Endangered Languages of the Nicobar Islands

By Prof. Anvita Abbi, Shri Rahul Pachori, Shri Vysakh R.

Discussants: Dr Ajay Saini, Assistant Professor, Centre for Rural Development & Technology, IIT Delhi; Shimray Rose, Additional District Magistrate, NW District, Delhi; Prof. Anvita Abbi, Adjunct Professor, Department of Linguistics, Simon Fraser University; Former Professor, JNU & Author of the Book; Rahul Pachori, Research Fellow (Linguistics), Kala Nidhi Division, IGNCA & Co-Author of the Book

Chair: Prof Uday Narayan Singh, Professor of Linguistics, Dean Faculty of Arts Amity University, Haryana

Talk by Brig. Ashok Abbey (Retd), a veteran climber with over four decades of experience across the Karakoram, Himalaya and adjoining ranges. He brings deep field knowledge to the history of the Workman explorations.

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

Guest of Honour: Lt Gen Ata Hasnain (Retd.)

Special Invitee: Ms Kokila Sudha, renowned mountaineer

This talk revisits the extraordinary 1911–1912 expedition of Fanny Bullock Workman. Her pioneering exploration of the 76 km long Siachen Glacier—now the world’s highest battlefield—mapped its chief tributaries and placed the glacier accurately within the geography of the Eastern Karakoram.

(Collaboration: Himalayan Club and The Himalayan Environment Trust)

Duration: (55 minutes;2014; English)

Director: Robert H. Gardner

The film follows the life of Noor Inayat Khan, who became a fearless spy during World War II. Recruited into Britain’s Special Operations Executive, she served as a covert radio operator in Nazi-occupied Paris and became the only link to the French Resistance. Betrayed and captured by the Gestapo, she was later executed at Dachau, leaving behind a legacy of courage and sacrifice.

(Collaboration: Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama)

Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History

By Rohit De and Ornit Shani (Cambridge University Press, 2025)

Discussants: Prof Anupama Roy, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, JNU; Dr Usha Ramanathan, Independent law researcher and human rights activist; Shahrukh Alam, Advocate, Supreme Court of India; Suhas Borker, Editor Citizens First TV (CFTV) ; Dr. Rohit De, Associate Professor of History at Yale University and author of the book and Dr. Ornit Shani Associate Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Haifa and author of the book

 

Children for a Better World

An exhibition of paintings by the students of Vidya Niketan Senior Secondary School, Saket, New Delhi. Through themes such as peace, equality, women’s empowerment, environmental conservation, artificial intelligence, discrimination, and global conflicts, the exhibition reflects children’s empathy, awareness, and creative responses to the world around them.

Inauguration on 17 December at 16:00 by Jatin Das, Eminent Artist

The exhibition will be on view from 11:00 to 19:00 hrs daily

CANCELLED

A piano recital by Andreas König, internationally acclaimed concert pianist and currently piano lecturer for senior students and teacher training at Delhi Music Society.

He will be performing Georg Friedrich Händel, Sarabande; Issac Albéniz, Córdoba; Maurice Ravel, Alborada del gracioso; Enrique Granados, Danza Española no. 2 "Oriental"; Pepe Rodríguez, La Mar Picá (premiere performance); Joaquín Turina, Ensueño; Manuel de Falla, Fantasia bética.

(Collaboration: Embassy of Spain in New Delhi)

Rocking and Rolling with the Stones

Illustrated talk on the music of The Rolling Stones

Dr Punita G Singh

In this musical journey with The Rolling Stones, we explore how a shifting cast of brilliantly idiosyncratic musicians created one of the most enduring bands in rock history. Fusing early rock with the blues, their innovative sound experiments included influences from gospel, R&B, soul, country, folk and even reggae and disco. 

Emerging alongside—The Beatles—in the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones carved out their own image and constantly reinvent themselves. Through iconic audio tracks, video clips and stories, we get a glimpse into the colourful personalities, lives and oeuvre of these musicians who continue to attract listeners across generations.

Punita G Singh is a musicologist, linguist, acoustician, editor and educator based in New Delhi.

Recovering the Plays of Māyurāja

Conversation between Prof. Andrew Ollett, University of Chicago, and Prof. Naresh Keerthi, Ashoka University

Chair: Dr. Sudha Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, IIC-International Research Division

The speakers will share their experiences of editing and translating two plays composed by the eighth-century poet Māyurāja, Tāpasavatsarāja (“Udayana the Ascetic”) and Udāttarāghava (“Raghu’s Exalted Descendants”). They will refer to the challenges posed by the manuscripts, of which there is only one extant for Tāpasavatsarāja, and only one accessible to scholars of Udāttarāghava.

Prof. Andrew Ollett works on the literary and intellectual traditions of South Asia, including works composed in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, Kannada, and Chinese from the first millennium of the common era. He is the recipient of the Infosys Prize for 2025.

Prof. Naresh Keerthi is Head, Department of Sanskrit, Ashoka University and researched on the semantics of colour in Sanskrit, at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. He is interested in kāvya and nāṭya literature in Sanskrit and Prakrit, and their interactions with South India’s literary cultures. He studies topics at the intersection of the lexicon, grammar and poetics, and is investigating the development of poetic topoi in kāvya literature.

Sixteenth in a series of lectures organised by IIC-International Research Division with the support of Ministry of External Affairs

Astanayika: The Romantic Heroines from Natyasastra to Modernity

by Manorama Choudhury and Jayakrushna (Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House, 2025

Speakers: H G Gauranga Das, Author and Spiritual Leader; Guru Sharon Lowen, Renowned Odissi Dancer, Writer & Founder Manasa-Art Without Frontiers; Dr Seema Bhalla, Art Historian, Curator, Critic; Ms Manorama Choudhury, Author of the book ; Dr. Jayakrushna Choudhury, Author of the book


 

Opening Remarks: Shyam Saran, President, IIC and former Special Envoy and Chief Negotiator on Climate Change

Lead Presentation by: Dr Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), and COP30 Special Envoy for South Asia

Panelists: Ravi Shankar Prasad, Former Special Secretary MoEF & CC, and (currently) Distinguished Fellow, CEEW; Laveesh Bhandari, President, Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP); Dr Ajay Mathur, Former Member of PM's Council on Climate Change and Professor of Practice in the School of Public Policy, IIT, Delhi.

Chair: Shyam Saran, President, IIC

This talk reflects on COP30 as a pivotal moment where climate diplomacy confronts its limits and possibilities. Moving beyond binary narratives, it assesses concrete outcomes, hard truths, and the implementation-driven pathways shaping the world’s climate future.