In Conversation – From Soldier to Storyteller

General Manoj Naravane, former Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army in conversation with Neelanjana Banerjee and Suhas Borker

Nalanda: How it Changed the World

By Abhay K. (Vintage Books: 2025)

Amb. Abhay K. in conversation with Mr. William Dalrymple, historian

Moderator: Dr. Arpan Tulsyan, Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation

He Almost Prevented Partition

The Life and Times of Dr. M.C. Davar

By Praveen Davar

Discussants: Shri Farooq Abdullah, former Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir; Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Minister, writer and former diplomat; Prof. Apoorvanand, Professor, Department of Hindi, University of Delhi; and Capt. Praveen Davar, author of the book

Chair: Dr. Karan Singh, statesman, philosopher and thinker
 

Speakers: Amb. Kanwal Sibal, former Foreign Secretary and former Ambassador to Egypt, France and Russia; Prof. Amitabh Mattoo, Dean, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. Srikant Kondapalli, Professor of Chinese Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. C. Raja Mohan, Consulting Editor, Strategic Thinker, Visiting Professor, National University, Singapore; Shri T.K. Arun, former Resident Editor, The Economic Times, independent columnist

Moderator: Amb. Surendra Kumar, President, IAFA

(Collaboration: Indo-American Friendship Association)
 

Postcolonial Bollywood and Muslim Identity: Production, Representation and Reception
By Nadira Khatun (Oxford University Press, 2024)

Discussants: Prof. Ira Bhaskar, film scholar and former Professor of Cinema Studies, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University;  Dr. Mujibur Rehman, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Jamia Millia Islamia; Prof. Manoj Jha, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and national spokesperson of the Rashtriya Janata Dal; and Prof. Nadira Khatun, Assistant Professor at the School of Communications, XIM University, Odisha and author of the book

Moderator: Ms Manjula Narayan, National Books Editor, Hindustan Times
 

“One Health” is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach to achieving optimal health outcomes for people, animals, and the environment. It recognises that the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems are interconnected and interdependent

Organised by the IIC’s Sectoral Policy Planning Group on Science & Technology under the Convenorship of Dr. Renu Swarup, the roundtable will discuss key issues of One Health – addressing a wide range of health challenges, including zoonotic diseases (diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans), antimicrobial resistance, food safety, environmental pollution, climate change impacts on health, and more
 

Speakers: Sreemati Chakrabarti, former Professor, Dept. of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi; Chairperson and Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies; Ashok K. Kantha, former Ambassador to China; Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies; Distinguished Fellow, Vivekananada International Foundation, New Delhi; Ritu Agarwal, Associate Professor, Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Rityusha Mani Tiwary, Dept, of Political Science, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi; Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi; Associate Editor, China Report: A Journal of East Asian Studies; Usha Chandran, Assistant Professor, Centre for Chinese and South East Asian Studies, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi; and Anand P. Krishnan, Fellow, Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar University; Adjunct Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi

Chair: Manoranjan Mohanty, former Professor of Political Science and Director, Developing Countries Research Centre, University of Delhi; Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development; Emeritus Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi

(Collaboration: Institute of Chinese Studies)
 

Programme Details

Dedicated to Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya

Organised in collaboration with Kathkatha Puppet Arts Trust and with the support of the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, the festival includes a seminar; shadow puppet festival; and screening of films

From 10:00 to 17:00 in Conference Room II
Out of Shadows: Discussions on the Plurality of Shadow Puppets
Keynote Address by Anurupa Roy, Indian puppeteer, puppet designer and director of puppet theatre

Presentations by Prof. Peter W. Marx, German theatre and performance studies scholar, Chairperson of Theatre and Media Studies, University of Cologne; Prof. Kaushik Bhaumik, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Airan Berg, international working theatre maker and artistic director, who specialises in large scale participatory and inclusive objects; he is the Artistic Director of Festival deer Regionen; Gunduraju, who belongs to a family of Togalu Gombeyaata, shadow puppeteers from Karnataka; Prof. Gouranga Charan Dash, Srirama Institute of Shadow Theatre; Ranjana Pandey, Editor and Publisher of Sutradhar and President, UNIMA India; and Dr. Atul Sinha, Assistant Professor  

AT 18:30 IN THE C.D. DESHMUKH AUDITORIUM
Film Before Film (Was geschah wirklich zwischen den Bildern/ Germany)
(83 min; 1986; German with English subtitles)
Director: Werner Nekes

An exhilarating and amusing encyclopedic look at the “prehistory” of cinema. Nekes charts the fascination with moving pictures which led to the birth of film, covering shadow plays, peep shows, flip books, flicks, magic lanterns, lithopanes, scrolls and numerous historical artifices
 

Panelists: Prof. Apoorvanand, Dept. of Hindi, University of Delhi; Prof. Ayesha Kidwai, Centre for Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Dr. Karthick Narayanan, Linguist and researcher

Moderator: Prof. Anita Rampal, Convenor, IIC Sectoral Policy Group on Education
 

Unpolitically Correct: The Politics and Economics of Governance
By Satya Mohanty (Rupa Publications India: 2024)

Discussants: Prof. Ashutosh Varshney, political scientist, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences, and Professor of Political Science at Brown University, USA; Shri Nitin Desai, distinguished economist and former Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, UN; and Dr. Satya Mohanty, poet, playwright, novelist and writer, former Union Secretary of Education and Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission; and author of the book

Chair: Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP