Nritya Nada: An Illustrative Essence in Swara and Tala
Conceptualized and directed by : Dr. Sucharita Khanna
Choreographer: Chitra C. Dasarathy
Composer: Praveen D. Rao
Melodious taranas by Dr. Veena Pani Shukla
Performers:  Dr. Sucharita Khanna; Aparnika Sahu; Tarini Chandrashekhar; Harshit Singh; Karuna Solomon; Anyesha Kheria; Vandita Bhandari; Shivanshi Agarwal.

Nritya Nada is a Bharatanatyam dance ballet based on the original ragas of the five faces of Panchamukhi Shiva and Devi Parvati. Through its artistic narrative, it beautifully conveys the timeless ethos of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, while celebrating the profound beauty and spiritual depth of Indian classical music. The production features several bandish compositions by Padma Shri Balwantrai Bhatt and Shri Shankar Shripad Bodas.

(Collaboration: Kalanidhi – Centre for Performing Arts, Kanpur)
 

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Riding with the Silver Wolf 
By  Bindiya Bedi Charan Noronha  (Red River, 2025)

Discussants: Sagari Chabbra, Writer and Film Director; Samar Singh Jodha, Photographer and Artist; Shalini Mullick, Writer; Mandira Ghosh, Poet, Author and Researcher; Bindiya Bedi Charan Noronha, Writer, Social Worker, Educationist, Bibliotherapist & Author of the book

Chair:   Dr. Amarendra Khatua, Former Secretary, MEA & DG, ICCR & Poet
 

Law and Ethics of Right to live , Right to Die with Dignity :A Step Toward Dignified End-of-Life Care

Speakers: Prof Rajinder K Dhamija, Director IHBAS and Board member INPCS; Dhvani Mehta, Advocate Supreme Court of India and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy; Dr R K Mani, eminent Pulmonologist

Chair:  K N Shrivastava, Director IIC

Co-Chair:  Dr N Subramaniam, Urologist, Apollo Hospital, New Delhi

Recently, the Supreme Court allowed the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment in the case of a 32-year-old man in an irreversible vegetative state for over 13 years. This has focused the nation’s attention on the right to live and the right to die with dignity. The culturally-sensitive issue involves complex medical, legal, and ethical considerations concerning patient autonomy and dignity. As India continues to grapple with the ethical challenges of modern medicine, the conversation on end-of-life rights has begun. This session will address some of these issues.

Akbar Padamsee: Works and Words
(English; 50 mins)
Directed by Laurent Bregeat.

(Collaboration: Raza Foundation)
 

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)

Remembering Prof. André Béteille: Life, Scholarship and Legacy
Speakers: Romila Thapar, Professor Emerita and Historian; Nandini Sundar, Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, DU; Virginius Xaxa, eminent sociologist and former Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Surinder S. Jodhka, Professor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University; Deepak Nayyar is a distinguished economist, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi; Amita Baviskar Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at Ashoka University; Patricia Uberoi, sociologist and former Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth; Deepak Mehta, Professor of Sociology at Ashoka University; Gopa Sabharwal, Professor of Sociology and Former Vice Chancellor, Nalanda University
Chair: Dipankar Gupta, distinguished sociologist and former Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University
A commemorative conversation honouring Prof. André Béteille (1934–2026), eminent sociologist, Padma Bhushan awardee, and long-standing faculty member at the Delhi School of Economics. The programme will reflect on his intellectual legacy, international stature, and enduring contributions to the study of inequality, social structure, and democratic thought.
 

Threaded Heritage: Symbolism, Ritual and Memory in North East Textiles
Curated by Sentila T. Yanger
The exhibition explores how textiles function as a visual language expressing cultural iconography, identity, and belonging. Patterns, motifs, and colours convey narratives of cosmology, kinship, and land. Through ceremonial and sacred cloths, textiles also mark life’s transitions, becoming living archives of memory and cultural continuity.

The exhibition will be accompanied by live-demonstrations by weavers from the Northeast at the gallery.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on Tuesday, 2 April 2026 at 18:00 hrs

The exhibition will remain on view daily from 11:00 to 19:00 hrs

(Collaboration: Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) 
 

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Where I am From
By Shyla Kumar Sapra ( Har Anand Publications, 2026)

Discussants: Dr Shovana Narayan, Padma Shri, Kathak Guru ; Prof. Radha Chakravarty, Former Professor & Poet ; Amb. Amarendra Khatua, Poet & Former Director General, ICCR

Chair : K N Shrivastava, Director, IIC