RELEASE OF THE IIC QUARTERLY (WINTER 2025–SPRING 2026)

Chair: Dr. Karan Singh

Discussants: K. N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC; Dr. Jyotsna Singh, cultural activist and heritage conservationist; others (tbc)

India is home to a rich plurality of religions, faiths, and belief systems, where a deeply syncretic ethos has long shaped the lives of mystics, intellectuals, ordinary people, and even non-believers. This volume draws upon a seminar held at the India International Centre on the theme “Syncretic Traditions of the Indian Subcontinent.”
 

SUMMER SONATA – A FESTIVAL OF OPERA, BALLET AND CONCERT FILMS 
Curated and Introduced by Sunit Tandon

OPERA
Gaetano Donizetti: La Fille du regiment
Opéra-comique in two acts
(121 min; 2005; dvd; English subtitles)

From the Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa, with Patrizia Ciofi (Marie); Juan Diego Flórez (Tonio); Francesca Franci (La Marquise de Berkenfeld); Dario Benini (Hortensius); Nicola Ulivieri (Sulpice); Filippo Bettoschi (a Corporal); Maurizia Burlando (La Duchesse de Crackentorp)

Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
Stage Director: Emilio Sagi
Costume and Set Designer: Julio Galán
Lighting: Daniele Naldi

Top bel canto tenor, Juan Diego Florez, and acclaimed Italian soprano Patrizia Ciofi lead a superb ensemble cast in Donizetti’s sparkling French language opéra-comique in a production that sets the action in the final days of World War II. Marie is the daughter of an American army captain, Tonio is a young French villager whose love for her leads him to join the American ranks. When the secret of Marie’s birth is revealed and her mother insists on an aristocratic suitor, only an appeal to the memory of young love can reunite them.

Gaja-lok: Elephant lands and their cultural symbolism in Asia 

Conceptualised and Curated by Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Division of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage 
For millennia, humans and elephants have co-inhabited shared landscapes-forests, cultural routes, and riverine systems- shaping deeply intertwined ecological and cultural worlds. The exhibition builds upon this relationship to examine the elephant as both a living ecological presence and a powerful cultural signifier. Drawing on a combination of visual culture, textual and field-based research, as well as oral histories, Gaja-Lok traces the ways in which elephants have been embedded within diverse cultural and environmental contexts across regions and historical periods.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on Thursday, 28 May 2026 at 11:00 hrs
The exhibition will remain open daily from  Tuesday 26th to 2nd June, 2026 from 11:00 to 19:00 hrs

(Collaboration: Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH)

PANORAMA OF BENGAL ARTS

Dance drama - Shree Radhar Manbhanjan (Shree Radha's reconciliation) 
Shree Krishna is not only most desired by Shree Radha but by all the residents of Braja. When Chandrabali wanted to claim Shree Krishna for herself, she presented the argument that "Even if there is a difference in the flowers, is there any difference in the honey? The physical identity of a man and a woman is merely the vessel; the love that flows through it is universal." But why would Shree Radha's heart accept this? She becomes resentful and Shree Krishna also understands this. This familiar story of love and separation has been immortalized in words and music by Pranab Roy and Robin Chatterjee.

Creative Director: Sougata Kundu
Presented by BARNALI group from Krishna Nagar, West Bengal

(Collaboration: Impresario India)
 

PANORAMA OF BENGAL ARTS

Folk Songs Facets of Bengal
Bengal is widely known for its rich and vibrant folk culture and folk songs occupy a very special place in the life of its people. The dialect changes in Bengal approximately in every 30 kilometres, and with it the variety of folk songs also changes. This program will portray such different varieties of Bengali folk songs from North to South Bengal.

Concept: Mihir Basu
Presented by Mihir Basu and Bishakha Basu, New Delhi  

(Collaboration: Impresario India)
 

IIC/MEDIA DIALOGUES 
Draft Digital Content Rules: Safeguards or Curbs?

Moderator: Prasanto K Roy. Public Policy Advisor. Former Editor-in-Chief, CyberMedia

Discussants: Nikhil Pahwa. Founder & Editor, MediaNama; Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, Journalist. President, Press Club of India; Apar Gupta, Advocate, Founder-Director, Internet Freedom Foundation; Siddharth Varadarajan. Founder-Editor, The Wire; Shreya Singhal, Advocate

(Collaboration: The Media Foundation)
 

Civil Military Relations and National Security: An Exploration of the Changing Dynamics of Civil Military Relations in a Transformed National Security Environment

Keynote Speaker: N.N Vohra, Life Trustee, IIC, former Governor, Jammu & Kashmir, former Home Secretary and Defence Secretary, Government of India

Chair: Shyam Saran, President, IIC

Discussants: Shri Sanjay Mitra, Former Defence Secretary; Admiral Arun Prakash, former Chief of Naval Staff; Lt. General D.S. Hooda, former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Indian Army's Northern Command.

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Kapila Jnanagarbha: Knowledge Unfolding Wisdom – Offerings in Memory of Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan
edited by Advaitavadini Kaul (Dev Publishers, 2026)

Discussants: N N Vohra, Former Governor of Jammu & Kashmir & Life Trustee, IIC; Shyam Saran, President, IIC; Prof Radhavallabha Tripathi, scholar of natyasastra & sahityasasrta, former, Vice Chancellor, Central Sanskrit University, Delhi; Prof. Bettina Sharda Bäumer, scholar of non-dualistic Kashmir saivism, Indian aesthetics & comparative mysticism; Prof. Shashi Prabha Kumar, scholar of classical Indian philosophy (Vaisesika) and Chairperson, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla; Prof Aditya Malik, scholar of anthropology, history, religious studies and professor, Plaksha University; Dr. Advaitavadini Kaul, editor of the book
 

IIC DOUBLE BILL: MUSIC RECITALS

Santoor Recital

By Shantanu Gokhale from Pune, disciple of Late Pandit Shivkumar Sharma.   
Accompanist: Ujith Uday (Tabla)

At 19:00 
Hindustani Vocal Recital

By Farhan Amin from Delhi, disciple of Sh.Vijay Bhaskar and Shri Rais Ahmed Khan 
Accompanist: Mukesh Bhardwaj (Harmonium) and Sandeep Khanduri (Tabla)
 

Memory and Magic: Literature as familial and historical testimony

The House of Spirits

On the novel by Isabel Allende, Chilean-American writer

Discussants: H.E. Mr. Juan Angulo, Ambassador of Chile to India, with concurrent accreditation to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Maldives; Mani Shankar Aiyar, Indian politician, former diplomat, and public intellectual; Dr. Vibha Maurya retired as a professor of Hispanic Studies in the Department of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of Delhi; Omair Ahmad, writer and journalist.; and   Prof. Noorin Khan, Professor and In-Charge, Spanish and Latin American Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia

A story where the magical and the political intertwine. In ‘The House of the Spirits’ by Isabel Allende, we follow the Trueba family across several generations in a country shaped by social and political changes. The novel portrays inequality, power struggles and the rise of a dictatorship. Through magical realism, the everyday coexists with the supernatural: spirits, premonitions and unexplained events create a world where the extraordinary feels natural.