BIC TALKS

What makes a city uniquely itself? Is it its geography, history, location, demographic? Is it its leaders, influencers, inspirations? Or is it something else, an undefinable but palpable spirit, wrought over centuries of a combination of all these, that seeps into the soil and charges the air, infecting residents and visitors alike? Two decades of exploring, discovering, researching – and reading,...

Spies, Lies and Allies  is a thrilling tale about two forgotten revolutionaries who led lives that defy belief. It takes the reader on a wild ride through Kolkata, Hyderabad, London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City and Moscow. One was Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, the brother of Sarojini Naidu. The other was M.N. Roy, the founder of Indian communism. Chatto and Roy met spies, dictators, femme...

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...

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...

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...

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, a...

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 transformat...

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...

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 Karnatak...

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...

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...

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 '...

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 path...

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 stud...

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...

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-envi...

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 shap...

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,  Indi...

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 th...

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 Burke...

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. H...

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 underst...

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 guard...

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...

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...