‘Unfolding the Cosmos’ – The Significance of History and of Architecture as its Primary Source: The Case of the Red Fort

Illustrated lecture by Anisha Shekhar Mukherji, architect who has specialized in conservation and is Visiting Faculty, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi. Anisha works as an independent designer and researcher and is Founding Director, Ambi Knowledge Resources and author of The Red Fort of Shahjahanabad (Oxford University Press: 2003); Jantar Mantar (Ambi: 2010); Renewing Design with Communities (co-edited with Snehanshu Mukherjee, Routledge, 2023) among other books

Chair: Anuradha Chaturvedi, Architectural Conservation, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi

The talk will explore the significance of history in construing and constructing identity and memory — what we are, what we may have been, and what we can be. And the role of architecture in all this, through the example of the iconic World Heritage Site of the Red Fort, a symbol of political and cultural identity. Can architecture be considered a primary source of history? And how should we read it?

75 Kavitayein 
Collection of poems by Anamika (Nayee Kitab Prakashan: 2023)

Discussants: Dr. Lakshmi Kannan, poet, novelist and bilingual writer; Prof. Malashri Lal, author and Convenor, English Board, Sahitya Akademi; Dr. Sushma Bhatnagar, former Director of Interpretation, Lok Sabha and former Lecturer, Lady Shri Ram College for Women; Prof. Rekha Sethi, author, Editor and translator of the book; and Prof. Anamika, well-known poet, novelist and author of the collection of poems

Speaker: Prof. Shonaleeka Kaul, cultural historian of early India and Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Prof. Kaul has published eight books so far including a new translation with critical introduction to the Hitopadesha by Narayana: A New English Translation (Aleph, 2022)

This talk uncovers complex layers of human-non human entanglements in an iconic and witty literary genre from early India. It explores the representation of animals in a dedicated textual tradition best identified with the influential 2nd century Panchatantra and its retelling, the 9th century Hitopadesha. Delving into this lively corpus to illuminate the mutually constituted fields of animal history and Sanskrit literature, the talk argues for the instrumentality of animals in human culture and discourse.

Chair: Amb. A.N.D. Haksar, former Indian diplomat, prolific translator of Sanskrit classics into English

Speaker: Prof. Tathagatan Ravindran, Indian scholar based in Colombia who works on social movements, Left politics, race/ethnicity in Latin America. A social anthropologist, Prof. Ravindran has taught at Icesi University in Colombia, the University of Texas at Austin and the Delhi School of Economics. His work is interdisciplinary as it engages with and advances debates in Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, and Political theory

Chair: Amb. R. Viswanathan, Specialist on Latin America and former Indian Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela
 

Crossing the Shoreline
By Gopal Lahiri (Haoajan Publishers, 2022)

Discussants: Ms Rachna Joshi, poet and writer; Ms Mandira Ghosh, poet and author of several books;  Shri Gopal Lahiri, bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator and author of the book

Chair: Dr Amarendra Khatua

Speakers: Abu Talha Farooqi, Assistant Professor & Dean, Jindal School of Art & Architecture; and Shri Sourav Dhar, Programme Lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)

Moderator: Satish Sinha, Associate Director, Toxics link

The rapidly growing urban population necessitates new ways of thinking about how we construct and design our cities. The lecture will help gain valuable insights into the potential of sustainable infrastructure including innovative approaches to housing design, sustainable transportation solutions, efficient water management systems, and renewable energy integration to support resource-efficient cities.

(Collaboration: Toxics Link)
 

Panelists: Cmdre C. Uday Bhaskar, leading expert security and strategic affairs and Director, Society for Policy Studies; Amb. Navtej Singh Sarna, former Indian Ambassador to Israel; and Ms Sagari Chhabra, multiple award-winning author & filmmaker,playwright, poet and Director, Hamaara Itihas Archives

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

The grim toll of the war that started on 7 October 2023, has crossed 10,600 as on 4 November 2023. Women and children account for more than two-thirds of the dead in Gaza. Deprived of potable water, food, medicines, and other essentials, with hospitals, schools, and places of worship getting bombed, the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza need urgent help that can be given only if Israel stops bombing. The panel will holistically examine this complex issue – what is India’s policy and what are the implications thereof? Is there any way the state of war between Israel and the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories can be replaced by an agreed peace?

Secularism as Misdirection: Critical Thought from the Global South 

Speaker: Nivedita Menon, Professor, Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is the author of several books including Recovering Subversion: Feminist Politics Beyond the Law (2004); and Seeing like a Feminist (2012). This talk is based on her new book, Secularism as Misdirection: Critical Thought from the Global South (Permanent Black; 2023). Nivedita Menon is a regular commentator on contemporary issues on the collective blog kafila.online (of which she is one of the founders), and active in democratic politics in India 

Chair: Tanika Sarkar, historian of modern India and Visiting Professor of History, Ashoka University

In the performance of a magic trick, misdirection draws attention away from where the trick is happening to another place which appears more fascinating. The talk addresses the grid of meanings secularism produces, which effects such a misdirection. Certain features become hyper visible (religion, women) while others are obscured (caste, capitalism, the non-individuated, non-rational self). The perspective is from the global South and India, and reconceptualises secularism more generally.

Cancelled

Curator: Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray

Early Buddhist Art at Sanchi: Power and Piety in Uruvela Narrative Cycle

Illustrated lecture by Prof. Seema Bawa who specializes in the History of South Asian Art and Culture, Department of History, University of Delhi. Books written by her include Gods, Men and Women: Gender and Sexuality in Early Indian Art and Religion and Art of the Chamba Valley, A.D. 700-1300. The areas of research focus on Indian Art, Ancient Indian Art and Iconography; Western Himalayan Art and Religion and Modern and Contemporary Indian Art. She was a recipient of DAAD Fellowship at the University of Bonn

This presentation focuses on the physical and imagined landscapes and locale within the visual narratives in early Buddhist art at Sanchi. The Uruvela or Uruvilva cycle, depicted on the pillar of the Eastern gateway at Sanchi Stupa 1, illustrates the interaction between the Kasyapa brothers and the aniconic presence indicating the Buddha. The fact that this is also a story that is based on the contestation between the established ideology of yajna and the emergence of Buddha as a proselytizing force makes nuanced reading of this visual even more interesting. 

Speakers: Dr. Harish S. Wankhede, Assistant Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Smt Renu Mittal, Senior journalist; and Shri Tiruchi N. Siva, MP, Rajya Sabha, Leader of DMK in Rajya Sabha

Moderator: Suhas Borker, Mediaperson and Trustee, IIC

This is the 18th edition of the annual discussion instituted in 2006. The discussion also marks the 31st anniversary of the ‘Working Group on Alternative Strategies’
 

(Collaboration: Working Group on Alternative Strategies)