Speaker: Prof. Aparna Vaidik, Associate Professor of History, Ashoka University and author of the recently published Waiting for Swaraj: Inner Lives of Indian Revolutionaries (Cambridge University Press, 2021)

Discussant: Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray, former Chairperson of the National Monuments Authority, Ministry of Culture, and former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Chair: Prof. Madhavan K. Palat, historian, scholar of modern world, and political commentator

The talk examines the issues that a historian encounters while researching and writing the history of revolutionaries in the Indian context. Revolution is an idea and revolutionaries as agents of political change seem almost natural when studying Russian or Latin American history. However, when it comes to Indian history the revolutionaries appear as anomalies – a rag-tag bunch of misfits who were misguided and out of step with the times they lived in. The questions that this talk explores are: How do we study the history of revolutionaries? Does studying their history have any significance? What relationship does revolutionaries’ history have with Indian nationalism?

Panelists: Ms Nancy Sahay, IAS, CEO Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society and MD, JMHIDPCL; Prof. S. Narayan, Emeritus Professor, Member, Commission on Nomadic Tribe, Govt. of India; Shri N.N. Pandey IAS (retd.), former Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary (Home), Govt. of Jharkhand; Dr. Shiwani, academic and journalist with The Hindustan Times; Ms Vandana Tete, journalist and social worker who has worked for Adivasi and Dalit women’s education, and is a former Senior Fellow, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India; Dr. A.K. Pandey, Chairman, SLSMC, Urban Development & Housing Department, Govt. of Jharkhand 

Coordinator: Ms Swayam Siddha Dash

The panel will discuss the current status of tribal women and what should be done in terms of policy, programme implementation and to bring them into mainstream

(Collaboration: Society for Empowerment, Patna)

Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/286518512438740/permalink/5155679328671…

Panelists: Shri Amit Kolassery, General Manager, NORKA ROOTS, Govt. of Kerala; Ms Nazeem Beegum, author and journalist; and Shri Reaven D’Souza, Managing Editor, The Times, Kuwait

Chair: Amb. K.P. Fabian, Professor, Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi 

The outbreak of the pandemic has caused lakhs of Indian nationals to return, and the State of Kerala alone has received more than 15 lakhs. We do not have even reasonably accurate information in the public domain on the total number of returnees. The discussion will address the issue of the plight of the returnees, the rehabilitation measures undertaken by the Union and State Governments, the adequacy thereof, and related issues. Does India have a comprehensive policy set-up to address the plight of these citizens who have been sending billions of US $ annually, supporting the economy

Ikebana lecture – demonstration by Mr. Takayuki Fukazawa, award winning artist and leader of the Ikebana performance unit ‘Za-Sogetsu’. 

Introduction: Smt Veena Dass, Director, Sogetsu School of Ikebana

Mr. Fukazawa will present a demonstration of ‘All the way from Japan’ – his own unique and innovative composition

(Collaboration: Sogetsu School of Ikebana, New Delhi; and The Japan Foundation)

Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89904034928?pwd=ek5WaG9JczF2ZkY5ZnIzT0h0QXZnQ…
Meeting ID: 899 0403 4928 
Passcode: Sogetsu

Asariri: A Life Full of Life
By Rajni Sekhri Sibal (Bloomsbury Prime, New Delhi: 2020)

Discussants: Shri K. Jayakumar, former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Kerala; Dr. Sukrita Paul Kumar, poet, critic and academic, Aruna Asaf Ali Chair, University of Delhi; Dr. Asha Sarangi, Professor. Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Ms Rajni Sekhri Sibal, writer, Civil Servant and author of the book

Chair: Dr. Yogendra Narain, former Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha and former Defence Secretary, Govt. of India

Laura (USA) | (98 min; 1945; b/w; English) | ( Click here to watch )
Director: Otto Preminger

Recipient of the Oscar Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-white, Academy Awards 1945; Winner of the National Film Registry, National Film Preservation Board, USA 1999; and Photoplay Awards for Best Performance and Best Picture, Photoplay Awards 1945

In one of the most celebrated 1940s film noirs, Manhattan detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigates the murder of Madison Avenue executive Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) in her fashionable apartment. On the trail of her murderer, McPherson quizzes Laura's arrogant best friend, gossip columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) and her comparatively mild fiancé, Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price). As the detective grows obsessed with the case, he finds himself falling in love with the dead woman.

A three-part series produced by BBC 4 

In a series about the extraordinary stories behind maps, Professor Jerry Brotton, British historian, Professor of Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary University of London uncovers how maps aren't simply about getting from A to B, but are revealing snapshots of defining moments in history and tools of political power and persuasion.

Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession – Episode 1:

Windows on the World | (60 min; 2010; English) | ( Click here to watch )
Director: Rosie Schellenberg

Professor Jerry Brotton explains the creation and importance of maps, discovering the latest technology being used to improve the cartographer's art and revolutionise mankind's knowledge of the world. On a visit to the oldest known map, etched into a hillside 3,000 years ago, he considers how different cultures have approached map-making over millennia, often as a tool for expansionism and political control.
 

Mozart: Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626 (50 min)
Recorded live at Grieghallen in 6 October 2017 with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Requiem Mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who composed a part of the Requiem in 1791 in Vienna but it was unfinished at his death on 5 December the same year. It was completed in 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Mozart's Requiem is a choral masterpiece whose genesis is shrouded in mystery – one that makes the piece all the more fascinating and emotionally stirring.

Conductor: Thierry Fischer
With Ann-Helen Moen (soprano); Kristina Hammarström (mezzo soprano); Thorbjørn Gulbrandsøy (tenor); and Leon Kosavic (bass baritone)

Bergen Philharmonic Chorus; and Edvard Grieg Choir
Chorus Master: Håkon Matti Skrede

W.B. Yeats: No Country for Old Men (Ireland) | (55 min; 2012; English)
Director: Maurice Sweeney

Maurice Sweeney’s documentary about the Irish poet W.B. Yeats concentrates on his later work and the themes that inspired him as he aged. His best-known poetry is his early work, but it is now acknowledged that perhaps his greatest poems followed his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

In the Shadow of Time (Samayara Chhaire) | (59 min; 2016; Oriya with English subtitles)

Director: Shankhajeet De

Recipient of the 64th National Film Award for Best Documentary on Art and Culture, National Film Awards 2017. Feature length documentary film that explores the journey of the Ravanna Chhaya, shadow puppet form practised in Odisha. Popular for its interplay of translucent dark shadows, and the use of lyrical Odiya poetic rendition of the Ramayana. The fil puts forwards a persuasive voice of the present-day puppeteer reflecting the changes the tradition has undergone in the last 40 years in the name of keeping it alive.

https://www.facebook.com/IGNCA/videos/1046960122383158/

 FILMS BY NINA SABANI

Hum Chitra Banate Hain | (8.50 min; 2015; with English subtitles)
A film by Nina Sabnani

“Hum Chitra Banate Hain” is an animated interpretation of an origin myth from the Bhil community in Madhya Pradesh, India. For the Bhil community painting is like offering a prayer and the film reveals why. The film is a collaboration between the indigenous artist Sher Singh from the Bhil community and film maker Nina Sabnani where they explore ways of telling together. The film won the National Award Rajat Kamal for the Best Animation Film for 2016.

https://youtu.be/s7S3wpf-XDM

Tanko Bole Chhe | (The Stiches Speak; 12.04 min; with English subtitles)
A film by Nina Sabnani

Tanko Bole Chhe is an animated documentary which celebrates the art and passion of the Kutch artisans associated with Kala Raksha. The film traces multiple journeys made by the participants towards defining their identities and towards forming the Kala Raksha Trust and the School for Design. The film uses their narrative art of appliqué and embroideries through which they articulate their responses to life, and events as traumatic as the earthquake and as joyful as flying a kite. Through conversations and memories four voices share their involvement in the evolution of a craft tradition.

https://youtu.be/CfjReP7SlnA

Baat Wahi Hai (It’s the same story/13.38 min)
A film by Nina Sabnani

In the film Baat Wahi Hai two storytellers argue about their version of a story on Shravan Kumar, as listeners are free to interpret it in their own ways. The art for the film uses the painted images from the wooden portable shrine called the Kaavad. The film is a collaborative work between traditional Kaavad storytellers and the Kaavad artists from Rajasthan, together with the filmmaker. A combination of animation and live-action, the film is an interpretation of two stories told by the storytellers, which are fused in the act of telling and retelling.

https://youtu.be/ab47VL1DAYY

Mukund and Riyaz (8.26 min)
A film by Nina Sabnani

Mukand and Riaz is a story based on the fragmented memories of Mukand who remembers and misses his friend Riaz, his childhood friend. Although their interests were different they were the best of friends. Riaz always looked out for Mukand and was very protective of him. When the partition of India and Pakistan happened in 1947, Riaz helped Mukand and his family to escape safely. Mukand was fourteen when he waved goodbye to his friend. The two friends never met again and the hope is that this film may bring them together.

https://youtu.be/g6C9HWVsNd0