Wednesday 25

Discussion ■ Conference Room II from 15:00 to 17:15

Connecting Economies, Empowering Women: Regional Connectivity and Cooperation in South Asia

Opening Remarks: Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath, Founder-Director, Women in Security and Conflict Management and Peace and Life Trustee, IIC 

Session 1: Breaking Barriers: Views from Women Changemakers

Speakers: Dhashma Karunaratne, Chief Commercial Officer, Colombo West International Terminal; Kiran Gupta, Chief Executive, Tata Power Distribution Limited; Chaitaly Mehta, President, Women’s Wing, Federation of Freight Forwarders Association of India; and Damchae Dem, Founder, Bhutan Association of Women Entrepreneurs 

Moderator: Cecile Fruman, Director, South Asia Regional Integration, The World Bank

Session 2: Women Economic Empowerment via Regional Efforts

Speakers: Carly Partridge, Minister-Counsellor, Australian High Commission; Susan Ferguson, Country Representative, UN Women, India; Rekha Raikar Kumar, Member, Finance, Land Ports Authority of India; and Constantino Xavier, Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress

Moderator: Mandakini Kaul, Regional Coordinator, South Asia Regional Integration, The World Bank

(Collaboration: The World Bank)

Programme Details

Commemoration ■ Quadrangle Garden, Conference Room II & C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium

Centenary Celebration of Tagore’s Visit to China

Exhibition, international conference and cultural programme

“A Memorable Encounter: Significance for Civilizational Dialogue in the Contemporary World”

Organised in collaboration with Institute of Chinese Studies; Intercivilizational Dialogue Project; Gandhi Global Family; Cheena Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University; and Centre for Chinese & South East Asian Studies, SLL & CS, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Exhibition in the Quadrangle Garden

Rabindranath Tagore: The Spirit of Asia and Our Human Future

An exhibition of photographs from Rabindranath Tagore’s trip to China and cultural contact between India and China. The exhibition attempts to look at some of the deep literary, artistic, political and spiritual exchange that took place in the 1920s. And to examine his ideas of peace and unity in Pan Asia

Inauguration by K.N. Shrivastava, Alka Acharya, Avijit Banerjee and Nandita Chaturvedi on Tuesday, 24 September 2024 at 10:00 hrs

The exhibition is on view from 24 to 30 September 2024

At 10:30 hrs in Conference Room II

Inaugural Session of the International Conference

Welcome Remarks: Sabaree Mitra, Convenor and Professor, Centre for Chinese & South East Asian Studies, School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies 

Inaugural Remarks: K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC 

Special Remarks: Manoranjan Mohanty, Distinguished Professor, Centre for Social Development, Emeritus Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies; and Archishman Raju, Founding Member, Intercivilizational Dialogue Project, Member, Gandhi Global Family, Bengaluru

 The Quest for Knowledge in the East: Some Remarks

Keynote Address: Udaya Narayana Singh, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Amity University, Haryana, Tagore Scholar and former Pro-Vice Chancellor, Visva Bharati 

For details of the Conference sessions, please visit the IIC website www.iicdelhi.in

At 18:30 in C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium

Rabindra Sangeet

Presented by students and faculty of Jawaharlal Nehru University

Led and directed by Shri Kajal Ghosh

Accompanists: Anirudh Chowdhury (synthesizer/keyboard); and Dipankar Biswas (tabla)

Singers: Ananya Chowdhury; Ankit Bera; Ankit Kumar; Anuprabha Gupta; Barsha Mandal; Moomal Majee; Shirshava Indu; Souraj Das; Souvick Chakraborty; Supradip Das; Swaralipi Dan; and Sabaree Mitra 

Followed by

Chinese play based on Rabindranath Tagore’s short story Postmaster

Presented by students of Centre for Chinese & South East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Script adaptation and Direction: Smt Dayawanti

Rabindra Sangeet and Rabindra Nritya

Presented in Bengali, English and Chinese

By Students of Cheena-Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan – Abhisa Roy; Ananya Mondal; Gairika Duta; Isika Roy; Ongme Lepcha; and Srija Adhikari 

This year marks 100 years since Rabindranath Tagore’s historic trip to China in 1924. This visit is of great historical significance and is a landmark in India-China relations. Tagore reached China on April 12, 1924 on the invitation of the Beijing Lecture Association and was received warmly by Liang Qichao, one of China’s foremost intellectuals of the time, as well as his young hosts and interpreters, Lin Huiyin and Xu Zhimo. He was received there as a messenger of peace and a prophet for the future. As the world undergoes profound changes and intense turmoil, the vision of Rabindranath Tagore takes on a renewed importance today. For the building of a just and peaceful future, we look to Tagore and his idea of a united Pan-Asia. It is imperative that the people of Asia know and understand each other, and particularly the people of India and China, as the two largest civilizations in Asia.

