Rising Peril of Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century-A World in Denial

A talk by Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Former Governor, West Bengal and Life Trustee, IIC

80 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were burnt to ashes, their residents turned into flaming torches, the world's stockpile of nuclear weapons continues to expand and threaten another cataclysmic conflagration.

Opening Remarks: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

Chair: Rakesh Sood, former ambassador and India’s first Permanent Representative to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva

(86 min;2022; Hindi, Bengali with English subtitles)

A film by Nishtha Jain, a leading documentary filmmaker from India

Winner of the Best Feature Documentary, MIFF 2024 ,Best Sound Design, MIFF 2024, Best Documentary, 42nd Bergamo Film Meeting, Italy 2024 and many others

Outside Kolkata a few jute mills crank on, virtually unchanged since the industrial revolution. Powered by steam and sweat, work is a dance to the rhythms of the century-old machines. The Golden Thread follows the weft and warp of jute work, weaving the 'fibre of the future' with the dreams and desperations of its workers.

Celebrating the Life of Situ Singh Buehler (1948–2025), a pioneer in Western classical music education, she spent over 25 years nurturing the performing arts in India and helped build Delhi into a hub for international music training and appreciation.

Carrying forward her extraordinary legacy, this concert showcases soloists from the Lyric Ensemble of Delhi, featuring repertoire from the Baroque to the Romantic, the music that Situ spent her life teaching us to love.

(Collaboration: Lyric Ensemble of Delhi)

(81 mins; English and Odiya; 2024)

Directed by Bishweshwar Das, a documentary film maker from Cuttack

A tribute to the grand old man of Indian poetry, Jayanta Mahapatra, the film is interspersed between his poems and the journeys he made in the last year of his life. The only film made on Jayanta da, is supported by The Raza Foundation, Munin Borkotoki Memorial Trust and others.

A Mehfil of Mystic Poetry, Dastangoi and Music

A specially curated mehfil that brings together the poetic worlds of two timeless mystics: Jalaluddin Rumi and Sant Kabeer.

Performers: Ashwin ‘Afraad’, a national award-winning actor for the acclaimed Marathi film Shwaas; and Sawani Shikhare, a classically trained vocalist under Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar

The Legacy of Nelson Mandela

Speaker: Shri Anand Grover, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India and Human Rights Jurist
Introduction by Brandley Ngcobo

Opening remarks: Suhas Borker, Convener, Working Group on Alternative Strategies 
Closing remarks: H.E. Prof. Anil Sooklal, High Commissioner of the Republic of South Africa

The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture was instituted at IIC in 2018 to mark the Centenary of Madiba
                              
(Collaboration: South African High Commission and Working Group on Alternative Strategies)

Surbahar Recital (Cancelled)
By Bhushan Koshti from Mumbai, disciple of Pt. Pushpraj Koshti
Accompanist : Vivekanand Kurangale ( Pakhawaj )

At 18:30 
Bharatanatyam Recital

By Dr. Debaldev Jana from Kolkata, disciple of Guru Thanjavur B.Herambanathan & Kalamandalam V.R. Venkitt 

Directed by Geleck Palsang

The film offers a powerful tribute to the extraordinary resilience, courage and compassion of Ama Jetsun Pema- the first female cabinet Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and the unwavering force behind the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV), a beacon of hope and a home to thousands of Tibetan children in exile.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with TCV alumni.

(Collaboration: Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness The Dalai Lama)
 

Re-cast(e) ing the State Policy: Ascription, Identities and Democratic Politics
 

Speaker: Prof. Surinder Singh Jodhka, Professor of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University and recipient of the ICSSR-Amartya Sen Award for Distinguished Social Scientist.

Welcome and Introduction: Prof. Nitya Nanda, Director, Council for Social Development

Vote of Thanks: Ankita Goyal, Council for Social Development

The post-independence Indian state has had a rather ambivalent attitude towards caste. Caste could not enter the imaginations of India’s development establishment and found no place in the vocabulary of economic growth spelt out in the planning models of the Nehruvian state.
The announcement to enumerate caste in the forthcoming national census marks an important turning in the attitude of the Indian state towards caste. Through his presentation, Prof. Jodhka will attempt to provide a political journey of caste and its changing relationship with the state policy.

(Collaboration: Council for Social Development)
 

By Rahul; Sangeetha ; Nandita Krishna Kumar and Arti Mehta ; Shreyas Hariharan; Poornima Gopal
Disciples of Vid Swarnalatha Subramanian

Followed by recital of Vid Swarnalatha Subramanian and her disciples.

Accompanists: E S Ashwini, Sowmya Kannan and Kiran Pandey (violin); Ratul S Kumar, G Swaminathan (Mridangam); M Sriram (Kanjira ); and Shounok Bannerji (Ghatam)

(Collaboration: Gayathri Fine Arts)