358. Building Bridges: The Journey Towards Equality and Fraternity
Release Date: 05/04/2025
364. Repositioning Indian Aesthetics
BIC TALKS
Kirtinath Kurtkoti (1928-2003) belongs to the rare but powerful tradition of multilingual literary and cultural criticism in India. His oeuvre encompasses commentaries on the entire spectrum of Kannada literature, from the earliest extant writings to late twentieth-century works. Kurtkoti’s critical works highlight the unique sensibility of the Kannada literary tradition, placing it in the broader context of Indian and world literature. Courtesy of Criticism brings some of his important essays on Kannada literature to non-Kannada readers. Divided into three sections— Literary History,...
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363. Military Leadership in Turbulent Times
BIC TALKS
For over five decades since the Liberation of Bangladesh and the 1971 India-Pakistan War, the Indian state has had to pay a heavy price to protect the fabric of its democracy and its basic geographical structure in the face of a multiplicity of national security threats. These threats have ranged from constant pressure along its Northern and Western borders from nuclear-armed adversaries, several internal fissures and cracks in Punjab, J&K and the Northeast and a festering problem of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) across several states. Complementing these internal and border security...
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362. Everyday Lives, Extraordinary Stories
BIC TALKS
This conversation on Heart Lamp: Selected Stories, awarded the Booker Prize 2025, will delve into Banu Mushtaq’s fearless storytelling and her portrayal of women navigating faith, family, and societal expectations in southern India. The speakers will explore how Mushtaq’s journalistic and legal background shaped her writing, giving voice to the struggles and resilience of Muslim women. Translator Deepa Bhasthi, whose masterful rendering brings these stories to an English-speaking audience, will share insights into the nuances of language, the challenges of retaining Mushtaq’s...
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361. Vaadivaasal : The Arena
BIC TALKS
Chellayipuram—famed for hosting the most exhilarating jallikattu contests of strength between man and bull. This year, Pichi, from distant Usilanoor, is here to face the Kaari bull, the zamindar’s pride, both menacing in appearance and undefeated in the bull-taming contest. It’s been two years since his father Ambuli had been gored to death by this same beast. In the billowing dust of the arena, as Pichi grabs hold of the Kaari’s horn in an attempt to make it bow its head, watching the contest from his high perch with narrowing eyes is the zamindar. Will his prize animal—and, by...
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360. From Pax Americana to Pax Mysteriana
BIC TALKS
The object of this lecture is to analyze the world order that was put in place at the end of World War II, examine how it has unfolded in terms of experience since then, and highlight some important manifestations of its multiple crises, to discuss possible future scenarios for 2050. In doing so, it asks four questions and seeks to provide answers. Are we witnessing the beginnings of a transformative change in the world order? Are we at the cusp of an emerging bi-polar world order, with the United States and China as the two superpowers? Are we moving towards a multi-polar world, in which...
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359. The Land of The Red River Blue Hills
BIC TALKS
Crucial battles of World War II fought in India’s northeast; followed soon after by India’s Independence and Partition; had a critical impact on the making of modern Assam. In the three decades following 1947, the state of Assam underwent massive political turmoil, geographical instability, and social and demographic upheaval, among others. Later, the truncated state suffered widespread unrest as various groups believed their cultural identity and political leverage were under threat. New social energies and political forces were unleashed and came to the fore. This session draws from...
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358. Building Bridges: The Journey Towards Equality and Fraternity
BIC TALKS
This panel will examine how the principles of equality and fraternity have shaped India’s democratic journey over the past 75 years. They will explore the relevance of these constitutional values in addressing contemporary challenges in the daily lives of Indian citizens like social inequities and polarisation. The discussion will also highlight the indigenous roots of these values within Karnataka’s rich philosophical and cultural traditions. Through diverse perspectives, the panel will reflect on how these constitutional values can be actualised in governance, culture, policy,...
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357. Wild Fictions
BIC TALKS
Join us for an engaging conversation as Amitav Ghosh discusses Wild Fictions, a collection of his writings from the past twenty-five years, with Julia Wheeler. This expansive work explores the themes that have defined Ghosh’s literary journey: literature and language, climate change and the environment, human lives, travel, and discoveries. Through topics ranging from the commodification of the clove to the rich diversity of Bengal’s mangrove forests and the radical fluidity of multilingualism, Wild Fictions offers a critique of imperial violence and the fictions we weave to...
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356. How We Used To Love
BIC TALKS
Being immune to the charms of poetry is a crime that is its own punishment, the Sanskritic tradition tells us. Join us as we discover the allure of Sanskrit and Prakrit love poetry and the travails of translating doe-eyes and elephant-thighs into English with Anusha Rao and Suhas Mahesh, co-translators of the verse anthology, How to Love in Sanskrit (HarperCollins 2024). How to Love in Sanskrit is a poetic exploration of the maze of modern dating: flirting, daydreaming, yearning, and breaking up, through the eyes of Kalidasa, Bana, Vidya, and many other, often anonymous gifted...
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355. A Pandemic World in Syllables Excerpt
BIC TALKS
In March 2020, when the world went into lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, poets and friends Marilyn Hacker and Karthika Nair—living mere miles from each other, but separated by circumstance, and spurred by this strange time—began a correspondence in verse. ‘Renga’, an ancient Japanese form of collaborative poetry, is comprised of alternating ‘Tanka’, beginning with the themes of ‘Toki’ and ‘Toza’: this season, this session. Here, from the “plague spring”, through a year in which seasons are marked by the waxing and waning of the virus, Hacker and...
info_outlineThis panel will examine how the principles of equality and fraternity have shaped India’s democratic journey over the past 75 years. They will explore the relevance of these constitutional values in addressing contemporary challenges in the daily lives of Indian citizens like social inequities and polarisation. The discussion will also highlight the indigenous roots of these values within Karnataka’s rich philosophical and cultural traditions. Through diverse perspectives, the panel will reflect on how these constitutional values can be actualised in governance, culture, policy, and daily life.
This session is the fourth in the series titled ‘We the People’ to celebrate 75 years of our Constitution. As part of this series, DAKSH, in collaboration with BIC, is organising a series of lectures and panel discussions on various aspects of the Constitution.
In collaboration with:
DAKSH
In this episode of BIC Talks, Mary E John, Rahamath Tarikere and Gautam Patel will be in conversation with Harish Narasappa .This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025.
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