14th Annual Discussion on the State of Parliamentary Democracy in India

Speakers: Prof. Surinder Singh Jodhka, Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Shri Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Senior Associate Editor, Frontline; and Shri Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary, CPI-M 

 

Moderator: Suhas Borker

 

(Collaboration: Working Group on Alternative Strategies)

 

Public Service Broadcasting Day – 2019 (Jan Prasaran Divas)

12 November – the day Gandhiji made his first and only live broadcast on All India Radio is commemorated as Public Service Broadcasting Day. On this day in 1947 Gandhiji addressed more than 2 lakh refugees at the Kurukshetra Camp from Broadcasting House, New Delhi. Gandhiji held no public office or position in Government and it was truly a public service broadcast

 

10:30  – 11:00 at Gandhi-King Memorial Plaza

Commemoration 

Choirs from Schools of Delhi NCR

 

11:15  – 12:30 at C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium 

Usha Mehta's tryst with freedom: Reliving the moments with Rita Mukerjee, former Chief Producer, All India Radio

Usha Mehta was arrested on 12 November 1942 and the Underground Radio Transmitter confiscated in Bombay

 

Discussion on Public Service Broadcasting and Speaking Truth to Power

Lead Presentation: Suhas Borker 

 

Media students are encouraged to participate in the programme

 

(Collaboration: Jan Prasar and Gandhi Yuva Biradari)

 

INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Jainism in Early Bengal: Archaeological Prospective 

Illustrated lecture by Shri Shubha Majumdar, Deputy Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Kolkata Circle

Chair: Dr. B.M. Pande

 

Several archaeological discoveries in the 19th and 20th centuries by British administrators and later Indian as well as foreign scholars have authenticated that Jainism has had a long history in different parts of early Bengal. The speaker will speak about his the work carried out over a period of 6 years to put together a comprehensive picture about Jainism in early Bengal vis-à-vis its gradual development, the features of Jaina art and iconography as well as temple architecture 

 

INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Jainism in Early Bengal: Archaeological Prospective 

Illustrated lecture by Shri Shubha Majumdar, Deputy Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Kolkata Circle

 

Several archaeological discoveries in the 19th and 20th centuries by British administrators and later Indian as well as foreign scholars have authenticated that Jainism has had a long history in different parts of early Bengal. The speaker will speak about his the work carried out over a period of 6 years to put together a comprehensive picture about Jainism in early Bengal vis-à-vis its gradual development, the features of Jaina art and iconography as well as temple architecture 

 

Films on Wildlife and Environment

 

The Last Show on Earth (102 min; 1992;dvd; English)

A film by Philip Cayford

 

The story of extinction on a global scale, from the South Dakota plains with their protected buffalo herds to snake stalls in Taiwan. Philip Cayford interviews conservationists and observes illegal traffickers to bring out the root causes of extinction—loss of habitat, overpopulation and greed—even as the film celebrates individual efforts to save species. A visual and musical tour de force, it is narrated by Kenneth Branagh with music by Elton John and David Gilmour

 

(Collaboration: World Wide Fund for Nature-India)

 

Films on Wildlife and Environment

 

The Last Show on Earth (102 min; 1992;dvd; English)

A film by Philip Cayford

 

The story of extinction on a global scale, from the South Dakota plains with their protected buffalo herds to snake stalls in Taiwan. Philip Cayford interviews conservationists and observes illegal traffickers to bring out the root causes of extinction—loss of habitat, overpopulation and greed—even as the film celebrates individual efforts to save species. A visual and musical tour de force, it is narrated by Kenneth Branagh with music by Elton John and David Gilmour

 

(Collaboration: World Wide Fund for Nature-India)

 

Pictorialist Photography in Bombay at the Turn of the Century

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Jyotindra Jain, eminent scholar who has specialized in Indian crafts and popular culture, former Director, National Crafts Museum and presently a Tagore National Fellow

 

The Ila Dalmia Memorial Lecture 2019 organised in collaboration with Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art

 

 

GANDHI MATTERS 

 

Victory of the Spirit over Raw Power: Vaclav Havel’s lessons from Mahatma Gandhi

By Prof. Surendra Munshi, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata

 

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation and the Embassy of Czech Republic )

 

Urban Lens Film Festival

Opening remarks: Dr. Leonhard Emmerling, Director Programme, South Asia, Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan

 

Followed by screening of

Pichla Varka (62 min; 2018; dvd; English subtitles)

Directed by Priyanka Chhabra who will introduce the film

 

Screening will be followed by Priyanka Chhabra in conversation with Anupama Srinivasan

 

Dadi and her friends share a common history: of being Partition refugees who came to India after the state of Pakistan was created and eventually settled in the capital, Delhi. The film looks at the experiences of ordinary women who lived through the violence, uncertainty and trauma of leaving their homeland (mulk) to enter a new country in 1947. How does history play out on ordinary lives, where do households and properties merge

 

(Collaboration: Indian Institute for Human Settlements; and Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan)

 

THE IIC DOUBLE BILL MUSIC CONCERT

 

AT 18:00

Sitar Recital

By Arup Ranjan Mukherjee from Delhi, disciple of Pt. Jatin Bhattacharaya

 

AT 19:00

Hindustani Vocal Recital

By Indrani Chaudhury  from Kolkata, disciple of  Pandit Arun Bhaduri & Late Purnima Chaudhuri