Curated by Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray

Stones and Texts: Playing Dice with the Matrmandala

Speaker: Dr. Tara Sheemar Malhan, Associate Professor, Dept. of History, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi

Chair: Prof. Neeru Misra, Academic Advisor, B.L. Institute of Indology, Delhi

The commonality among the Indic expressive traditions like painting, sculpture, literature and dance is known to be rooted in the theory of Sanskrit aesthetics. The narratives of the 11th century ‘meta-text’, the Kathasaritsagara of Somadeva, invest the physical decoration of the temples with life and these are further closely entwined with the characters. The speaker will trace some of the stories of the Kathasaritsagara which refers to sculptures in particular wats and connect this with certain examples derived from various early medieval spatial contexts as possible material correlates of the narrative descriptions

Magical Mystery Tour – The Beatles and India
An illustrated presentation by Ajoy Bose

This is the fascinating saga of the world’s most famous 60s rock group embracing Hindustani classical music. It is also the story of a pioneering cultural connection forged between the East and the West well over half a century ago by four working class rock stars from Liverpool and the versatile sitar maestro, Pandit Ravi Shankar along with the Himalayan mystic Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The reverberations of this enduring love affair between India and The Beatles continue to resonate after all these years. The talk will explore how they have influenced each other in popular music and culture across the universe.

Ajoy Bose is a veteran journalist, television commentator and author whose most recent book, Across the Universe: The Beatles in India inspired him to direct an award-winning film, The Beatles and India
 

India International Centre and Lodhi Gardens: A Perspective
(with fresh inputs from Joseph Allen Stein’s Estate)

Lead presentation by Ravi Kaimal, architect, Founding Partner KCA, Co-Founder, Citizens Alliance

Discussants: Ram Rahman, well-known photographer, author and curator; Prof. Manoj Mathur, School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi; and others

Coordinator and Moderator: Anuj Srivastava, architect, writer and photographer

An iconic institution and building next to Lodhi Gardens, IIC. It is the first of several buildings to be designed in this precinct by the architect, Joseph Allen Stein leading to the area euphemistically known to some as “Steinabad”. Architect Ravi Kaimal will discuss the background, context and process of creating this institution and its design, which further influenced the landscape of Lodhi Gardens and other areas

Hidden harmonies – A Homage to Giacomo Puccini on his 100th death anniversary

With artists of the Puccini Festival of Torre del Lago – Claudia Pavone (soprano); Carlo Raffaelli (tenor); Elisa Montipo (piano)

The artists will present a concert of opera arias and the most famous duets taken from Maestro Puccini’s operatic repertoire such as the love duet from the from the first act of La Bohème, the soprano’s aria “Un bel di vedi” from Madam Butterfly among others

(Collaboration: Italian Embassy Cultural Centre)
 

The WhatsApp India Story: Inside the Digital Maya Sphere
By Sunetra Sen Narayan and Shalini Narayanan (Taylor & Francis: 2024)

Discussants: Shri Santosh Desai, Founder, Think9 Consumer Technologies and author; Dr. Vibodh Parthasarathi, Associate Professor, Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia; Dr. Vishal Chhabra, Head of Department & Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, Fortis Hospital; Ms Surbhi Pandit Nangia, Vice President (Partnerships and Outreach), DataLEADS, HealthLEADS; Prof. (Dr.) Sunetra Sen Narayan, Professor, Indian Institute of Mass Communication and co-author of the book and Dr. Shalini Narayanan, co-author of the book

Moderator: Ms Ankita Mukherji, journalist, former deputy executive  editor( News Desk), NDTV

State-Society Relations in Xi Jinping Era

Panelists: Anthony Spires, Associate Professor, Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Melbourne; Pradeep Taneja, Senior Lecturer in Asian politics, political economy and international relations, University of Melbourne; B.R. Deepak, Professor and Chair, Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Rajiv Ranjan, Associate Professor, Dept. of East Asian Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Delhi

Discussant: Alka Acharya, Chairperson, Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University 

Chair: Pradeep Taneja

Taal Vadya Kacheri

An ensemble of Indian percussion instruments
Presented by Peravali Jaya Bhaskar (mridangam); Ustad Akthar Hasan (tabla); Varun Rajasekharan (ghatam); Bejjanki Ravikiran (morsing); and G. Raghavendra Prasath (violin)

At 19:00
Bharatanatyam Recital

By Sreya P.R. from Delhi, disciple of Guru Dr. Jayaprabha Menon
 

Our Arts: Our Society

Speaker: Shri Ashok Vajpeyi, poet, essayist, literary-cultural critic, and eminent cultural and arts administrator

Opening Remarks: Suhas Borker, Convener, Kapil Vatsyayan Memorial Committee and Trustee, IIC

Closing Remarks: Dr. Aditya Malik, Member, Kapila Vatsyayan Memorial Committee and Founding Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Plaksha University

Chair: Shri N.N. Vohra, Life Trustee, IIC

(Collaboration: Kapila Vatsyayan Memorial Committee)