PHYSICAL PROGRAMME

The Fractured Himalaya: India Tibet China 1949-1962
By Nirupama Rao (Penguin Viking, 2021)

Chair: Shri N.N. Vohra, President, IIC

Discussants: Amb. Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, former Ambassador to China and the European Union; Shri Manish Tewari, Member, Indian National Congress and former Minister of Information & Broadcasting; and Amb. Nirupama Rao, former Foreign Secretary, former Ambassador to China and USA
 

Farmers and Agricultural Commodity Futures in India
Speaker: Shri Sanjay Mansabdar, founder and Managing Director, Dvara E Registry, an AgriFin Tech startup that works with farmers, FPOs, value chain companies, insurers and lenders on a famer productivity and financial inclusion platform called Doordrishti

Chair: Shri Siraj Hussain, Visiting Senior Fellow, ICRIER 

Monuments and their Connected Histories: Stories from Delhi, Agra, and Fatehpur Sikri
Illustrated lecture by Dr. Shashank Shekhar Sinha, independent researcher and author of Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri: Monuments, Cities and Connected Histories, 2021)

Introduction: Dr. Himanshu Prabha Ray

Chair: Dr. Swapna Liddle

The talk will revolve around three lesser-known stories connected with three iconic monuments which are now known as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These stories, one each from Delhi, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri will uncover the layers and complexities which do not get adequate attention in the conventional narratives

Discussion on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 and Discrimination Law
Speakers: Prof. Mohsin Alam Bhat, Associate Professor, Executive Director, Centre for Public Interest Law, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University; and Ms Thulasi K. Raj, Advocate, Supreme Court of India & Kerala High Court and Visiting Fellow, Melbourne Law School, Australia

Moderator: Shri Lalit Panda, Senior Research Fellow (Charkha), Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (“CAA”) has been a lightning rod of controversy, drawing out starkly different public views about the law’s legitimacy. Conspicuously, discussions on the subject have heavily relied on the language of the Constitution and its promise of equality, non-discrimination, and secularism, However, there is much about the constitutional guarantee of equality that needs clarification before it can be meaningfully applied in the case of the CAA. This is especially so in the case of discrimination law, a field of law that protects individuals and groups against discrimination on the basis of characteristics like race, religion, sex and caste.

A new year-long series of monthly conversations jointly curated and presented with Charkha, the Constitutional Law Research Centre, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. The conversations have been envisaged to spark thoughtful, nuanced discussions on some of the most significant constitutional challenges of our times. The conversations will focus on three broad themes – understanding Indian democracy, unpacking Indian federalism, and unearthing civil liberties
 

Asoca: A Sutra
By Irwin Allan Sealy (Penguin Viking, 2021)

Discussants: Dr. R. Mahalakshmi, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Dr. Shonaleeka Kaul, Associate Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Shri Arvinder Singh, journalist and author; and Shri Irwin Allan Sealy, author of the book

A weekly screening of four award winning children’s films organized in collaboration with Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Delhi to celebrate National Children’s Day. Screenings will be held every Saturday and Sunday in November 2021. Each film will be accessible for a period of 36 hours from Saturday 9 am to Sunday 11:55 pm. The registration link for accessing the weekly screenings is given below:

On Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th November 2021
The Horror Bus (De griezel bus)
(96 min; 2005; Dutch with English subtitles)
Director: Pieter Kuipjers

Recipient of the Best of the Fest Award, Chicago International Children’s Film Festival 2006; Golden Film Awards for Best Director, Producer, and Actors, Golden and Platin Film, Netherlands 2006; and Jury Award for Best Film, Leeds Young People’s Film Festival 2007

Based on the children’s book by author Paul van Loon. The film follows 11 year-old Onnoval who is an outsider at school. A gifted storyteller, he writes ghost stories and poetry. Onnoval writes a story in which his arch rival Gino is killed. But when the devilish Ferluci gets his hands on this story, things start to get very real indeed...

Screening schedule and online registration to access the films: 

Family Film | Eye Film Player

The Great Dance: A Hunter’s Story (USA/South Africa) | Click here to watch
(90 min; 2000; English)
Directors: Craig Foster, Damon Foster

Recipient of the Audience Award for Best Film & Best South African Film, Encounters South African International Documentary Festival 2001; Festival Prize for Best Sound, Jackson Wild Media Awards 2000; and Panda Award for Best Achievement in Sound, Wildscreen Festival 2000

Through the eyes of a San Bushmen hunter who lives in the Kalahari Desert, perceive a world invisible to outsiders--a world where every footprint, every raindrop, and every broken branch tells a story. How do these ancient people fit in the modern world?

The story of three San (Bushman) hunters at their most extreme limits of endurance, culminating in "the Chasing Hunt" - a ritual that has never before been revealed to the world outside of the Kalahari. Discover the extraordinary spiritual relationship between the hunter and the hunted. 

Algorithms: The Secret Rules of Modern Living | Click here to watch
(58 min; 2015; English)
Director: David Briggs

Without us noticing, modern life has been taken over. Algorithms run everything from search engines on the internet to satnavs and credit card data security - they even help us travel the world, find love and save lives. Professor Marcus du Sautoy demystifies the hidden world of algorithms. By showing us some of the algorithms most essential to our lives, he reveals where these 2,000-year-old problem solvers came from, how they work, what they have achieved and how they are now so advanced they can even programme themselves.
 

A series of documentaries presented by the historian Bettany Hughes. Travelling across present locations, Bettany explores the cultural and political pasts of ancient peoples, including the Greeks, Minoans and Egyptian.

The Ancient Worlds: Engineering Ancient Egypt | Click here to watch
(51 min; English)

Through their superlative buildings, the legacy of the Egyptian empire continues to enthrall people to this day. Yet these incredible structures were made over 4,000 years ago.

Historian Bettany Hughes explores what drove the people of this ancient civilisation to build on such a massive scale. The story is told through the reigns of two pharaohs - Khufu and Ramesses II.