BIC TALKS
Bangalore International Centre (BIC) is a non profit, public institution which serves as an inclusive platform for informed conversations, arts and culture. BIC TALKS aims to be a regular bi-weekly podcast that will foster discussions, dialogue, ideas, cultural enterprise and more.
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356. How We Used To Love
04/15/2025
356. How We Used To Love
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 poets. Moderated by Radhika Chadha, the translators will discuss their inspiration for the book, their approach to translation, misconceptions about Sanskrit poetry, and the challenges of translating pre-modern poetry, drawing from both classic and forgotten texts to paint a picture of what love feels like in Sanskrit. The session will conclude with a reading of their favourite verses from the book and a Q&A session with the audience. In this episode of BIC Talks, Anusha Rao and Suhas Mahesh will be in conversation with Radhika Chadha .This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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355. A Pandemic World in Syllables Excerpt
04/07/2025
355. A Pandemic World in Syllables Excerpt
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 Nair’s Renga charts the “differents and sames” of a now-shared experience. Their poems witness a time of suspension in which some things, somehow, press on relentlessly, in which solidarity persists—even thrives—in the face of a strange new kind of isolation. Between “ten thousand, yes, minutes of Bones”, there’s cancer and chemotherapy and the aches of an ageing body. There is grief for the loss of friends nearby and concern for loved ones in the United States, Lebanon, and India. And there is a deep sense of shared humanity, where we all are “mere atoms of water, each captained by protons of hydrogen, hurtling earthward.” At turns poignant and playful, the seasons and sessions of A Different Distance display the compassionate, collective wisdom of two women witnessing a singular moment in history. Karthika Nair will be in conversation with Prem Panicker. An audience Q&A session will follow. Presented by: Contxt In this episode of BIC Talks, Karthika Nair will be in conversation with Prem Panicker .This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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345. Dharmic Capitalism
04/04/2025
345. Dharmic Capitalism
Did Rajaraja Chola, who built the world-renowned Brihadisvara temple in Tanjore, and Suryavarman II of Kambuja Desa (Cambodia), who built the world’s largest temple complex, Angkor Wat, erect these enduring marvels with a magic wand? Surely not. How did they nurture prosperity? What were the economic models that enabled them to leave the world awestruck? Sriram Balasubramanian’s sequel to the pathbreaking Kautilyanomics answers these questions by examining Common Era empires and kingdoms ranging from the Cholas, Pallavas, Pandyas and Vijayanagara to Southeast Asian kingdoms. Balasubramanian audaciously puts forward a novel, indigenous and sustainable framework called Dharmanomics—a function of Kautilyan Dharmic capitalism, of a Dharmic ecosystem driven by temples and Sreni (corporate guilds) Dharma—that spans thousands of years. It was put into practice much before the likes of Adam Smith and modern economic thinkers. Dharmanomics seeks to present a coherent and structured economic framework based on the idea of Dharma for at least 1500 years. In the session, Sriram Balasubramanian is in conversation with Vikram Bhat. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in November 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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346. Caste, Outcast and Anticaste
04/04/2025
346. Caste, Outcast and Anticaste
This talk will reflect on broad trends in the study of caste including debates and discussions drawing on poststructuralist, Marxist, and anthropological approaches which have tended to approach caste as a distinctive form of hierarchy and social distinction. This framing will help to illuminate the challenge of new approaches and intellectual formations, which center critical caste and Dalit studies, scholarship on anticaste thought, and studies of global caste. How does a politics of the present inflect social transformations of caste, as well as the resistance to its inequities? What are the potentials and the perils to studying caste through global fields of power and comparison? How might we bridge institutional logics and disciplinary constraints in effecting novel forms of critique? In this episode of BIC Talks, Anupama Rao delivers a talk. This is an excerpt from an event that took place in the BIC premises in December 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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347. Solving Avian Mysteries
04/04/2025
347. Solving Avian Mysteries
