BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Guardians of the Republic: Essays on the Constitution, Justice, and the Future of Indian Democracy
by Ashwani Kumar (Om Books International, 2025)

Discussants: Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member, Lok Sabha; Sh. Yogendra Yadav, Author, Activist and Public Intellectual; Prof. Neera Chandhoke, Former Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi; Sh.Gurcharan Das, Author, Commentator & Public Intellectual; Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Senior Advocate Supreme Court, Former Union Minister for Law and Justice 

Sandwiched between China and the US: South Korea's Quest of Transcending Diplomacy
Speaker: Prof. Moon Chung-in, James Laney Distinguished Professor, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.  Krause Distinguished Fellow, School of Policy and Global Strategy, University of California, San Diego, and co-Convener of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN)

Moderator: Prof. Alka Acharya, Director, Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS)

The talk will deliberate on the convoluted dynamics and the new narratives in East Asia, in the context of present-day needs, from a mainly South Korean perspective. The lecture would seek to examine the unilateral and self-centred policies of the US under Trump 2.0., which are, to all extents and purposes, creating very damaging economic and political conditions for the world. It appears that the US is no longer playing the role of a hegemonic stabilizer, but contending with China to be the most powerful country. East Asia’s cognitive dissonance of the US has become severely aggravated under Trump 2.0.

This is the 3rd Gargi and Vidya Prakash Dutt Memorial Lecture 2026

(Collaboration: Institute of Chinese Studies)
 

Understanding Gulf Migration Through Fiction, Cinema and Cultural Networks

Discussants: Md. Shafeeq Karinkurayil, Associate Professor at MISHA, MAHE, author of ‘The Gulf Migrant Archives in Kerala’; Ratheesh Radhakrishnan, Associate Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, works on Malayalam cinema and cultural politics in Kerala; Ratheesh Kumar, Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU, engages with interdisciplinarity, cultural processes and social theory; Sebastian Thejus Cherian, Assistant Professor at the Centre for French & Francophone Studies, JNU and working on the representation of Gulf migration in Malayalam cinema

Moderator: Vijayalakshmi Rao, Professor at the Centre for French & Francophone Studies, JNU, whose research engages with French and Francophone literature, displacement and Gulf migration narratives.

This discussion examines Gulf migration through literary, aesthetic and sociological perspectives, foregrounding questions of representation, gender, language and cultural transformation. Focusing on Kerala’s long history of migration to the Persian Gulf, it explores how migrancy reshapes social life, media cultures and regional imaginations across Malayalam and global contexts.
 

Across the Himalaya – First Traverse by Women

Speaker: Vineeta Muni

Chair: Brig. Ashok Abbey (Retd), a veteran climber with over four decades of experience across the Karakoram, Himalaya and adjoining ranges.

The speaker reflects on her extraordinary 1997 Himalayan expedition, trekking 4,500 kilometres from Arunachal Pradesh to the Karakoram Pass crossing 42 high passes above 3,000 metres. Drawing on her experiences as a mountaineer and photographer, she recounts the physical demands and human encounters that shaped the journey. Interwoven with photographs and personal reflections, she will also read excerpts from her book on the same name as the title of the programme.

(Collaboration: The Himalayan Club)
 

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

The Riddle of Sannyasa. 
by Neeru Nanda (Har-Anand Publications, 2025)

Discussants: Dr. Madhu Khanna, Professor of Indic Religion, Tagore National Fellow National Museum, New Delhi; Former Director, Centre for the Study of Comparative Religion & Civilizations, Jamia Millia Islamia; Neeru Nanda, Career Bureaucrat & Author of the book

Chair: Prof. Purshottam Agrawal, Former member UPSC & Former Chair, Centre of Indian Languages, JNU

Book Discussion Group

Contract Farming in Developing countries: The Promise and its perils

By Sudha Narayanan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025)

Discussants: Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha, Farmer; Sayanten Bera, Journalist, Mint and Sudha Narayanan, Author of the book

Moderator: Siraj Hussain, Advisor, Food Processing

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Walking out, Speaking up: Feminist Street Theatre in India
by Deepti Priya Mehrotra (Zubaan, 2025)

Discussants: Dr. Uma Chakravarti, Former Professor, Department of History, Delhi University ; Dr Lata Singh, Associate Professor,  Centre for Women’s Studies, JNU ; Deepti Priya Mehrotra, Political scientist & Author of the book.
 

Iran: Recent Developments
Speaker: Amb D.P Srivastava, former Ambassador to Iran from 2011-15, served in Cairo, Riyadh, Washington Brussels and Prague and Dr. John Cherian, former Editor, Foreign Policy, the Frontline

Chair: Amb K P Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis, and World Peace University, Pune.

This talk examines the latest wave of protests in Iran, widely interpreted by sections of the international media as a potential tipping point for the regime. Analysing the external pressures shaping the situation, rhetorical threats from Trump without military intervention, and Israel’s advocacy of regime change—while assessing the broader regional implications. The discussion also foregrounds India’s significant strategic stakes in Iran’s stability and in the security of the wider region.
 

Hidden in Plain Sight: Clay Sculpture in South Asia

Speaker: Susan Bean curates, writes, and consults on the visual arts and culture of modern South Asia, she Chairs of the Advisory Committee of the Art & Archaeology Centre of the American Institute of Indian Studies and Associate of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.

Chair: Naman P Ahuja, Professor, Indian Art and Architecture, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Air-dried clay (a.k.a. terracruda), along with stone, metal, wood, and fired clay, stands among South Asia’s oldest and most widely used mediums for sculpture. This presentation brings together some of the most prominent practices across the region to consider why painted air-dried clay has been so valued as medium for figural sculpture, and what its side-lining reveals about the study of art and visual culture.

(Collaboration: American Institute of Indian Studies, Center for Art and Archaeology)
 

Fusion on Earth: The Challenge of a Plentiful Clean Energy Source — A Physicist’s Perspective
Speaker: Swadesh Mahajan, distinguished plasma physicist, Research Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Texas at Austin and Distinguished Professor at SNU University. Director of Plasma Physics at ASICTP, Trieste. Co-founded the Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, the country’s flagship fusion institute.
Chair: Prof Rupamanjari Ghosh, an eminent Physicist and former Vice Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University and Former Dean & Professor of Physics, School of Physical Sciences, JNU, New Delhi

 Replicating on Earth the process that powers the stars—nuclear fusion remains one of the most ambitious and scientifically demanding pursuits of our time. While recent advances and private investment have accelerated progress towards commercially viable fusion, fundamental scientific challenges remain central to this quest. This talk traces the story of energy, explains why fusion is exceptionally difficult, surveys the current global fusion landscape, and reflects on realistic pathways and timeframes for achieving fusion power.