Ukraine, Gaza, Taiwan…A World at War
By Ajay Singh (Pentagon Press: 2024)

Discussants: Lt. Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd.), PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM and former General Officer Commanding, 15 Corps (Srinagar) & Military Secretary; Amb. Anil Trigunayat, Distinguished Fellow, Vivekananda International Foundation and former Ambassador to Jordan, Libya and Malta; Ms Joyeeta Basu, Editor, The Sunday Guardian; and Col. (retd.) Ajay Singh, former Indian Army Officer and author of the book

Illustrated lecture by Ahtushi Deshpande, photographer and author of the recently published book Speaking Stones: Rock Art of Ladakh

Chair: Dr. Arshiya Sethi, dance scholar and author

Ahtushi Deshpande will present a journey through Ladakh’s hidden petroglyph galleries. These ancient imprints, scattered across Ladakh’s sprawling and often remote open-air galleries, offer tangible evidence of a history that predates recorded accounts. She will also draw comparisons with rock carvings from other regions, such as Utah and Arizona, to highlight the similarities and share intriguing stories. 
 

Outhouse (97 min; Hindi with English subtitles)
Director: Sunil Sukthankar
Produced by Dr. Mohan Agashe who will introduce the film

With Sharmila Tagore, Dr. Mohan Agashe, Jihan Hodar

Screening will be followed by a discussion with Hema Devare and Suhas Borker, co-conveners of the Maharashtra Sanskritik Divas

Nana, a retired single adamant old man, has no idea that an unwelcomed guest on his four - a puppy is going to change the course of his life. Aadima, a senior graphic designer artist, doesn’t have the faintest inkling that the same puppy is going to force her to go on adventures she otherwise wouldn’t. And Neel, her grandson has no clue that he is going to help Nana and Aadima understand the needs of elderly singles.

(Collaboration: Maharashtra Sanskritik ani Rannaniti Adhyayan Samiti) 

Illustrated lecture by Prof. Philip Lutgendorf, scholar of South Asia, Emeritus Professor of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies, University of Iowa and author of the award winning book The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas (University of California Press: 1991), Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey (Oxford University Press, New York: 2006) among others

Chair: Prof. Ananya Vajpeyi, Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies

The poet-saint Tulsidas’s immensely popular retelling of the Ramayana saga, Ramcaritmanas (ca.1574 AD), is structured as an allegorical Himalayan sacred lake symmetrically bounded by four seven-tiered ghats. The narrators (in order of appearance) are the human author Tulsidas, the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya, the god Shiva, and a crow named Bhushundi. Whereas the first three are either human or (in Shiva’s case) divine-anthropomorphic, the final one is an avian form. Why did the poet choose this unusual figure to conclude whose epic narrative and to deliver, in effect, the “last word”? 

(Collaboration: American Institute of Indian Studies)
 

By Dhananjay Hegde from Mumbai, disciple of Pt. Venkatesh Kumar and Pt. Vinayak Torvi. Recipient of the Sanskriti-Madhobi Chatterji Memorial Fellowship

(Collaboration: Sanskriti Pratishthan)

With Susmit Sen, well-known music composer, guitarist and the founding member of the iconic band, Indian Ocean; and Krishnendu Bose, the National Award and multiple award winning documentary filmmaker. Together they will recreated some of the pieces that Susmit has composed for the films of Krishnendu, along with film clips and ending with the chilling Bay of Blood, the film on the Bangladesh genocide of 1971.
 

Technology and Society: Hierarchies and Contestations
 

Inaugural session panel discussion: Technology of Future and Future of Humanity
Coordinator: Savita Singh

Speakers: Andrew Feenberg, American philosopher, Canada Research Chair in the Philosophy of Technology, School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver; Douglas Kellner who works at the intersection of "third-generation" critical theory, George Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education, the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles; Andrew T. Lamas who teaches urban studies and critical theory at the University of Pennsylvania; Immaculada Kangussu, Faculty, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Brazil; T.K. Naveen, Associate Professor (Multi. Disc.), Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT-Delhi; Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director and Senior Fellow (Research & Policy Engagement), IT For Change; Ashok Vajpeyi, Hindi-language poet, essayist, literary-cultural critic, noted cultural and arts administrator, and a former civil servant; Manoranjan Mohanty, well-known political scientist, China scholar, and Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development; Savita Singh,  Professor and Director, School of Gender and Development, India Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Delhi; and Manindra Nath Thakur, Associate Professor, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Chair: Manoranjan Mohanty

For details of the Colloquium, kindly please visit: https://fcsr.in

(Collaboration: Association of Creative Theory & Foundation for Creative Social Research; International Herbert Marcuse Society, USA; The Raza Foundation; and Shanti Sahyog)
 

Celebrating Time Travel: An Anthology of Poems of Poets’ Childhood Memories
Edited by Amarendra Khatua and Mandira Ghosh (Authorspress: 2024)

Discussants: Dr. Usha Mujoo Munshi, Chief Librarian, IIC; Dr. Amarendra Khatua, Former Secretary, MEA & DG, ICCR & Poet, Diplomat & Editor of the book; and Ms. Mandira Ghosh, poet, researcher, writer, and co-editor of the book

Chair: Ms Rajni Sekhri Sibal, Writer & Former IAS Officer

An evening of the Punjabi poetry 
Recited and sung by Rekha Raj, Shumita Didi and Poonam Singh

Conceptualised by Reena Nanda

Chalo Faqiran de Mele attempts to revive interest in the Punjabi language through its rich literary heritage. Guru Nanak Dev is revered as the founder of the Sikh religion and his teachings in the Guru Granth Sahib are in the form of the poetical Shabads set to specific ragas. Not just a holy book, it is one of the greatest works of literature that also includes 14 other Sants of the Bhakti tradition like Kabir. Among them, Baba Farid is the only Muslim of the Chishti Sufi silsila. Bulleh Shah and Shah Husayn hugely popularised by Nusrat Fateh Ali and Abida Parveen composed in Panjabi and called themselves Faqirs, not beggars but humble disciples of their particular Murshid/Guru. They recited and sang their poems amongst the populance at large who have kept this oral tradition alive, that, today, constitutes a large body of Punjabi literature. 
 

Panelists: Prof. Siddhartha Mitra, Jadavpur University; Prof. Shreekant Gupta, Delhi School of Economic, University of Delhi; Prof. Surajit Mazumdar, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Dr. M. Zakaria Siddiqui, Jamia Millia Islamia

Chair: Prof. Partha Sen, Delhi School of Economics

Organised by the IIC Sectoral Policy Group on Economics