To find a rare bird is the ultimate dream of ornithologists and birdwatchers. But doing it requires a combination of skills including an understanding of habitats, animal behaviour and people skills as well as plain old good luck. But the ornithologists, naturalists and birdwatchers, who tracked down the most difficult to find birds of the Indian subcontinent, got lucky because they worked really hard at it. In this session authors Shashank Dalvi and Anita Mani will be in conversation with contributors to the book ‘The Search for India’s Rarest Birds‘, Atul Jain, Radhika Raj and Aasheesh Pittie who will be speaking about the challenges of species discovery and what makes a bird ‘rare’. In addition, the session will explore conservation issues and solutions to prevent such rare species from going beyond the brink, as well as future directions on where the next raft of discoveries could come from. In collaboration with : Juggernaut, Indian Pitta and Center for Wildlife Studies In this episode of BIC Talks, Shashank Dalvi and Anita Mani are in conversation with Aasheesh Pittie, Radhika Raj and Atul Jain. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in December 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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348. Things that Sing
04/04/2025
348. Things that Sing
Every joke, facial expression, song and stick of furniture we inherit from those we lived with and loved tells its own story. Of continuity, of pasts and the present. Writers A.T. Boyle and Shinie Antony, who put together the collection exObjects, The Art of Holding On, Letting Go (Om Books), delve into the micro histories and macro memories of things left behind. The eleven authors have re-envisaged people, places and things lost, but certainly not forgotten. Join Vikram Sampath, whose late, beloved mother infused him with her love for classical music, and Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, the editor of this volume, along with Boyle and Antony, as they talk about the hum and heart of belongings. Presented by: International Music & Arts Society In collaboration with: OM Books International In this episode of BIC Talks, AT Boyle, Vikram Sampath and Shinie Antony will be in conversation with Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri. This is an excerpt from an event that took place in the BIC premises in December 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music
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349. How (Not) to Write the History of Indian Literature
04/04/2025
349. How (Not) to Write the History of Indian Literature
The annual U.R. Ananthamurthy Memorial Lecture, 2024, hosted by Bahuvachana, Rujuvathu, and BIC, features Prof. Harish Trivedi delivering a talk titled How (Not) to Write the History of Indian Literature. The talk will explore the challenges that complicate any effort to write a history of Indian literature. It will self-reflexively examine several such histories, including a recent volume, Indian Literary Historiography (published by the Sahitya Akademi, 2024). Prof. Trivedi will propose some radical ideas for writing a popular history of Indian literature in about 250 pages. The lecture will also discuss a short history authored by the speaker, which deliberately sets aside pedantic conventions. In this episode of BIC Talks, Harish Trivedi delivers a talk. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in December 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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350. Portrait of an Artist
04/04/2025
350. Portrait of an Artist
Sanjay is the musician’s musician—a revered vocalist with a devoted following in the Carnatic music community. Known for his profound theoretical understanding and intellectual engagement with the art form, he is a connoisseur of music. In this conversation with Anita and his co-author, novelist, journalist, and screenwriter Krupa Ge, Sanjay delves into his artistic journey and the world that shaped him. The three panellists, united by their shared passion for Carnatic music, discuss the essence of classical music and explore what lies beyond the classical realm, touching on the fluid exchanges between various musical genres. Candid and introspective, Sanjay reflects on the personal and artistic ruminations that led him to write about his musical life, even as he stands at a crossroads in his career, eager to explore new horizons and grow further. Presented by: Westland Non-fiction In this episode of BIC Talks, Sanjay Subrahmanyan and Krupa Ge will be in conversation with Anita Nair. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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351. Nehru's Democracy
04/04/2025
351. Nehru's Democracy
