Slow Disaster: Political Ecology of Hazards and Everyday Life in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam

By Mitul Baruah (Routledge Taylor & Francis: 2022)

Discussants: Shri Sanjoy Hazarika, writer, columnist and Human Rights activist; Prof. Arupjyoti Saikia, Professor, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Guwahati; Prof. Rajeswari Raina, Professor, Dept. of International Relations and Governance Studies, Shiv Nadar University; and Dr. Mitul Baruah, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Anthropology and Environmental Studies, Ashoka University and author of the book

Moderator: Dr. Swargajyoti Gohain, Associate Professor, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University

Coordinated by Sukrita Paul Kumar and Chandana Dutta

 ‘The Question of Context in Text in Modern Indian Literature’

10.00 am to 10.30 am: Inaugural Session

Opening Remarks: Sudha Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, IIC-International Research Division

Introducing the Session: Sukrita Paul Kumar, Literary Critic and former Aruna Asaf Ali Chair, University of Delhi

Programme Schedule

Organised by the IIC-International Research Division in collaboration with Sahitya Akademi

Registration Link

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

India-Nepal Relations Post the Elections

A discussion with Amb. Manjeev Puri, former India Ambassador to Nepal; Ms Akanshya Shah, Nepali journalist and researcher based in Delhi; Dr. Nihar R. Nayak, Research Fellow, MP-Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses; and Lt. Gen. P.J.S. Pannu, former Deputy Chief of Army Staff

Chair: Maj. Gen. Ashok K. Mehta

Provincial and national elections in Nepal will be held on 20 November 2022. Going by results from local elections held earlier this year, the Nepali Congress-led alliance of Prime Minister S.B. Deuba is likely to be the winners with the K.P. Oli led UML Alliance giving a tough fight. The border dispute with India including Kalapani will be a key issue and focus on nationalism.

Frontiers of History

Cartoon Trouble: A History of Times We Did not Laugh

Illustrated lecture by Prof. Ritu Gairola Khanduri, Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, University of Texas at Arlington, USA and author of Caricaturing Culture in India: Cartoons and History in the Modern World (Cambridge University Press, 2014)

Chair: Ms Sujata Prasad, Advisor, National Gallery of Modern Art

Globally cartoons continue to spark debates, complaints, petitions, arrests, censorship and violence. This puts the spotlight on a peripheral visual form that has historically flourished as journalism and as art. "Cartoon Trouble: A history of times we did not laugh" approaches cartoons as John Lewis famously said of social justice activism, "good trouble" and "necessary trouble." Cartoon trouble draws attention to the cartoon's generative form and its social life. Beginning with cartoon talk in colonial India, this lecture highlights cartoons that made its intended and unintended audiences squirm and furious. This is an invitation to ponder why cartoons matter and why we must make space for this unsparing art form.

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Radhika Dhumal, an award-winning architect will speak on the eminent woman artist and printmaker, Prof. Rini Dhumal and her personal journey in independent India

Rini Dhumal, prolific artist and printmaker, is a prominent figure in the contemporary art world. She was the recipient of numerous awards, grants and fellowships that propelled her onto the global platform. Prof Rini Dhumal has numerous solo exhibitions to her credit in both India and abroad, and has participated in national and international group exhibitions, workshops and camps. She taught at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda as Professor and Head of the Painting Department, Faculty of Fine Arts.

The Government of India, Ministry of Culture, organized a Retrospective of Rini Dhumal in 2022 at the National Gallery of Modern Art, titled ‘Shakti’.

Radhika Dhumal

Radhika is an architect with a Gold Medal in Design and has an MSc in Architectural Conservation from the Edinburgh College of Art in the UK. She has been awarded fellowship 2012-13 as the “Outstanding Person in the Field of Culture'' by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. 

Zoom Registration: https://zoom.us/j/89486188044

Meeting ID: 894 8618 8044

(Collaboration: J.D. Centre of Art)

Back to Basics through Usable Art

A talk by Allan Schwarz: artist, craftsman, architect and environmental designer. Allan's life work, the Mezimbite Forest Centre, which he founded in Mozambique's Miombo Biome in 1994, is a unique grass-roots forest management system of “Conservation by Design", crafting usable art in the form of high quality and sustainable forest products. Allan is an elected Beautiful Soul Africa Fellow and Ashoka Fellow, and was recently acknowledged in a Penguin publication of the world’s 25 leading “Climate Warriors”.

Followed by a dialogue with Anisha Shekhar Mukherji, Conservation Architect, Author and Visiting Faculty at S.P.A. Delhi. 

Conceptualised by Anisha Shekhar Mukherji, the series has presented philosophies and practices in India, that show the way forward for architecture to contribute positively to society and to culture. In this, the tenth talk, we see through Allan's work, the manner in which such philosophies and practices are being followed in Africa and at an international level.  

Attendees to the session will find it useful to see this short film on Allan's work, made by Jessica Yu, when she was filming for NatGeo in Mozambique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQXuK8kH9UQ&t=215s

Registration link

India’s Economy from Nehru to Modi: A Brief History

By Pulapre Balakrishnan (Permanent Black: 2022)

Discussants: Shri Nitin Desai, Chairman, TERI and former Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, UN; Shri T.K. Arun, senior journalist and former Editor, The Economic Times; Prof. Amita Batra, Professor of Economics, Centre for South Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Dr. Pulapre Balakrishnan, Professor of Economics, Ashoka University and author of the book

Chair: Prof. Sudipto Mundle, Senior Advisor, NCAER and former Professor Emeritus, NIPFP

Speaker: Amb. Ranjan Mathai, former Foreign Secretary and High Commissioner to U.K.

Chair: Amb. K.P. Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis University

The United Kingdom has seen the fall of two Prime Ministers, Boris Johnson and Lizz Truss, in quick successions. Rishi Sunak, who lost to Truss earlier has now succeeded her. The economy is in trouble, especially after Brexit. The cost-of-living crisis remains to be attended to. The Conservative Part is deeply divided, and the Labor has increased its lead in opinion polls