A Place Called ‘Home’: Identity and Belonging

Speaker: Shri Sanjoy Hazarika, well-known columnist, author and policy analyst

Chair: Ms Preeti Gill, independent editor and literary agent

Second programme in a new series ‘The Fabric of Narratives: The Many Facets of North East India’ will focus on different aspects of the region and apart from talks and discussions, include seminars, exhibitions, performances and cuisine. Organised in collaboration with Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER)

Readings and recitations by Ms Jayshree M. Tripathi, poet and former International Educational Consultant; Amb. Amarendra Khatua, former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and poet; Prof. Swati Pal, Principal, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi and author; Ms Sahana Ahmed, poet and novelist; Ms Deepa Agarwal, author and poet; and Shri Mustafa Quraishi, photo journalist

Himalayan Huffing: Culture, Politics and Climate Change
 

Speakers: Prof. Jagannath Panda, Head, Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) who will speak on The Climate Challenge in Tibet: Why and How the Himalayan Community Must Act Together; and Prof. Dhananjay Tripathi, Associate Professor, South Asian University, New Delhi who will speak on Border and Culture: The Connection and Contradiction

Discussant: Dr. Rajiv Ranjan, Associate Professor, Dept. of East Asian Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Delhi

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

How Women Become Poems in Malabar

By Smitha Sehgal (Red River, 2025)

Discussants: Shri Sanjay Jain, Senior Advocate and former Additional Solicitor General of India; Ms Archana Pathak Dave, Additional Solicitor General of India; Ms Sahana Ahmed, poet, novelist and publisher; Ms Jonaki Ray, poet and editor; and Ms Smitha Sehgal, DGM Legal), EIL, poet and author of the book

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

Speaker: Dr. Anil Seal, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Co-Founder, Cambridge School of Indian History

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

Dr. Seal’s talk will trace the genealogy of the structure of Indian politics in the late Colonial period. He argues that the major contradiction in the British Raj lay between the administrative expedience in a fragmented empire and the lucrative nature of a centralized state with a greater extractive capacity. He maintains that while the nationalist movements across India were initially mired in more local networks, they latched on these centripetal forces, aiming at inheriting this structure, and will analyse the transfer of power in the light of this broader picture

(Collaboration: Caucus – The Discussion Forum of Hindu College)

Idea of Order: Perspectives from Central and Eastern Europe (1989-2022)
By Rakesh Batabyal (KW Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2024)

Panelists: Ms Nutan Kapoor Mahawar, Additional Secretary, ICWA; Prof. Gulshan Sachdeva, Centre for European Studies, SIS, JNU; Ms. Margit Koves, Assistant Professor, Department of Slavonic and Finno-Ugrian Studies, Delhi University; and Mr. Rakesh Batabyal, author of the book.

 Chair: Amb.T.C.A Raghavan, Former High Commissioner to Pakistan & Former Director General, ICWA

Aniconic to the Iconic: Cult of Dharmaraj – The Folk Form of Hinduism
 

Speaker: Shri Jawhar Sircar, public intellectual and former Secretary Culture and CEO, Prasar Bharti

Chair: Prof. Ashis Nandy, political psychologist, social theorist, futurist and critic

Speaker: Prof. Kath Weston, Professor of Anthropology, University of Virginia and Honorary Fellow, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh

Chair: Prof. Rita Brara, Editor, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of Economic Growth and Visiting Professor, Ashoka University, Sonepat

This talk on the medicalization of finance is based on Prof. Weston’s forthcoming book, Capitalism on Life Support: How Scientific and Medical Imagery Shapes Finance, which explores the centuries-long interplay between accounts of the financial operations that underwrite capitalism and knowledge production about how bodies work derived from the fields of science and medicine.

The 4th CIS-IEG-Sage Lecture

(Collaboration: Contributions to Indian Sociology; Institute of Economic Growth; and SAGE)
 

Illustrated lecture by Ritika Kochhar, author, art writer, and founder of ArtRadio, a platform dedicated to engaging audiences with art history and culture through podcasts, masterclasses, and curated walthroughs

Chair: Shri Sohail Hashmi

This lecture will focus on the rich tradition of miniatures from Timur to Bahadur Shah Zafar II (focussing mostly on Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Mohammad Shah Rangila, Shah Alam II and BSZII), especially the mythological narratives, and masnavis, or poetic epics, under Akbar. Also the Gulshan Album that Nadir Shah carried away and the famous artists that worked in the royal tasvir khana. It will highlight how these artworks not only served as historical documents but also as expressions of cultural and spiritual imagination in the Mughal era.
 

Lead presentation by Prof. Rajinder K. Dhamija, Professor of Neurology and Director, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences, New Delhi and Chair, National Task Force on Brain Health, Govt. of India

Discussants: Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, former President, Public Health Foundation of India; Dr. Yuta Nemoto, WHO SEARO, New Delhi; and Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Chairman, Dynamic Coalition on Digital Health, Internet Governance Forum

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

WHO has passed a resolution in its 65th General Assembly on Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Neurological Disorders. India is also a signatory along with 190 member states. Further, India has taken the lead in constituting a National Task Force of Brain Health with neurologists from AIIMS, NIMHANS and other institutions as well as policy makers from the Ministry of Health, Govt. of India, ICMR, Social Justice and Disability and by Niti Aayog. The talk and discussion will discuss and deliberate about brain health and its impact on the Indian economy