This lecture by Madhavan K. Palat, Secretary of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund and editor of the forthcoming comprehensive online edition of the Nehru Archives, explores the complex and often paradoxical dimensions of Nehru’s engagement with democracy. Nehru presented himself as a liberal and a socialist. Yet, while he did not explicitly identify as a conservative, he frequently employed Burkean and traditionalist arguments to legitimize Indian democracy. At the same time, he repeatedly warned that democracy risked self-destruction through the emergence of a democratic dictatorship or the tyranny of the majority. Palat examines how Nehru derived the ethos of democracy from traditional panchayats and 19th-century nationalist movements, asserting that democracy had become the yugadharma—the defining moral order—after Independence. Nehru insisted that democracy had to be dynamic, propelled by movements but grounded in stable institutions. When conflicts inevitably arose between these two forces, he consistently prioritized movement, seeing it as a continuation of nationalist mobilization, while institutions embodied the legacy of the Constituent Assembly and its Constitution. Yet, Nehru never saw the Constitution as a sacred text. Democracy, he believed, could only be safeguarded through democratic practice, not constitutional rigidity—a stance that effectively repudiated the idea of a “Basic Structure” doctrine. Seeking to deepen democracy, Nehru championed Panchayati Raj, arguing that democracy required a broad, pyramid-like foundation to prevent its collapse. However, as Palat highlights, Nehru’s vision was fraught with ambiguities. He viewed panchayats as both democratic and bureaucratic extensions, expressed dismay over the rise of opportunists in the electoral system, and feared that democracy was breeding an elective aristocracy and oligarchy. Nehru lamented the absence of a two-party system in India but keenly observed an ideological dichotomy between Congress and Hindutva, presciently suggesting that these ideologies could evolve into distinct parties. While Nehru valued moral ideals, his inspirations—Buddha, Ashoka, Akbar, and Gandhi—were not unequivocal democrats. Gandhi, though a democratic mobilizer, was autocratic in his methods. Nehru himself emerged as the most consistent symbol of democratic idealism but rejected the notion of a personality cult as vulgar and absurd. Palat’s lecture delves into Nehru’s ambivalence towards democracy: he despised its tendency to favor mediocrity yet feared that inspiration and charisma often led to right-wing politics, which he deplored. Nehru’s political philosophy lay in reconciling contradictions and embracing ambiguities, favoring the pragmatism of a conservative over the ideological rigidity of a socialist. By drawing on his extensive work with the Nehru Archives, Palat offers fresh insights into Nehru’s thought and legacy, portraying him as a leader navigating the complex interplay of ideals and realities with remarkable dexterity, even as he remained a figure defined by paradoxes and inconsistencies. Presented by: National Law School Of India University, Bangalore In this episode of BIC Talks, Madhvan K Palat will deliver a talk. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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352. Love, Law and the Constitution
04/04/2025
352. Love, Law and the Constitution
What does it mean when vulnerable groups end up in Court for their right to love? This session with the author of Urban Elite v. Union of India Rohin Bhatt will discuss a wide range of issues surrounding the queer community in India. Amongst others, the author will seek to answer the following questions: How should social impact and public interest legislation be undertaken? What goes through the mind of a queer lawyer when homophobia is masqueraded as a legal argument? In this episode of BIC Talks, Rohin Bhatt will be in conversation with Arvind Narain. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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353. The Art of the In-between
04/04/2025
353. The Art of the In-between
Conflict at home, with neighbours, between communities. Conflicts about what the law means or should be. Large collisions of power within and between institutions or nations. In this session on mediation, Hiram Chodosh will present both a global and local perspective to mediation in India. He will discuss the virtues, capabilities, and skills that make mediation a powerful response to conflict. He will evaluate the value of mediation in practice, including in the USA and other parts of the globe, within courts, communities, legislative bodies, international relations, and the role of professional mediators and lawyers in this practice. Sriram Panchu will present the perspective of the most senior mediation expert and leader in India. He will speak about the growth of mediation in India, its use in the court sector, commercial disputes, significant public disputes like the Ayodhya Babri Masjid – Ram Janambhoomi one, the Mediation Act 2023, the prospects for private mediation. He will also speak about the current foundations for mediation practice in India, the professional career paths, the role of centres and other programs that advance its targeted application in legal and other kinds of disputes. Thereafter, Hiram Chodosh and Sriram Panchu will have a conversation reflecting on the roots of Indian mediation and its future prospects, including lessons from Indian mediation that the world can learn from and the crucial initiatives now needed to take mediation to the next level of impact and value for meaningful practice and careers. In this episode of BIC Talks, Hiram Chodosh will be in conversation with Sriram Panchu. