Speaker: Prof. Ramin Jahanbegloo, Iranian-Canadian Political Philosopher and Vice Dean, Jindal Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat

Chair: Prof. Neera Chandhoke, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Hannah Arendt’s death. The talk will cover Arendt’s definitions of politics, violence and power, while showing the relevance of her political thought for the understanding of our present world. Hannah Arendt’s multifaceted work that deals with a range of issues has established her as one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century.

In any non-writing culture, the transmission of practical know how’s, moral compasses, social taboos and the manners of speech, maintain themselves through the telling and retelling of stories. However, across the modern world, the amplitude of such oral cultures is shrinking, their voices often drowned in an era dominated by the written and the visual. Yet within this decline, there exists a possibility: the very communities that have ensured continuum of these narratives for generations are now adapting, using visual mediums as new vessels for disseminating oral knowledge.

The exhibition explores how stories once solely spoken and sung, find expression through visual narratives. A collaboration between Kailash Pradhan and Ajay Marko, Gond Pradhaan artists with Gangaram Uikey and Narayandeen Tekam, oral storytellers from the same community, this exhibition presents the active passing of smriti (memory) within the Pradhaan Gonds and a dialogue between orality and visuality, tradition and reinvention.

The facilitation of this process of memory transfer has been made possible by Smt Apoorva Mishra and Shri Achyut Siddu of Loksutr, who have been working closely with the tribal communities in Anuppur and Dindori in Madhya Pradesh

Inauguration by Shri Udayan Vajpeyi, Raza Foundation on Thursday, 20 March 2025 at 17:30 hrs

(Collaboration: Loksutr) 
 

Programme Details

A two-day festival of folk music and art, celebrating contemporary narratives in traditional folk art organised in collaboration with NCZCC, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. The festival includes performances, exhibitions and screening of short and long documentary films. The performances include the best of folk music by renowned folk artistes – Megha Sriram Dalton from Jharkhand who is an MTV Coke-studio artist; and Mooralala Marwada, sufi folk singer from Janana village of Kutch district, Gujarat

On 21 and 22 March 2025 at 18:00 in the Lounge Verandah

Pattachitra tradition with Story Telling Session

An exhibition by Sahajan Chitrakar, Pattachitra artist from West Bengal who will exhibit traditional folk paintings and sing stories from the Ramayana and other deities depicted in the paintings.

The artist will continue to demonstrate and sing on the second day of the festival also.

On 21 March 2025 at 18:30 in the Fountain Lawns

A Desert Trail- Musical Journey

By Mooralala Marwada, celebrated folk singer from Gujarat, who belongs to a lineage of Meghwal singers who migrated from Rajasthan to Khadir Island in Kutch four centuries ago. With a rich repertoire of Nirguni bhajans, sufi kalaam and other traditional folk songs, Mooralala also plays the ‘santaar’, a traditional stringed instrument. He has performed in coke studios and with Indian classical vocalist, Nirali Kartik, gaining a YouTube viewership of 50 lakhs.

Aawazon ke Jaadugar

Bhairav Dutt Bhatt, 86-year-old voice mimickry artist from Uttarakhand who brings to live different sounds of birds, animals and humans, creating a rare experience will present this folk tradition.

Introduction: Col. (Dr.) D.P. K. Pillay, Research Fellow, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

Panelists: Shri Yaduveer Wadiyar, MP; Lt. Gen. Raja Subramani, Vice Chief of Army Staff; Dr. Kazem Samandari, Founder-Chairman, L’Opera and Senior Member, Baha’i community; and Brig. M.S. Jodha, third-generation army officer, author and grandson on Col. Aman Singh Jodha

Chair: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC

The Battle of Haifa (1918) is a pivotal event in military annals as it marked the last major cavalry charge in history. The Battle saw the Jodhpur, Mysore, and Hyderabad Lancers (part of the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade) overcome Ottoman, Austrian, and German forces, liberating Haifa as well as Abdul Baha. This daring victory defied expectations, echoing the famous Charge of the Light Brigade but with a triumphant outcome.

The Great Conciliator: Lal Bahadur Shastri and the Transformation of India
By Sanjeev Chopra (Bloomsbury India: 2025)

Chief Guest: Dr. Arif Mohammed Khan, Hon’ble Governor of Bihar

Discussants: Shri Adarsh Shastri, former Legislator and social entrepreneur; Shri Shekhar Gupta, journalist, author, founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Print; Dr. Aishwarya Pandit, Associate Professor, Jindal Global Law School; and Dr. Sanjeev Chopra, former Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and author of the book

ART MATTERS

Discussion on Cinema and Time
 

Panelists: Anupama Srinivasan; Gurvinder Singh; and Sashikanth Ananthachary

Moderator: Udayan Vajpeyi

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)
 

Antarnaad – The Voice Within
(39 min; 2024; Hindi)
Directed by Parthaa Akerkar who will introduce the film

Recipient of the Best Film Award, The Blue Bird Film Festival; Jury Award for Best Film, Mumbai Independent Film Festival; and Dadasaheb Phalke Film Puraskar Award

Screening will be followed by a talk on
Women’s Health 
Speaker: Dr. Manjari Tripathi, Head of the Neurology Dept., All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), In-charge, Centre of Excellence of Epilepsy, Min. of Health & Department of Biotechnology and President, Alzheimer’s Related Disorder Society of India

Film on mental health and how it affects both the patient, the care givers and the family as well. Parthaa Akerkar tackles this sensitive subject with aplomb and ease without victimising the patient and imparting a unique perspective into the plight of the caregiver.

(Collaboration: Alzheimer’s Related Disorder Society of India)
 

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

America’s First Guru (USA)
(89 min; 2024; English)
Director: Raja Choudhury

Screening will be followed by a conversation with the filmmaker, Raja Choudhury

This film, which premiered on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in USA is the compelling story of how Yoga and Indian wisdom first entered the American mainstream in 1893, with the arrival of the Indian Saint Swami Vivekananda at the first Parliament of Religions in Chicago

(Collaboration: Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness The Dalai Lama)

Talk by Rahul Mehrotra, founder principal of RMA Architects; Professor of Urban Design and Planning, and the John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and &Urbanization, Graduate School of Design,  Harvard University; and Naman P. Ahuja, curator and Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

A recent volume Marg provides fascinating documentation of the kumbh mela, the largest human habitational space erected every twelve years, alongside grand qanats and shamianas of the Mughals, Deccani sultans and Rajputs. The speakers will focus on how India’s rich history of tents can be positioned within a global context. In fact the characteristics of tents – their lightness, agility, adjustability, reversibility, and ephemerality – can inspire designers, academics, planners and policy makers in crafting an urban future which is more adaptable to negotiate the immense flux we face on the planet

(Collaboration: MARG)
 

Vasna Ek Nadi ka Naam Hai
By Savita Singh (Vani Prakashan: 2024)

Discussant: Prof. Rohini Agrawal, poet and author; Prof. Sudha Singh, Professor of Hindi, University of Delhi; Ms Aditi Maheshwari, Executive Director, Vani Prakashan; and Prof. Savita Singh, Professor and founding Director, School of Gender and Development Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University (Delhi) and author of the book

Chair: Prof. Sukrita Paul Kumar , Guest Editor, Indian Literature, poet and academic 

(Collaboration: The Poetry Society, India)