Speaker: Prof. Matthew S.Hull, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
Discussants: Prof. Deepak Mehta, Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, Ashoka University, Sonepat

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

The CIS-IEG-SAGE Annual Lecture 2022
 
In 2013, the Indian state of Punjab contracted with a corporation to operate a new police phone helpline. The corporation call centre not only took complaints, but also monitored, directed, and reported police responses to them. An original provision of the Indian Code of Criminal Procedure, maintained since 1861, requires that oral testimony of complainants must be ‘reduced to writing’ by an authorised official. This requirement has been strained by the integration of corporate call centre customer service practices into the Punjab State police procedures. Audio recordings and database text records of complaints have only some of the features of writing and are not produced by a government officer. Nevertheless, the composite records generated by the call takers through corporate customer service software form the basis of quasi-official police proceedings. We can see in this arrangement two parallel tensions: first, a tension between two forms of human and technological mediation—the paper-based records of police and the call centre voice and database records; second, a tension between two conceptualisations of a political subject within bureaucratic procedures: one requiring representation by another authorised person and the other able to present him or herself.

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

TREASURES OF KHUDA BAKHSH ORIENTAL PUBLIC LIBRARY 

An interactive walkthrough conducted by Dr. Shayesta Bedar, Director, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library

A Historical view of Vindhyan Rock Art and its Significance
Illustrated lecture by Dr. Ajay Pratap, Senior Professor and former Head of the Dept. of History, Banaras Hindu University

Chair: Shri B.M. Pande

The lecture introduces the idea of rock paintings being not simply archaeological but also historical source material. This, it is argued, is because rock paintings continued to be the main means of symbolic recording of things and events, well-after scripts and writing came in being. The main common purpose of painting on rocks from prehistory to history, seems to be ‘remembering’, ‘commemorating’ and ‘memorializing’. The painted spaces constitutes socially and cognitively charged material which by means of being contemporary to the times of their creation is open to historical interpretation. 

Prof. Apoorvanand and Dr Ananya Vajpeyi In Conversation with Suhas Borker

Prof. Apoorvanand is Professor of Hindi, University of Delhi. He is also a regular columnist and political commentator.
Dr Ananya Vajpeyi is Fellow and Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. She works at the intersection of intellectual history, political theory and critical philology.

Suhas Borker is Convener Jan Prasar and Editor, Citizens First TV (CFTV)

This conversation marks the 32nd Anniversary of the Presidential Assent to the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990 and is the 29th discussion in the annual series.

(Collaboration: Jan Prasar)
 

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Charmaine O’Brien who researches and writes about the social and cultural history of food and eating. Internationally recognized for her work on Indian food history and culture, her books include The Penguin Food Guide to India, Recipes from an Urban Village and Flavours of Delhi and a forthcoming book on India’s changing foodways, Routes of Connection: Journeys through India’s contemporary foodscape

Chair: Rajesh Luthra

The talk will draw on Dr. O’Brien’s twenty-five years of experience researching and writing about India’s food and the transformation she witnessed in India’s foodways over that time, exploring how factors such as urbanisation, the changing role of women, globalisation and technology, have affected this change. The key theme of the talk will be the movement of food in India from its preparation and eating ‘inside’ the home to the increasing use of ‘outside’ food: pre-prepared convenience foods and meals, online food delivery, boom in cafes and restaurants, etc.

From Shanties to School: A Silent Movement

By Manimala Roy (Konarak Publishers: 2019)

Discussants: Amb. Reena Pandey, former Ambassador to Armenia; Prof. C.B. Sharma, Professor, School of Education, IGNOU and former Director, NIOS; Prof. Prasannanshu, Professor of English, National Law University, Delhi; and Dr. Manimala Roy, Principal, Basava International School, Delhi and author of the book

Moderator: Dr. Renu Tomar, Assistant Registrar, GGSIPU, Delhi
 

Lifestyle and Liver

Speaker: Dr. Ajay Kumar, Chairman and Head of Department, BLK-Max Institute of Digestive & Liver Diseases, Chairman – Pan Max – Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Liver like the heart, kidney, and lungs is a vital organ of the human body. Thus to keep the body healthy, it is important to also keep the liver healthy. For this, it is important to be aware of and practice what is good for the body. Liver diseases are on the rise in India and across the world. A large number of these diseases can be prevented, if we practice the right lifestyle, consume clean water, nutritious food & practice selective prevention by immunization.

Dr. Ajay Kumar has wide knowledge and experience in this field. He will reflect upon the importance of all the issues which impact our liver and thus impact our body's health and well-being.
 

A talk by Dr. Jahnavi Phalkey, filmmaker and historian of science and technology, Founding Director, Science Gallery Bengaluru

And In Conversation with Amb. Bhaskar Balakrishnan, former Indian Ambassador to Greece and Cuba, Science Diplomacy Fellow, RIS

Chair: Amb. Bhaskar Balakrishnan

Nothing to See Here: Situating the Study of Nagpur Bhosle Architecture within Indian Heritage and History
Illustrated lecture by Dr. Cathleen Cummings, Associate Professor, The University of Alabama at Birmingham

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

When the 1904 Ancient Monuments Preservation Act was passed, the temples of the Bhosle family of Nagpur were little more than a century old. Many were still “living sites”, rather than archaeological monuments no longer in active use. The Act, although making provision for Hindu temples still in worship, was overarchingly concerned with the discovery, classification, and preservation of India’s deep historical past. To the present day, almost all of the eighteenth and early nineteen-century temples and wadas if Nagpur remain neglected: it is not under the protection of any heritage “register”; is unknown even to many Nagpurkars; and has been largely left unstudied by historians of art and architecture. As a case study, this presentation explores some of the key ideas affecting our classifications of “heritage”, “history”, “monument”, and “living”, site in India
 

The Arab Spring that Was and Wasn’t 

By K.P. Fabian (ICWA & Macmillan Education, New Delhi: 2022)

Discussants: Amb. T.C. A. Raghavan, former diplomat and Director General, Indian Council for World Affairs; Amb. Talmiz Ahmad, former diplomat, Visiting Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and author; and Amb. K.P. Fabian, author of the book

Chair: Prof. Gulshan Dietl