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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354. Gandhi, the Philosopher
04/04/2025
354. Gandhi, the Philosopher
In Gandhi’s Integrity: Thinking Radically with Gandhi on Religion, Caste, Capital, Liberalism, Science, and Culture (forthcoming Columbia University Press), Akeel Bilgrami presents an account of the many aspects of Gandhi’s thought in a framework that integrates his resistance against imperialism with his critique of capitalist modernity, raising fundamental questions about how we should understand the relevance of these ideas for our own time and concerns. This is a panel discussion with Akeel Bilgrami (Author), Chandan Gowda (RK Hegde Chair Professor, ISEC) and Rajeev Kadambi (Associate Professor, OP Jindal Global University) moderated by Vishnupad (Dean, ESLA, SRM University, AP). In collaboration with: Easwari School of Liberal Arts and SRM University AP In this episode of BIC Talks, Akeel Bilgrami, Chandan Gowda, Rajeev Kadambi will be in conversation with Vishnupad .This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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344. Media Freedom
02/04/2025
344. Media Freedom
The media is a cornerstone of Indian democracy, often called the “fourth pillar” for its role in supporting constitutional values. Yet today, trust in the media is eroding amid technological upheaval, shifting revenue models, political polarization, and the powerful rise of social media and artificial intelligence. As these forces reshape how information flows, can the media still serve as a guardian of our constitutional ideals? And who, if anyone, will defend the independence and integrity of the media? This session is the third in the series titled ‘We the People’ to celebrate 75 years of our Constitution. As part of this series, , 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, Barkha Dutt delivers a talk. This is an excerpt from a event that took place in the BIC premises in November 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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343. Kuvempu Turns 120
01/10/2025
343. Kuvempu Turns 120
The text of Kuvempu’s epic Kannada novel, Malegalalli Madumagalu (1967), and the recent translation, Bride in the Hills by Vanamala Viswanatha (Penguin Random House, 2024), will be discussed by an eminent panel of scholars, writers and the translator. Set in 1893 in the Malnad region of the Western Ghats with its majestic Sahyadri ranges, dense forests, and river Tunga, Kuvempu’s Malegalalli Madumagalu (Bride in the Hills) describes the saga of not one young woman but many, of varied hues, who aspire for love and fulfilment in marriage, in a self-serving, male feudal order. An organic network of interrelated stories, the well-known Kannada writer Devanoora Mahadeva locates the novel in the epic tradition of the Mahabharata and Tolstoy’s War and Peace. This woman-centric text weaves together the touching plight of young couples in love, such as Gutti and Timmi, from a Dalit community living on the ghats; Aita and Pinchalu, migrant labourers from below the ghats, and Mukundayya and Chinnamma from the land-owning Shudra caste. Fired from within by their love – the most powerful agent of change – these young people seek a life of freedom and dignity, leading to the transformation of the larger community. Their heartening stories are juxtaposed against the travails of hapless Nagakka and scheming Venkatanna, sickly Deyi and brute Chinkra, and gullible Kaveri and lecherous Devayya. All of them are, in different ways, up against the repressive regimes of the decadent landlords, who manipulate traditional feudal practices as well as the modern apparatus of a colonial state. True to its claim as an epic novel, Kuvempu’s text with its multiple narrative strands vividly enacts its mission statement in the epigraph: “Here, no one is important; no one is unimportant; nothing is insignificant!” Every sentient and insentient thing – the degenerate Chinkra, orphan Dharmu, Huliya the dog, Biri the cat, the evergreen forest, the Hulikal Peak – has a place and a purpose in this narrative. Imbued with an ecological consciousness, the novel offers a veritable biodiversity register of the Malnad region. Kuvempu