The Parsi Connection with China and Its Role in the Making of Modern India

 

Valedictory Address for Threads of Continuity

 

By Amitav Ghosh, well-known author

 

 

 

India and China have been exchanging goods, ideas and technologies for millennia – the Parsis played a vital role, not only in this trade but also in cultural exchanges as they were by far the most numerous of the subcontinental merchants who actually traveled to China with their goods and took to the seaborne China trade much earlier than the other merchant communities. The China trade led directly to the foundation of many important Parsi business houses, most significantly that of the Tatas. But the China trade also provided the Parsis with resources of another kind: what we might call cultural capital. In many ways the China trade was the crucible of modern Parsi experience. In this sense it was also a vital element in an enterprise in which the Parsis played an enormously important role: the shaping of modern India

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Legacy of Homi Jehangir Bhabha

 

Speaker: Prof. Spenta R. Wadia, Founding Director of International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR

 

 

 

The talk highlights some aspects of Homi Bhabha as a scientist and institution builder, some of his views on science, scientific excellence and the administration of scientific institutions

 

 

 

Followed by screening of a film

 

Homi Bhabha (50 min; dvd; English)

 

On the occasion of Homi Bhabha’s birth centenary in 2009, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) commissioned a film on his life and achievements. The film traces his early years in Bombay, his student days in Cambridge, his scientific work, his return to India leading up to the establishment of TIFR and the atomic energy establishment (now named after him). The narrative is mainly told by people who knew Bhabha well including M.G.K. Menon, B.V. Sreekantan, Govind Swarup, Obaid Siddiqui and others

 

 

The Story of the TIFR Art Collection
 

Illustrated lecture by Ms Oindrila Raychaudhuri, Chief Archivist, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai

 

 

 

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, or TIFR, is known the world over as one of India’s premier institutions for scientific research. However, it is less known that TIFR is also home to a priceless collection of very high quality art, which makes it unique among scientific institutions anywhere in the world. This talk will first introduce Homi J. Bhabha, the founder of TIFR and describe how TIFR was founded. This will be followed by a brief introduction to Indian art, especially about the Bombay Progressives, whose works form a large part of the collection. The talk will close with the growth of the art collection

 

 

A series of films, lectures and exhibitions focusing on the philosophy and ideals of Zoroastrianism in practice today affirming both tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the need to preserve it. The films, exhibitions and lectures will travel from the ruins of Persepolis to the present day, bringing to life an exuberant empire and its magnificence, its stories, its truths. What remains – is it only brick and mortar, is there a language, what are its beliefs, where are its people? The series is part of The Everlasting Flame International Programme and is organised in collaboration with Parzor Foundation, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Govt. of India, and UNESCO and with the support of Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Serum Institute

 

My Family and Other Parsis

An exhibition of photographs by Sooni Taraporevala

 

Sooni has photographed people as they go about their daily lives, successfully narrating emotions of her subjects as they make conversation, attend family functions, at home or in the streets of Mumbai, a city which is considered a Parsi bastion

 

The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi 

 

 

 

The Halls of Industry and The Nehru Pavilion – Landmarks of India’s Modern Architecture

 

 

 

Architectural drawings by Raj Rewal, Architect

 

Structural drawings by Mahendra Ra, Engineer

 

The Halls of Industry and The Nehru Pavilion – Landmarks of India’s Modern Architecture

 

Photographs and engineering drawings by Raj Rewal, Mahendra Raj

 

Solo presentation in Hindi by Bhagirathi Bai, Seagull Theatre, Guwahati

 

The play is based on “Bharathiya Mahileyara Swathanthra Horata”, a translation by well-known Kannada writer, K. Vaidehi, of Indian Women’s Freedom Struggle by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay

 

 

 

Speakers at the roundtable will include, Shri Gopal Gandhi, Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Dr. Devaki Jain, Prof. Mridula Mukherjee, Dr. Radha Kumar, Shri Ashoke Chatterjee, Dr. Shobita Punja, Smt Mirnal Pande among others

 

Speaker: Smt Jasleen Dhamija, veteran Indian textile art historian, crafts expert and former UN Advisor

 

Followed by 

Sangeet Natak Akademi and SMM Theatre Crafts Trust

Speaker: Smt Usha Malik, former Secretary, Sangeet Natak Akademi