Rang Habib: 4 to 6 April 2024
A commemorative festival of theatre as a tribute to Habib Tanvir
Organised in collaboration with The Raza Foundation, the festival presents three plays as a tribute to Habib Tanvir would have been 100 years of age last September 2023. Two of the plays follow the same path that Habib Tanvir did and the third play enacts the great master’s life and career.
Conceptualised by Dr. Udayan Vajpeyi
Kanupriya
Directed by Ratan Thiyam
Script by Dharamveer Bharati
Presented by Chorus Repertory Theatre, Imphal
BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Being Hindu, Being Indian: Lala Lajpat Rai’s Ideas of Nationhood
By Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav (Penguin Random House India: 2024)
Discussants: Prof. Pradeep Kumar Datta, historian; Prof. Gurpreet Mahajan, former Professor, Centre for Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Dr. Arudra Burra, Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; and Dr. Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav, historian of Indian political thought and author of the book
Chair: Shri Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, journalist and author
Reversal of Diabetes – Myth or Reality
Coordinator and Chair: Dr. Ashwani Kumar
Panelists: Dr. S.V. Madhu, Director & Professor, Dept. of Endocrinology, University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi; Dr. Pramod Tripathi, Founder, Freedom from Diabetes (FFD), Pune; and Dr. Sandeep Aggarwal, Professor of Surgery & Consultant Bariatric Surgeon, AIIMS, New Delhi and Dr. Raja Ram Mahto, Associate Professor, Dept. of Kayachikitsa, I/C Diabetes and Metabolic Care Unit, All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi
The session will also include a presentation on the AYUSH Experience
Moderator: Prof. S.V. Madhu
Oxford: “City of Dreaming Spires”
An exhibition of paintings by Sipra Dattagupta from Kolkata
Bathed in monochromatic colours of ochre and gold, the paintings follow some of the most well-known trails of the city – through high streets, bookshops, pubs and colleges
Inauguration by Ms Christina Scott, CMG, Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission on Tuesday, 2 April 2024 at 18:30
FRONTIERS OF HISTORY
The Roma Exodus and Reconnection with a Forgotten Diaspora
Illustrated lecture by Dr. Punita G. Singh, acoustician, musicologist, linguist, editor and educator based in Delhi. She has taught at Washington University in the US, McGill University, Canada and is currently, Visiting Faculty at Ashoka University, Sonipat
India is regarded as the original homeland of the Roma, yet most history books in schools omit mention of a Roma exodus and research and scholarship on the subject has been sparse. If the emigration of Roma out of India dates back to a millennium or earlier as posited by some scholars, the parallel influx of traders, invaders and colonizers over the intervening period seems to have overwritten their story. This presentation reviews the story of the Roma and their connection, disconnection and reconnection with India.
BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Buddha in My Backyard
By Emani Rani Sarma (Hyderabad Book Trust: 2023)
Discussants: Shri Ashok Vajpeyi, former Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, poet and literary-cultural critic; Dr. Uma Chakravarti, historian and author; Shri Suhas Borker, Editor, Citizens First TV (CFTV) and Trustee, IIC; and Ms Emani Rani Sarma, author of the book
Two Year Review of War in Ukraine: Nuclear Amber Lights Flashing?
Panel discussion led by Amb. Shyam Saran, President IIC, former Foreign Secretary of India; Prof. Madhavan K. Palat, well-known historian and expert on European and Russian history; and Amb. Rakesh Sood, former Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan and Nepal
Moderator: Cmde C. Uday Bhaskar