presents a ‘view from below’, a subaltern perspective which also takes in the world of the wealthy and powerful. Winner of the first Sahitya Akademi award in 1955 and the Jnanpith in 1967, Kuvempu (Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa 1904-1994) inaugurated the non-brahmin era in modern Kannada writing. Kuvempu’s versatile oeuvre includes a vast body of poetry, plays, novels, children’s writing, essays and an autobiography. While his poetic epic ‘Shri Ramayana Darshanam’ is a radical rewriting of the Valmiki epic drawing from the Jaina tradition, the two novels, The Kanur House (made into a film by Girish Karnad) and Bride in the Hills, are modern novels set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Inspired by Tolstoy’s expansive canvas and Tagore’s unique Indian ethos, this first significant Shudra writer and an iconic figure in Kannada culture, has sculpted an entirely regional epic novel in Bride in the Hills. Image Credits Book Cover: MS Murthy and Jay Gosney Header: A Malnad Landscape, Photo courtesy Girish Kasaravalli Photo of Amit Chaudhuri by Richard Lofthouse/University of Oxford In collaboration with Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Pratishthana, Kuppali (Devangi, Thirthahalli, Shivamogga) In this episode of BIC Talks, Vanamala Viswanathan, Rajendra Chenni, Amit Chaudhuri and Arvind Narrain will be in conversation. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in November 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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342. Thriving with AI
01/09/2025
342. Thriving with AI
Ravi Bapna and Anindya Ghose, in their new MIT Press book Thrive: Maximizing Well-being in the Age of AI take on the challenge of demystifying AI for the layperson using examples from everyday life. Their hope is that by giving citizens agency and understanding in shaping AI we can get the most out of this newest industrial revolution. Join Ravi Bapna in conversation with Narayan Ramachandran as they chart their way through the ‘House of AI,’ a framework that provides a holistic perspective of the different pillars and layers of AI. They will discuss the role of generative AI versus traditional AI, what barriers companies face in adopting this technology, how we should think about the future of work and reskilling the workforce, and what an agentic future looks like where AI will augment human intelligence and capacity. In this episode of BIC Talks, Ravi Bapna in conversation with Narayan Ramachandran. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in November 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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340. A New Global Disorder?
11/24/2024
340. A New Global Disorder?
As conflict erupts in West Asia, the consequences are rippling across the globe, threatening to reshape the international order in ways not seen in decades. This session will bring together experts to explore the geopolitical, economic, and security implications of this crisis for the world and, for India. With deep insights from Ranjan Mathai, former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Israel, and Latha Reddy, former Deputy NSA, the discussion will be moderated by Stanly Johny of The Hindu. A Q&A with the audience will follow. In this episode of BIC Talks, Ranjan Mathai and Latha Reddy are in conversation with Stanly Johny. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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341. Seeds of Insight
11/24/2024
341. Seeds of Insight
By the canons of orthodox social science, countries like India are not supposed to have an environmental consciousness. They are, as it were, “too poor to be green.” In his new book, Speaking with Nature, Ramachandra Guha challenges this narrative by revealing a virtually unknown prehistory of the global movement set far outside Europe or America. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and well before climate change, ten remarkable individuals wrote with deep insight about the dangers of environmental abuse from within an Indian context. In strikingly contemporary language, Rabindranath Tagore, Radhakamal Mukerjee, J. C. Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Gabrielle Howard, Mira, Verrier Elwin, K. M. Munshi, and M. Krishnan wrote about the forest and the wild, soil and water, urbanisation and industrialisation. Positing the idea of what Guha calls “livelihood environmentalism” in contrast to the “full stomach environmentalism” of the affluent world, these writers, activists, and scientists played a pioneering role in shaping global conversations about humanity’s relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today. In this episode of BIC Talks, Ramchandra Guha is in conversation with Harini Nagendra. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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339. An Unequal Citizen?
