Rajendra Dhodapkar, Devyani Bharadwaj (Delhi); Parwati Tirkey (Gumla-Jharkhand) and Parag Pawan (Varanasi) will read their original works in Hindi.

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

Discussants: Amb. Harsh V. Shringla, Member of Parliament, Former Foreign Secretary and High Commissioner of Dhaka; Sreeradha Datta, Professor, O.P. Jindal Global University; and Dr Rishi Gupta, Assistant Director, Asia Society Policy Institute

Chair: Shri Jawhar Sircar, Public intellectual and Former Secretary Culture and CEO, Prasar Bharti

Speaker: Lakshmi Sharma, Executive Producer and Operations Head at Khabar Lahariya (KL) and Chambal Media (CM)

Khabar Lahariya, is India’s only women-led rural news network. With grassroots women reporters across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh, It started in 2002? And reaching 10 million viewers every month. It runs a hyperlocal, video-first channel with over 600,000+ YouTube subscribers. Chambal Media is a digital media social enterprise working to center the voices of women on the margins of India’s digital revolution.

Chair: Ravneet Pawha, VP, Deakin University

Moderator: Prof. Archana Kumar, Lady Irwin College

24th BCF Annual Lecture

(Collaboration: Business and Community Foundation)

Raghu Rai: Waiting for the Divine

By Rachna Singh (Hawakal Publishers , 2024)

Discussants: Shri Raghu Rai, Renowned photographer and photojournalist ; Ms Roobina Karode, Director & Chief Curator, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) ; Dr. Rachna Singh, Author of the book

Moderator: Mandira Nayar, Senior journalist

Speaker: Dr. Akshaya Tankha, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Washington, Seattle

Discussant: Dr. Annapurna Garimella, Art Historian and Designer

In 2005, chastened by the Baptist elders of a village in the predominantly Christian state of Nagaland in northeast India for making a “pagan statue” that could awaken the Tribal lake-spirit it visualized, Lepden Jamir defended his wood-carved sculpture by exclaiming, “I am a Naga and an artist.” Jamir’s embrace of and the villagers’ anxiety over the efficacy of the visualized icon go to the heart of what Tankha seeks to highlight in this talk: often dismissed as matters of 'belief', ideas like the sentience of matter are critical resources that artists mobilize to make situated claims about art, history, and place, and respond to the state’s hegemonic politics of inclusion.

(Collaboration: The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts)

Gandhi and Music

An illustrated lecture by Dipankar De Sarkar

The talk explores Gandhi’s world of music – the songs and hymns that inspired him through the darkest hours of India’s freedom struggle.

Dipankar De Sarkar is a journalist and amateur musician who writes on politics, music and the politics of music.

Poetry Reading by Ranjana Argade from Ahmedabad, Shobha Akshar, Vimal Kumar and Vinod Bharadwaj, all from Delhi

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

From Revolution to Evolution: A Journey Through 20th Century American Modern Dance
An illustrated lecture presented by Sharon Lowen

A panoramic visual overview of 20th century origins of early Modern Dance through Post Modern to Contemporary. Sharon Lowen’s distinguished 52-year classical dance career in India was preceded by 17 years of modern dance and ballet training in the USA and an M.A. in Dance, University of Michigan.

Winners of the International Booker Prize 2025 Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi in conversation with Sujata Prasad

(Collaboration: Ahad Anhad)

Book Discussion Group

The Conscience Network: A Chronicle of  Resistance to  a Dictatorship

By Sugata Srinivasaraju (Vintage Books; 2025)

Discussants: Ashis Nandy, political psychologist and social theorist; Coomi Kapoor, columnist; Neerja Chowdhury, veteran journalist; Dunu Roy, social activist and environmentalist; and Sugata Srinivasaraju, author of the book

Moderator: Suhas Borker, Editor, Citizens First TV (CFTV)

This will be followed by a conversation between the book’s principal protagonists, Ravi Chopra, SR Hiremath, Anand Kumar and the author