BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP 

Cracks in the wall: stories 
By Neera Kashyap (Niyogi Books, 2025)

Speakers:Shri Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee, Director, Niyogi Books ;Dr. Malashri Lal, Author, Poet, Anthologist; Former Professor, Department of English, University of Delhi;Ms. Deepa Agarwal, Author, Poet & Translator; Dr. Payal Nagpal, Poet, Professor, Dept of English Literature, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi ;Ms. Neera Kashyap, Author & Poet. 

Chair:- Shri Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee, Director, Niyogi Books 
 

The Theatre Photograph as Evidence

Speakers: A. Mangai (Dr V Padma), scholar, activist, and theatre personality known for her extensive work in Tamil feminist theatre; Amal Allana, theatre director and former Chairperson, National School of Drama); and Shuddhabrata Sengupta, artist, writer and curator (Raqs Media Collective)

Moderator: Zuleikha Chaudhari

The talk engages with theatre as a social document. As dynamic source material, deflecting and reflecting both evidentiary and lyrical dimensions of performance, how can the theatre photograph situate the medium within the social, political, economic, and legal? How can theatre be read as a public record of the everyday experience of historical events?

(Collaboration: Alkazi Theatre Archives;The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts)
 

Soulful Journey - Dan Zhu World Recital Tour 2026
Dan Zhu on violin; Jean-Frédéric Neuburger on piano

Dan Zhu an internationally acclaimed violinist, he made his Carnegie Hall debut at 18. Performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Festspiele, Marlboro, Marvão, Enescu, Schleswig-Holstein, Prades-Casals, Ravinia and Spoleto. Has appeared with leading orchestras under conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, Neeme Järvi, Zubin Mehta, Jacek Kaspszyk, Alexander Rahbari, Muhai Tang, Long Yu and many more.

Jean-Frédéric Neuburger a distinguished French pianist and composer, performed with orchestras such as NHK Symphony Orchestra, the New-York Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic, Bamberger Symphoniker with conductors as Lorin Maazel, Paavo Järvi, Michael Tilson Thomas, David Zinman, Jonathan Nott.
 

MUSIC APPRECIATION PROMOTION: THE 150TH EDITION

The Symbiosis of Music and Dance: Placing Music in Indian Classical Dance                                                An illustrated presentation by Madhavi Mudgal

The presentation will focus on Madhavi Mudgal's perspective of the music that accompanies Indian classical dance; a perspective that emphasises how music and dance go together and enhance each other.   
Madhavi Mudgal is a renowned exponent and Guru of Odissi dance

The 11th Literary Activism Symposium

Doing the Dirt on Tragedy

Uses D.H. Lawrence’s preference for “liveliness” over “grandeur” to rethink the boundaries of Western and non-Western literary traditions.

Speakers: Amit Chaudhuri, novelist, poet and Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the Centre for the Creative and the Critical, Ashoka University; William Harris, critic, writes essays for n+1, New Left Review, Jacobin, etc; Jatin Nayak, translator, literary critic, and Professor Emeritus at KISS University, Bhubaneswar; Sumana Roy, author, critic, and Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing, Ashoka University; Saikat Majumdar, novelist, critic, and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Ashoka University; Aditya Bahl, poet and critic, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at UCLA; Udayan Vajpeyi, Hindi poet, essayist and Associate Professor at Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal; Simon Cooke, scholar of Victorian and modern literature and Associate Professor of English Literature at Durham University; Tishani Doshi, award-winning poet, novelist and dancer, and Professor of Practice in Literature and Creative Writing at NYU Abu Dhabi; Kirsty Gunn, acclaimed novelist and short story writer, and Professor of Writing Practice at the University of Dundee.

(Collaboration: Ashoka University)

 

Art Matters
Urdu Poetry with Saeed Naqvi, Senior Journalist

(Collaboration: Raza Foundation)
 

Prithvi Darshana: Revitalizing Indigenous Epistemes for Sustainable Futures

The symposium turns the searchlight on climate discourse by foregrounding indigenous epistemes, women-led resilience, and the interconnections between climate change, conflict, and human (in)security. It calls for moving beyond merely “adding” climate content to fundamentally reimagining climate-change-sensitive education by bridging community wisdom and academic spaces to cultivate intergenerational, gender-sensitive, and justice-oriented pedagogies for sustainable and inclusive futures. The programme will bring together seasoned scholars, practitioners, women community leaders, and young grassroots practitioners in an intergenerational dialogue to share insights and experiences.

Opening Remarks by Prof. Krishna Menon, Professor, School of Human Studies, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi

Key Speakers: Prof. Anup Dhar, Professor, BML Munjal University, Permanent Fellow, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany; Dr. Ruchira Das, Associate Professor, Institute of Home Economics, University of Delhi; Dr. Ranjana Das, Associate Professor, Ramjas College, University of Delhi

Reflections and Resonances: Young Voices — Reflections on Climate Change by early career development and climate Practitioners working at the grassroots with conflict-affected communities

Special Intervention: Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath, Founder-Director, WISCOMP and Life Trustee, IIC

Vote of Thanks: Shriya Raina, Program Associate, WISCOMP

To participate, kindly click here

(Collaboration: WISCOMP and GPPAC)
 

SAMHiTA-Bharat ki Soch Food Colloquium on Food, Wellbeing and Nutrition 
 

Paka and Ahara: Everyday Stories of Food and Nutrition

Speakers: Dr. Kalyan Sekhar Chakraborty, Department of History, Ashoka University and postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History; Dr. Ishita Dey, Department of Sociology, South Asian University; Dr. Neha Vermani, Honorary Fellow, Durham University, UK
 

Chair: Dr Gurmeet Singh, Professor & Dean (Research & Outreach), TDU
 

Food has always occupied a central place in South Asian thought—not merely as sustenance, but as a medium through which ideas of health, wellbeing, ethics, labour, ecology and community are articulated. In manuscripts, memories and everyday kitchens, food emerges as a language of balance and belonging. The SAMHiTA- Bharat ki Soch Food Colloquium brings together noted scholars to trace India’s rich heritage and explore how historical and contemporary food practices shape community life. Through conversations that move between scholarship and lived experience, the colloquium traces how food practices in South Asia have shaped ideas of health, wellbeing and nutrition.
 

Curatorial note: Prof Kiranmayi Bhushi, Department of Sociology, IGNOU
 

Rewriting History: Recent Narratives of our Past

Papers by: R.Mahalakshmi, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU (On Ancient Period); Syed Ali Nadeem Rizavi, former Secretary, Indian History Congress, Chairman and Coordinator, Centre for Advanced Studies in History, Aligarh Muslim University (On Medieval Period); and Mridula and Aditya Mukherjee, former Professors, JNU (On Modern History)

Chair and Moderator: Sucheta Mahajan, former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU and Convenor of IIC’s Sectoral Policy Group on History.

(Organised by the IIC’s Sectoral Policy Group on History under the Convenorship of Sucheta Mahajan)
 

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

In Your Eyes a River: Poems 
by Radha Chakravarty (Hawakal Publishers, 2025)
(In collaboration with Poetry Society of India)

Discussants: Prof. Sukrita Paul Kumar, Eminent Poet, Critic, Academic & Guest Editor Indian Literature; Dr. Amarendra Khatua, Former Secretary, MEA & DG, ICCR & Poet; Mandira Ghosh, Poet, Researcher, Educator & Writer; Dr. Rita Malhotra, Former Principal, Kamla Nehru college, Delhi; Prof. Radha Chakravarty, Writer, Critic; Translator & Author of the book

Chair: K. Jayakumar, President, Poetry Society (India) & Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Kerala