11/07/2024
339. An Unequal Citizen?
In 2018, Rahul Bhatia left his job as an investigative reporter to understand the necessity of the Aadhaar project. But over time, as he explored its roots, questions about citizenship and belonging began to grow louder in public life, culminating in extreme violence in New Delhi. As this happened, he discovered that India’s technological identity project was linked to a cultural identity project over a century old. These investigations culminated in The Identity Project, a journey through the slow burn of Indian democracy, and a record that connects the past and present to offer the first thorough account of how cultural imperatives are guiding the country’s direction. He describes the religious, societal, and technological changes that have brought India to a point at which a nationalist mindset that challenges democracy and human rights is spreading fast, all in an effort to bind the multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural country into a single identity. Through a character-driven narrative informed by on the ground reporting, he investigates the history of disinformation in India, and looks at how justice works in the aftermath of riots. What emerges is a timely portrait of a country struggling to define its identity. Editor and journalist Prem Panicker will discuss the book with Rahul Bhatia. They will talk about the book’s journey, the process of reporting, and about finding the language to report on recent history. A Q&A session with the audience will follow. Presented by: Contxt In this episode of BIC Talks, Rahul Bhatia is in conversation with Prem Panicker. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in October 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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338. Unpacking Economic Freedom in the Constitution
10/29/2024
338. Unpacking Economic Freedom in the Constitution
This discussion will explore how the Constitution of India frames the concept of economic freedom. We often think of the constitutional guarantee of freedom in terms of the freedom of speech and expression. This discussion moves beyond this framing to examine the oft-ignored aspect of economic freedom for individuals and organisations. The panellists will discuss the balance between state intervention and individual economic rights, exploring issues like onerous licensing and compliance requirements for businesses, property rights and the right to trade occupation, profession and business. They will also discuss the evolving interpretation of these rights by the judiciary and how constitutional provisions have shaped economic policies and reforms in India over time. This session is the second in the series titled ‘We the People’ to celebrate 75 years of our Constitution. As part of this series, , in collaboration with BIC, are organising a series of lectures and panel discussions on various aspects of the Constitution. In collaboration with: Daksh In this episode of BIC Talks, Karthik Muralidharan is in conversation with Harish Narasappa. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music
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337. Urban Legends
10/25/2024
337. Urban Legends
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336. We Are Like This Only
10/22/2024
336. We Are Like This Only
In this session, Kunal Shah, Founder of CRED, and Archana Rai, Senior Editor at The Economic Times, will explore the exciting journey of India’s startup ecosystem. They will discuss how consumer practices in India have evolved, from e-commerce to the rapid growth of quick commerce, and how startups are adapting to meet these changing demands. The conversation will also highlight the importance of digital public infrastructure and its role in empowering entrepreneurs and businesses to innovate and scale. Kunal will share his personal journey of building CRED, offering insights into the emotional highs and lows of being a founder, while Archana will provide her perspective on how Bangalore has emerged as a major tech hub. Together, they will offer practical takeaways for aspiring entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts, and anyone interested in understanding both the business and emotional challenges of entrepreneurship in India’s digital economy. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
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335. Road Not Taken
10/16/2024
335. Road Not Taken
A discussion based on the book Poles Apart: The Military and Democracy in India and Pakistan. This session delves into the starkly different roles played by the military in the political landscapes of India and Pakistan, and how these choices have shaped the democratic trajectories of both nations. While Pakistan’s history is marked by frequent military interventions that have hindered its democratic development, India’s military has remained notably apolitical, even in moments of crisis such as the 1962 Sino-Indian War, the Emergency, and Operation Blue Star. Explore the critical moments where India’s military could have intervened but chose to uphold democratic principles, contrasting with Pakistan’s history of military dominance in politics. The discussion will also include insights into Bangladesh’s unique experiments with democracy and military rule. This session offers a rare opportunity to understand how the military’s influence—or restraint—can define a nation’s political destiny. The author, Aditya Sondhi will be in conversation with Journalist, Aunohita Mojumdar. A Q&A with the audience will follow. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including , , , , and .
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334. Story of an Unknown Indian
09/29/2024
334. Story of an Unknown Indian
What does the life of an ordinary working-class Indian look and feel like? Join us for a panel discussion discussing this and more with the author of The Many Lives of Syeda X Neha Dixit and commentator and editor Priya Ramani. In her book The Many Lives of Syeda X journalist Neha Dixit traces the story of one such faceless Indian woman, Syeda X, from the early 1990s to the present day. What emerges is a picture of a life lived under constant corrosive tension. Researched for close to a decade, in this book, we meet an unforgettable cast of characters for whom displacement, tragedy and hardships are the things they are used to. Written with empathy and deep insight, this book is a portal to a harsh world hidden away from elite Indians. It is the story of untold millions and a searing account of urban life in New India. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including , , , , and .
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333. Demystifying Climate Change
09/23/2024
333. Demystifying Climate Change
Every day we hear something unusual. A fire here, a flood there, a storm surge, a cloudburst. These events affect all of us, our well-being, our health, our family, our work. Their frequency and intensity are increasing. Fortunately, however, we no longer lack explanations for these events. We know fossil fuels and the destruction of Nature by us humans are the primary reasons for the alarming acceleration in global warming. Awareness is the first step towards change, and Rajan Mehta’s Backstage Climate is an attempt to make you aware of global warming and climate change in a simple and interesting manner. It demystifies this grim reality—the science, the politics and the economics behind climate change. It also gives you a glimpse of the policies, technology and solutions that can help save the planet and ensure our survival. Going slightly beyond mere awareness, the attempt is to help the reader connect the dots and develop a perspective on the reasons, impact and solutions that can help us avoid a climate crisis. In this episode of BIC Talks, Rajan Mehta is in conversation with Prem Panicker. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including , , , , and .
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332. Not Just a Laughing Matter!
09/10/2024
332. Not Just a Laughing Matter!
Abu Abraham’s career as a cartoonist, columnist and artist spanned over 50 years, from the late 1940s to the early 2000s, during which his work appeared in a range of newspapers and magazines in India and the UK. Throughout this period of significant political change and upheaval, he critically responded to the political landscape, producing a rich and complex oeuvre that reflects these shifts. The centenary exhibition, “,” brought together, for the first time, the breadth of Abu Abraham’s work as a cartoonist and journalist across six decades. Through Abu’s political cartoons, drawings, caricatures, and writings from the late 1940s until his passing in 2002, viewers can journey through a lively political history of India and the world. In this episode of BIC Talks, a panel of cartoonists, journalists, and a historian will explore the impact and significance of Abu Abraham’s work in their respective fields and its relevance in contemporary times. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in August 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including , , , , and .
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331. Deeper Vulnerabilities of India’s Democracy
09/06/2024
331. Deeper Vulnerabilities of India’s Democracy
Democracy, representing the will of the people, is the least imperfect form of government in the present day world. Yet even this will of the people can’t remain unfettered, for without constitutional limits, democracy is often distorted. What then are the challenges to India’s constitutional democracy? In this episode of BIC Talks, Rajeev Bhargava, Founder-Director, Parekh Institute of Indian Thought, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, will speak of the multiple obstacles to Constitutional Democracy but will focus on deep rooted, long standing mental and social habits that prevent the smooth functioning of constitutional democracy in India. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in August 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including , , , , and .
