Webinar

Panelists: Dr. Jabin T. Jacob, Associate Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar University; Dr. Sriparna Pathak, Assistant Professor and Assistant Academic Dean, Jindal School of International Affairs, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat; and Shri Keshav Kelkar, Independent Analyst

Chair and Moderator: Prof. C. Raja Mohan, Senior Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute, Delhi

October 2023 marked a decade of China’s foreign policy conference on peripheral diplomacy. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) convened a strategic affairs conference focusing on China’s peripheral diplomacy in October 2013. It was an often-overlooked yet significant event attended by high-ranking CCP members, central committee organs, and senior diplomats, underscoring cardinal features and factors of China’s relations with its neighbouring countries. A newly appointed President Xi Jinping emphasised the importance of a stable periphery to ensure China’s broader development goals, including the “Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” In the last ten years, China has become assertive and expansionist, and its ongoing conflict with neighbours on land and maritime speaks volumes about it. Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) stands at the heart of what was propounded at the conference in Beijing. In this webinar, the panellists will assess the trajectory of China’s peripheral diplomacy in the last decade.  

(Collaboration: Asia Society Policy Institute, Delhi)

Registration link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_saHOPAJuTwOwizN2Qi_xqA

Speaker: Prof. Shonaleeka Kaul, cultural historian of early India and Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Prof. Kaul has published eight books so far including a new translation with critical introduction to the Hitopadesha by Narayana: A New English Translation (Aleph, 2022)

This talk uncovers complex layers of human-non human entanglements in an iconic and witty literary genre from early India. It explores the representation of animals in a dedicated textual tradition best identified with the influential 2nd century Panchatantra and its retelling, the 9th century Hitopadesha. Delving into this lively corpus to illuminate the mutually constituted fields of animal history and Sanskrit literature, the talk argues for the instrumentality of animals in human culture and discourse.

Chair: Amb. A.N.D. Haksar, former Indian diplomat, prolific translator of Sanskrit classics into English

Musica Universalis: The Music of the Spheres in European Philosophy and Musical History

Illustrated presentation by Come Carpentier de Gourdon, Convener, Editorial Board of the World Affairs Journal, author of From India to Infinity

Chair: Dr. Punita Singh, musicologist, linguist, acoustician, editor and educator based in Delhi

Speaker: Prof. Tathagatan Ravindran, Indian scholar based in Colombia who works on social movements, Left politics, race/ethnicity in Latin America. A social anthropologist, Prof. Ravindran has taught at Icesi University in Colombia, the University of Texas at Austin and the Delhi School of Economics. His work is interdisciplinary as it engages with and advances debates in Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, and Political theory

Chair: Amb. R. Viswanathan, Specialist on Latin America and former Indian Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela
 

The Works of the well-known poet and translator, Kamlesh 

Panelists: Arun Kamal, noted poet of modern Hindi literature, and recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award for Hindi in 1998; Girdhar Rathi, noted poet, critic, translator and editor; and Madan Soni, literary critic and poet

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

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

The Return of Nawaz Sharif: How it will change Election Scene in Pakistan

Panelists: Dr. Shalini Chawla, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Air Power Studies; Amb. Sharat Sabharwal, former Ambassador to Pakistan; and Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Kamal Davar, President, Delhi Forum For Strategic Studies (DFFSS) 

Chair: Maj. Gen. Ashok K. Mehta

Crossing the Shoreline
By Gopal Lahiri (Haoajan Publishers, 2022)

Discussants: Ms Rachna Joshi, poet and writer; Ms Mandira Ghosh, poet and author of several books;  Shri Gopal Lahiri, bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator and author of the book

Chair: Dr Amarendra Khatua

Speakers: Abu Talha Farooqi, Assistant Professor & Dean, Jindal School of Art & Architecture; and Shri Sourav Dhar, Programme Lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)

Moderator: Satish Sinha, Associate Director, Toxics link

The rapidly growing urban population necessitates new ways of thinking about how we construct and design our cities. The lecture will help gain valuable insights into the potential of sustainable infrastructure including innovative approaches to housing design, sustainable transportation solutions, efficient water management systems, and renewable energy integration to support resource-efficient cities.

(Collaboration: Toxics Link)