A People’s Library: Celebrating The Connemara Public Library 

An exhibition of texts, reproductions of archival photographs, facsimiles of rare books, digitised copies of illuminated manuscripts and other digital reproductions from the collection of The Connemara Public Library, Chennai

Inauguration of the exhibition by Shri Govind Mohan, Secretary, Min. of Culture, GOI on 27 October 2023 at 4 pm

(Collaboration: The Connemara Public Library, Chennai)

Sovereigns of the Sea: Omani Ambitions in the Age of Empire

By Seema Alavi (Penguin India: 2023)
 

Speaker: Mr Vytis Vidunas, Lecturer, Asian and Transcultural Studies Centre, Vilnius University

Chair: Professor Shashi Bala, Dean, Centre of Indology, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Mr Vytis Vidunas is a Sanskrit scholar, who also works on comparative linguistics and similarities between Sanskrit and Lithuanian languages. He is the author of the Sanskrit-Lithuanian dictionary initiated by the Lithuanian Embassy in India and published by the Lithuanian Language Institute in 2016.

(Organised by IIC-International Research Division; and Embassy of Lithuania)

Speaker: Dr. Colleen Taylor Sen, independent food historian and writer based in Chicago, specializing in the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent. Her previous publications include Curry: A Global History (2009) and Street Food around the World: An Encyclopaedia of Food and Culture (co-editor, 2013)

Chair: Shri Sourish Bhattacharyya

Speaker: Patrick Olivelle, Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit and Indian Religions, University of Texas at Austin

Chair: Upinder Singh, Professor of History, Ashoka University

In 1958 the French anthropologist Louis Dumont published a small but seminal paper entitled “World Renunciation in Indian Religions.” It has been called “probably the most imaginative and insightful attempt to grasp Indian religions as a whole in the history of Indology.” Dumont himself says that this early paper “provides the main framework for all my later work, both on India itself and beyond that setting.” The talk takes issue with Dumont’s main contention, especially his opposition of the world renouncer to the man living in society, based on new understanding of the early history of the householder or grihastha.

(Collaboration: Ashoka University)

Speaker: Prof. Ajay K. Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India

Discussants: Prof. Ambuj Sagar, Founding Head, School of Public Policy, Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Professor of Policy Studies, IIT Delhi; and Shri Rajesh Gopinathan, former CEO and Managing Director, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd.

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

Hanuman Drama

Damodara Mishra’s Hanumannataka translated by A.N.D. Haksar (Penguin Classics: 2023)

Discussants: Prof. Radha Chakravarty, former Professor of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi, critic and translator; Dr. Debraj Mookerjee, Associate Professor, Dept. of English, Ramjas College, University of Delhil; Shri Nikhil Haksar; and Amb. A.N. D. Haksar, former diplomat and translator of the book

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

A discussion with Dr. Arghya Sengupta, Founder Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and author of the recently published book of the same title (Juggernaut: 2023); and Shri Fali S. Nariman, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India

Chair: Shri Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, ThePrint

By Roger Tristao Adao featuring Madhavan Somanathan

The artists will present a concert of works by Soleares; Granados; Albéniz; Cardoso and others

Solo Trip Par Jaati Sakhi

By Swati Sharma (Bhavna Prakashan; 2023)

Discussants: Amb. Amarendra Khatua, Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and Director General of ICCR; Poet & Diplomat ; Shri Sudhanshu Gupt, Author & Journalist; Ms Swati Sharma, Poet & Author of the book ; Ms. Sushma Gupta, Author ; Sh. Mahesh Darpan, Author and Dr. Alka Tyagi, Author & Poet 

Chair:Sh. Priyadarshan, Author, Critic