Speaker: Mr. Bruno Maçães, Senior Advisor, Flint Global, columnist for the New Statesman, Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former Secretary of State for European Affairs, Portugal

Chair: Amb. Shivshankar Menon, former Foreign Secretary and former National Security Advisor
 

Shilpanatanam is a style of movement and choreographic vision conceived by Dr. Maya Kulkarni that departs from the structures of classical dance technique and conventional dramaturgy. Shilpanatanam taps into the wider world of literature and poetry.

Dance presentations by Mesma Belsare and Dr. Kaustavi Sarkar
 

Inaugural Session
Welcome Address: Amb. Shyam Saran, President, IIC
Address by Dr. Jeromin Zettlemeyer, Director, Bruegel

Keynote Address: Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister for External Affairs, Govt. of India
Chair: Mr. Erkki Liikanen, Chairman, Board of Bruegel

ON 5 FEBRUARY AT 12:30
Valedictory Session
Valedictory Address by Shri Suman K. Bery, Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog

(Collaboration: Bruegel)
 

Bhavai of Gujarat: Traditional Theatre of India
(138 min; 2025; English)
Directed by Dr. Svetlana Ryzhakova who will introduce the film

Screening will be followed by a discussion with Dr. Ryzhakova, leading research fellow in the Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow. She is a life member of the Indian Anthropological Society and a member of European Association of Social Anthropologists

Bhavai is one of the traditional folk theatres of India, performed in rural areas of northern and central Gujarat by troupes of artistes who belong to the Targala community. This ethnographic documentary is based on Dr. Ryzhakova’s long term research and field material collected from 2014 to 2023 in the villages and cities of Gujarat. The film is richly illustrated with interviews, conversations, songs and dance that make this documentary a unique tapestry of Bhavai theatre

(Collaboration: Russian House of Culture)
 

An exhibition of sculptures by Vijay Kowshik, senior artist

Vijay Kowshik transcends the familiar confines of his glasswork in this exhibition, venturing into the sculptural bronze vision to bring his creative spectre to life

Inauguration on Saturday, 1 February 2025 at 17:00 hrs

A World Within: Tales & Triumphs of Growing up with Autism
By Kanha Trehan

Discussants: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC; Ms Merry Barua, Founder Director, Action For Autism, National Centre for Autism, Activist, Trainer, Consultant; Dr. Rohit Verma, Senior Consultant, AIIMS, Delhi; Ms Neha Bhimwal, clinical psychologist, and Shri Kanha Trehan, author of the book

Chair: Dr. Shayama Chona, President, Tamana and former Principal, Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram
 

Celebration of the Power of Non-Violent Action & the Life of Martin Luther King Jr

(15 January 1929 – 4 April 1968)

& Commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the Gandhi-King Memorial Plaza 

From 10:30 to 11:00 in Gandhi-King Memorial Plaza 

Commemoration Service 

Songs by Choirs of Schools from Delhi NCR

From 11:15 to 12:15 in C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium

Interactive Session 

Theme: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." - Martin Luther King Jr. (Letter from Birmingham, Alabama jail, April 16, 1963.)

During the Interactive Session a short film on Martin Luther King's Life shall be screened

Address by H. E. Eric Garcetti, U.S. Ambassador to India (tbc)

Moderators:

Shri Suhas Borker (Working Group on Alternative Strategies)

Shri Ramesh Sharma (Gandhi Yuva Biradari)

Students from Schools of Delhi NCR to participate.

This programme is part of the Taking Children to Gandhi series that brings children closer to the enduring legacy of Gandhi’s non-violent struggle for equity, justice, pluralism and sustainable development.

Gandhi-King Memorial Plaza was inaugurated on 21 January 1970 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and commemorates two iconic figures of our times: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

(Collaboration: Gandhi Yuva Biradari; and Working Group on Alternative Strategies)

Speaker: Amb. Talmiz Ahmad, former Indian Ambassador and expert on West Asia and Ram Sathe Chair, International Studies, Symbiosis International University, Pune

Chair: Amb. Gautam Mukhopadhyaya, Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research and former Ambassador of India to Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar

The talk will look at the background to the upheaval in Syria, the emergence of the Hayat Tahreer al-Sham as a military and political force in the country, and the factors that facilitated its capture of Damascus. Amb. Ahmad will then discuss the role of different external players in the Syrian regime-change and the uncertainties – political, ideological and economic – that are likely to shape the national scenario in the coming months. Amb. Ahmad will also delve into the longer term implications of developments in Syria for regional and global politics and conclude with some reflections on the larger issues relating to emerging civilizational competitions and world order that will be resonant in the coming years

(Collaboration: Centre for Policy Research)