International Booker Prize Winner Daisy Rockwell and acclaimed translator and editor Rahul Soni in conversation with Sujata Prasad and Oroon Das
 
(Collaboration: Ahad Anhad)

Speaker: Dr. Sumita Banerjea, educator, and a qualified and practising Counsellor who has researched extensively on women criminals in 18th and 19th centuries Bengal
 
Chair: Dr. S. Zaidi

The talk will focus on crimes committed by women, primarily in Bengal in the 18th and 19th centuries. While research material is available on crimes against women, but research on women criminals during this period of Indian history remains largely unexplored. Perhaps the number of crimes committed by women was regarded as inconsequential or psychologically and socially it made people uncomfortable to view the woman as the offender. Police, jail and judicial records, diaries and records of officials, case records by private detectives and district records were used as source material. A cross section of criminal activities was revealed - dacoity, wayside robbery, railway banditry, fraud, killing because of superstition and societal pressures and also for greed and lust and even a serial killer. Anecdotes about these crimes will be shared.

Curator: Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray

Reading Narrative Panels on the Early Temples of Central India

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Aparajita Bhattacharya, Associate Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her research interest covers socio-cultural history of sacred landscape and architecture in early India, aspects of religion, religiosity, and art-iconography.

Chair: Prof. Seema Bawa, University of Delhi

This presentation examines the narrative panels sculpted on the early structural temples of Central India built during the period between 4th to 6th centuries of the Common Era. It explores the functional aspects of early temples as vibrant socio-cultural spaces by studying the aesthetic representation of the myth cycles of Vishnu from the temples of Pawaya (Gwalior), Nachna (Panna, Madhya Pradesh), Deogarh, Ramgarh hills (Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh) and Garhwa (Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh) to mention a few.  

Illustrated lecture by Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, senior journalist and writer, author of the recently published book, The Assamese – Portrait of a Community (Aleph: 2023)

Chair: Dr. Arshiya Sethi, dance scholar and author

The deep connect between textiles and civilisations is an old story. Weaves have a non-verbal language, mirroring the socio-religious and cultural history of a people. While custodians of Indian crafts have documented sacred textiles in India, the lens has not been widened yet to embrace those from North East India. In Assam, sacred weaves have an over four centuries of continued history, it is a living culture. The talk will focus on the profound bond between Assamese weaving culture and the community’s sacred, and war weaves.

Incredible India: An Anthology of Poems
E-book compiled and Edited by Manoj Krishnan (Notion Press: 2023)      
 

Discussants: Ms Anita Chand, poet, artist and entrepreneur; Ms Kiren Babal, poet, author & storyteller; and Shri Manoj Krishnan, poet, writer, Founder of the Asian Literary Society and Editor of the book

Chair: Amb. Amarendra Khatua, former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and Director General, ICCR, and poet

Illustrated talk by Prof. Ajay Sinha, Julie ’73 and Helene ’48 Herzig Professor, Art History and Architectural Studies Department, Mount Holyoke College. 

Chair: Dr. Yaamniney Mubayi, Culture and Community Development

The talk is based on an art historian’s discovery of over one hundred black and white photographs of Ram Gopal, pioneer of Indian classical dance, taken in New York City in 1938 by an American photographer, Carl Van Vechten. The unpublished and extensive record shows the dancer taking on a variety of poses wearing gorgeous costumes, while the photographer changes fabric backgrounds and studio lighting for full views, mid-shots and close-ups. Examining the stunning record closely, Sinha will build a story of a layered conversation taking place between the Indian dancer and the American photographer, who encounter each other in New York for the first time

Speakers: Dr. Rakesh Batabyal, Associate Professor, Centre for Media Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University;
Bharat Bhushan, South Asia Editor, 360 info; N. R. Mohanty, Senior journalist; and  Bhasha Singh, Senior journalist and writer
 
Moderator: Suhas Borker, Managing Trustee, D. S. Borker Memorial Foundation, Editor Citizens First TV (CFTV) and Trustee, IIC

This is the ninth annual seminar in the series 'Keys to Governance'; the earlier eight seminars in the series were on 'Compliance and Delivery' (2016), 'Political Will' (2017) , 'Constitution as Ideology' (2018), 'Education as Empowerment' (2019)  'Steel Frame' (2020), Independence of Judiciary (2021), Constitutional Morality (2022) and Social and Communal Harmony (2023).
 
The annual seminar is held in remembrance of Shekhar Borker, 'Banana Boy' on the Indian postage stamp, private sector administrator, citizen environmentalist and advocate of empowerment of persons of disabilities who passed away in 2015 on 7 January.       
 
(Collaboration: D. S. Borker Memorial Foundation)
 

A conversation with Charmaine O’Brien, author of Eating the Present, Tasting the Future: Exploring India through her changing food (Penguin Random House India, 2023); and Suvir Saran, renowned Chef and author

What we eat is more than what is on our plates; in this conversation, O’Brien and Saran will explore the evolution of India’s contemporary foodscape and how the myriad forces transforming what and how the country eats reflect broader changes in the country’s economy, social structure and place in the world. The influence of global media and ideals of so-called ‘wellness’ and global trade will be a particular focus
 

Panelist: Shri Kallol Bhattacherjee, Senior Assistant Editor, Foreign Affairs, The Hindu and author of The Great Game in Afghanistan: Rajiv Gandhi, General Zia and the Unending War

Chair: Amb. K.P. Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis University and Indian Society of International Law
 

Frankenstein
 

By Mary Shelley (Maple Press; 2020)

Discussants: Dr. Karen Gabriel, Head, Dept. of English & Director, Centre for Gender, Culture and Social Processes, St Stephen’s College, Delhi University; Dr. Abhinav Gupta, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, St Stephen’s College, Delhi University; and Dr. Alphy Geever, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Philosophy, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University

Chair: Amb. K. P. Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis University, Pune and Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi