Ahmedabad Mill Worker’s Strike 1918

An exhibition to mark the centenary of the strike 

Inauguration on Friday, 18 May 2018 at 18:30 by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Life Trustee IIC and Chairperson, IIC International Research Division

 

Chief Guest: Shri Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Director General & Secretary, Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai

 

 

The strike of the Ahmedabad textile workers in 1918 is remembered because of its unique nature. The leader of the workers was Anasuya Sarabhai and her brother, Ambalal Sarabhai was the President of the Millowners Association. When the millowners were considering stopping the plague bonus they had been giving and the workers asked for increased wages and threatened to go on strike, both Anasuya and Ambalal asked Mahatma Gandhi to come and intervene.  After 22 days, a compromise was worked out. Gandhi had insisted that there should be no violence. The struggle was conducted peacefully without any hostility. Gandhi said that he had never seen a struggle where there was so little animosity. After this the Ahmedabad Textile Association, a trade union on Gandhian lines, was launched

 

(Collaboration: National Gandhi Museum; and Shanti Sadan Trust, Ahmedabad)

MUSIC APPRECIATION PROMOTION

 

Verdi and the Father Complex

An illustrated lecture by Prof Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at JNU and a lover of western classical music 

 

A running thread in much of the work of the Italian composer Guiseppe Verdi is the complex relationship between father and child. The lecture will explore on how that complexity is expressed musically in some of his most famous operas, like La Traviata, Rigoletto and Don Carlo

 

Chair: Prof  Partho Datta, Professor, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU 

A Poetic Journey from East to West

Panel discussion and launch of the book

 

Romanticising a Cultural Journey from East to West

By Rita Malhotra

 

Chief Guest: Dr. Dev Swarup, Joint Secretary, University Grants Commission and former Vice-Chancellor, University of Rajasthan

 

Panelists: Dr. Hema Raghavan; Dr. Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee; and Dr. Harivansh Chaturvedi

 

Chair: Dr. H.K. Kaul, President, The Poetry Society (India)

 

(Collaboration: The Poetry Society, India)

 

Concert – Woodwind Trio

By the Pen Trio from USA, internationally celebrated and groundbreaking artists – Nora Lewis (oboe); Phillip O. Paglialonga (clarinet); and Eric Van der Veer Varner (bassoon)

 

(Collaboration: Delhi School of Music)

 

 

(Collaboration: Bhogilal Leherchand Institute of Indology)

 

CANCELLED

Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought – A Tribute to Stephen Hawking (1942 - 2018)

Speakers: Prof. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India; Prof. Daksh Lohiya, Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Delhi; Prof. Ranjit Nair, Director, Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science

 

Stephen Hawking was part of a late 20th century revolution in physics which aimed at a final theory of everything which would complete the edifice of theoretical physics. The beginnings of the revolution went back to the application of global techniques by mathematical physicists Roger Penrose, to prove that Einstein’s theory of relativity rigorously led to the conclusion that black hole singularities exist. To the public at large, the story of Hawking who defied his doctor’s prediction that with his condition ALS he had just two years to live, to extend his lifetime of over half a century, pursuing his work with an intensity that put able-bodied colleagues to shame, was a heroic saga. Indeed we may never witness another figure like Hawking 

 

The panelists will discuss issues raised by Hawking who as Wordsworth said of Isaac Newton “voyaged through strange seas of thought”.

 

(Organised by IIC International Research Division in collaboration with Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science )

INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

 

CREEDS OF OUR TIMES

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

 

Journey of Man (120 min; 2003; dvd; English)

Directed by Clive Maltby

 

A scientist attempts to answer the question of how humanity spread itself across the globe. The film focuses on the research of geneticist Dr. Spencer Wells, who wants to prove his theory that the global migration of man began with a tribe of Africans who, battered by famine and drought, left their home literally searching for greener pastures some 60,000 years ago. Wells leaves his laboratory behind and sets out on a research mission in which he attempts to trace the common genetic thread which connect such varied travellers as the Aborigines of Australia, the Bushmen of Namibia, and the Native Peoples of North America

 

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

 

Haveli Dharampura

An exhibition on the restoration and conservation of the two-hundred year old haveli, located in Gali Guliyan, Chandni Chowk which has recently received the prestigious 2017 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation Award

 Inauguration by Shri Prakash Javadekar,Hon'ble Minister for Human Resource Development,GOI and Shri Vijay Goel,Minister of State Parliamentary Affairs on Wednesday, 16th May 2018 at 10.00am

 

Russia Versus the West: A New Cold War

Speakers: Ambassador Balakrishna Shetty, former Indian ambassador to Sweden, Latvia, Bahrain, Senegal and Mali; Ambassador Arun Kumar Singh, former Indian Ambassador to USA and Senior Fellow,  Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States; and Prof. K. P. Vijayalakshmi, Centre for Canadian, US and Latin American Studies,

School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

Chair: Ambassador K.P. Fabian