Prof. Ashoke Chatterjee, author and design educator will speak on Contemporary Legacies: Remembering modern India’s Craft Pioneers

Ashoke Chatterjee has a background in the engineering industry, international civil service, India Tourism Development Corporation, and 25 years in the service of the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad) where he was Executive Director, Senior Faculty, Distinguished Fellow and Professor of communication and management.

Prof Chatterjee has served a range of development institutions in India and overseas, particularly in the sectors of drinking water, sanitation, disability, livelihoods and education as well as working with artisans in many parts of the country. He was Hon President of the Crafts Council of India for over twenty years and continues to serve CCI.

An author and writer, his books include “Dances of the Golden Hall” on the art of Shanta Rao and “Rising” on empowerment efforts among deprived communities in rural Gujarat.

(Collaboration: J.D. Centre of Art)

Zoom Registration:

 https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85056150405?pwd=Z0NlSnBJUE1HeWZ5dDNEaDhPS25md…
Meeting ID: 850 5615 0405

Speaker: Dr. Swapna Liddle, author and historian with specialization in the history of Delhi. Closely involved in the movement to preserve heritage monuments and sites. Dr. Liddle is associated with the Delhi Chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). She is the author of Chandni Chowk: The Mughal City of Old Delhi (2017); Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi (2018); and recently, The Broken Script: Delhi Under the East India Company and the Fall of the Mughal Dynasty, 1803-1857 (2022)

Chair: Prof. Partho Datta, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

The cataclysmic events of 1857 had a profound impact on Delhi. The revolt and its brutal suppression also changed the way later generations would assess the culture of the period before 1857. To that extent 1857 is a prism that distorts the view of the preceding half-century. Based on the research in her recent book - The Broken Script: Delhi under the East India Company and the Fall of the Mughal Dynasty, 1803 - 1857, Swapna Liddle discusses the role of 1857 as a distorting lens, and how we can look behind it to reassess what Delhi was really like under the British East India Company and the last two Mughal emperors.

Churchill and India: Manipulation or Betrayal?

By Kishan S. Rana (Routledge Taylor & Francis: 2022)

Discussants: Amb. M.K. Rasgotra, former Foreign Secretary of India; Prof. Pallavi Raghavan, historian, International Affairs Scholar and Assistant Professor, Ashoka University; and Amb. Kishan Rana, former Ambassador of India, Emeritus Professor, DIPLO Foundation, Geneva and Malta, and author of the book

Chair: Amb. Shyam Saran, President, IIC

Private and Controversial  When Public Health and Privacy Meet in India

Edited by Smriti Parsheera (HarperCollins India: 2023)

 Speakers:  Virnda Bhandari, lawyer, Supreme Court of India;  Ms Yamini Aiyar, President, Centre for Policy Research ;  Ms Usha Ramanathan, Legal Scholar ;  Ms Smriti Parsheera, Fellow, CyberBRICS Project & Author of the Book

Moderator: Shri Nikhil Pahwa, Founder, Medianama

Coordinated by Shri Siraj Hussain

Sustainability of Palm Oil 
Speaker: Shri Ashwin Selvaraj, Deputy Director Market Transformation, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)

Chair: Shri Siraj Hussain, former Union Agriculture Secretary

The talk will highlight the challenges and opportunities in mainstreaming sustainability in the oil palm sector and what the experience has been on this subject so far. India has a critical role to play in the oil palm sector and such opportunities help in creating awareness and provide one with inspiration to continue the engagement with the relevant public sector and private sector stakeholders
 

Nehru and the Spirit of India

By Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee (Penguin Random House: 2022)

Discussants: Prof. Hilal Ahmed, Political sociologist and Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies; and Shri Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee, poet and author of the book

Chair: Prof. Ashis Nandy, social theorist and political psychologist

Ravi Shankar: The Indian Sun who Rose in the East

Illustrated lecture by Oliver Craske, author of Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar which was published to acclaim in 2020. During a career in book publishing, Craske had collaborated with Shankar on his memoir Raga Mala and has edited other books on subjects including Einstein, The Beatles, cricket and art collecting

Chair: Anita Singh, Vice-Chairperson and Director, Indian Music Society

Accounts of the sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar (1920-2012) usually focus on his groundbreaking achievements in popularizing Indian music overseas. His biographer Oliver Craske argues that his achievements within India, which are less lauded today, were equally significant and are essential to an understanding of the man who was perhaps India’s most important cultural figure of the 20th century