep interest in history and architecture; her zest for travel both in India and abroad; her love of nature and animals. And last but by no means least, her world at the India International Centre where she worked for forty-odd years, putting her heart and soul into all that she did here. A wonderful storyteller as well, Premola authored a series of travel tales all featuring her quirky ‘Gang’ of animals and their adventures not only in India but also in Europe, Sri Lanka and Japan. 

Speaker: Prof. Jay L. Garfield FAHA, Doris Silbert Professor in Humanities and Professor of Philosophy and Buddhist Studies; Chair, Department of Philosophy, Director, Five College Tibetan Studies in India Program, Smith College and Visiting Professor of Buddhist Philosophy, Harvard Divinity School

Chair: Kabir Saxena

The talk presents a Buddhist analysis of non-violence in a way relevant to our contemporary life. Prof. Garfield will start with an explanation of how violence manifests in the contemporary world; then develop a Buddhist analysis of that violence and its causes; and ask how a Buddhist ethical framework determines our responsibilities as agents in the context of that violence and a path to its eradication
 

Challenges Before the Indian Judiciary and Overcoming Them

Speaker: Justice Madan Lokur, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India

Moderator of the series: Suhas Borker
Introduction: Vinay Kumar, Secretary General, Press Club of India

The series of Conversations with Media is jointly presented by IIC and PCI and is hosted by them alternatively every month
 

Celebration of the Power of Non-Violent Action & the Life of Martin Luther King Jr (15 January 1929 – 4 April 1968) & Commemoration of the 53rd Anniversary of the Gandhi-King Memorial Plaza

10:30 to 11:00 at Gandhi-King Memorial Plaza
Commemoration Service 
Songs by Choirs of Schools from Delhi NCR

11:15 to 12:15 at C. D. Deshmukh Auditorium
Interactive Session 
Theme of the Interactive Session:
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".
- Martin Luther King, Jr., (Letter from Birmingham Jail, 16 April 1963)

During the Interactive Session a short film on Martin Luther King's Life shall be screened 
Moderators: Shri Suhas Borker, Convener, Working Group on Alternative Strategies
Shri Ramesh Sharma, Gandhi Yuva Biradari

Students from Schools of Delhi NCR to participate 

This programme is part of the Taking Children to Gandhi series that brings children closer to the enduring legacy of Gandhi’s non-violent struggle for equity, justice, pluralism and sustainable development

Gandhi-King Memorial Plazawas inaugurated on 21 January 1970 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and commemorates two iconic figures of our times: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
 
(Collaboration: Gandhi Yuva Biradari and Working Group on Alternative Strategies)

Coordinated by Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Ashok K. Mehta

Whither Afghanistan?

Panelists: Amb. Gautam Mukhopadhyay, former Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan; Lt. Gen. Ravi Sawhney, Senior Fellow, Vivekananda Foundation; Ms Maya Mirchandani, Counter Terrorism Specialist, Observer Research Foundation; Shri Kabir Taneja, Fellow, Strategic Studies Programme, Observer Research Foundation; and Mr. David Loyn, former BBC correspondent and author of The Long War: The Inside Story of America and Afghanistan since 9/11

Chair: Maj. Gen. Ashok K. Mehta

It is 18 months since the Taliban re-conquered Afghanistan and rolled back the two-decade old experiment with democracy. Unlike 1996, not a single country has recognized the Emirate. The humanitarian crisis has worsened as ISIS and the National Resistance Front led by Ahmed Massoud continue to challenge the Taliban. The panel will discussed the charmed future of the Taliban government
 

Concert presented by Pt. Shubhendra Rao on sitar; Saskia Rao-de Haas on Indian cello; and Ishaan Leonard Rao on piano

A concert presenting the music of one of Brazil’s greatest composers, Villa-Lobos in a unique improvisation on sitar, Indian cello and piano. This concert brings together two distinctive traditions of music – Indian and Western music. While many European composers like Mozart and Beethoven are well-known in India, this concert will familiarize audiences to the most famous and prolific composer from Brazil, Heitor Villa-Lobos. Known to be deeply inspired by the folk traditions of his land and classical music, interestingly, his classical work is also freely interpreted by folk and jazz musicians in the Americas

(Collaboration: Embassy of Brazil)

The Cultural Collapse II

A discussion with Sadanand Menon

Moderator: Ashok Vajpeyi

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

(Non-fiction film; 52 min; 2021; India; English )

Directed by Joe Thomas K

The Nilgiris have gained the distinction of being a geographic indication for tea, today. Somewhere behind the present glory is a remote connection with the Chinese which remains forgotten. "Those 4 Years" is an amazing journey into the lives of those Chinese who came to India around the middle of the 19th century… speaking a language unknown to their neighbours when they first arrived. The film journeys across three countries and reams of colonial office records to retrace the places those people came from, the means and mode of their arrival, and how many of them ended up making India their home. It is a history of people, plants and places - as it catalogues their contributions to plantations, locates places and sites associated with their earliest arrival and stay and, more remarkably, manages to locate some of the descendants of those Chinese who arrived in India over 150 years ago.  

Dr. Joe Thomas Karackattu is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. This is his second film