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330. Confronting Capitalism
09/02/2024
330. Confronting Capitalism
What went wrong with capitalism? Ruchir Sharma’s account is not like any you will have heard before. He says progressives are right, in part, when they mock modern capitalism as “socialism for the rich.” For a century, governments have expanded in just about every measurable dimension, from spending to regulation and the scale of financial rescues when the economy wobbles. The result is expensive state guarantees for everyone—bailouts for the rich, entitlements for the middle class, welfare for the poor. Taking you back to the 19th century, Sharma shows how completely the reflexes of government have changed: from hands-off to hands-on, from doing too little to help anyone in hard times to today trying to prevent anyone suffering any economic pain, ever. Trading sins of omission and indifference for excesses of spending and meddling, governments from the United States to Europe and Japan have pumped so much money into their economies that financial markets can no longer invest all that capital efficiently. Inadvertently, they have fueled the rise of monopolies, “zombie” firms, and billionaires. They have made capitalism less fair and less efficient, which is slowing economic growth and fueling popular anger. The first step to a cure is a correct diagnosis of the problem. Capitalism has been badly distorted by constant government intervention and the relentless spread of a bailout culture. Building an even bigger state will only double down on what ruined capitalism in the first place. In this episode of BIC Talks, the author, Ruchir Sharma, will be in conversation with Chairman and Co-founder, Infosys and Founding Chairman UIDAI (Aadhaar), Nandan Nilekani. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in August 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including , , , , and .
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329. Time Within Time
08/27/2024
329. Time Within Time
HS Shivaprakash’s new book of poetry, ಮಹಾಕಾಲ | Mahakala, consists of poems that articulate experiences beyond the time of history and the time of the unconscious. Written during home confinement following the covid tragedy, these poems seek to break out of the paralyzing hold of historical time to rearticulate still time, and also express the light and beauty of the spirituality hidden away in the folds of darkness within darkness. Arising during the dark covid months, these new articulations of experience however stretch over to find meaning in other times as well. In this episode of BIC Talks, the poet and academician will be in conversation with Chandan Gowda, alongside JV Sreenivasa Murthy, Siraj Ahmed, Ashadevi and Rajendra Prasad. The conversation is bilingual, in both Kannada and English. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in August 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including , , , , and .
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328. From Thought to Action
08/24/2024
328. From Thought to Action
Magsaysay Award-winning social activist Aruna Roy’s memoir is the story of two parallel journeys—a fifty-year-long engagement with public action in India, and a personal narrative that traces how the author has striven to convert her ideological convictions into practice. For long decades, Aruna Roy has lived with and worked for the benefit of marginalised communities in rural India, fighting for the right to survive in a hostile environment. Alongside accounts of the plight of the vulnerable and the transformative power of mass-based grassroot social movements, her recollections are marked with stories of resilient individuals and communities and their extraordinary resistance to oppression. Roy recounts a powerful lesson learnt from her extraordinary life: that every issue, whether it is poverty, discrimination, inequality or corruption, has personal as well as political ramifications. It is only by connecting the personal and the political, Roy says, that each one of us can make a difference. In this episode of BIC Talks, Aruna Roy will be in conversation with Aakar Patel, alongside TM Krishna, Deepa Ganesh and Gautam Bhan. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in August 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including , , , , , and .
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327. Immiserised Bharat
08/11/2024
327. Immiserised Bharat
In the early 1970s, India was experiencing severe poverty and hunger due to the great droughts of the previous decade. Although the Green Revolution was starting, agriculture and rural issues were largely ignored by urban residents and the media. Reports on monsoons, crops, and prices were seldom highlighted, lacking the appeal for widespread attention. Significant studies like those by V M Dandekar and Nilkanth Rath on poverty were published in specialised journals and went unnoticed by the general public. As a result, rural despair, evident then as now, remained hidden from mainstream discussion. Fast forward to the third decade of the twenty-first century, and rural India, or Bharat, significantly lags behind urban areas in terms of income, infrastructure, governance, education, and healthcare. This gap has widened, especially since India’s economic growth accelerated over the last thirty years. Numerous initiatives over the past seven decades by the government, private sector, and civil organisations aimed at rural development have had mixed results, often falling short of expectations. While there have been significant achievements, they are isolated instances rather than widespread improvements. Additionally, resource scarcity, particularly water, has become a critical issue, yet remains largely ignored. The pressing challenge is to connect these isolated successes, despite the difficult conditions, to create a more prosperous rural landscape. In this episode of BIC Talks, Prof. Shreekant Sambrani, delves deeper into these issues to explore potential solutions. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in July 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including , , , , , and .
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