BIC TALKS

A celebrated politician, scholar and diplomat in his lifetime, V.S. Srinivasa Sastri (1869-1946) is now a largely forgotten figure. Hailed as the 'very voice of international conscience', Sastri advocated for racial equality and securing the rights of Indians both at home and abroad. The book also illuminates the contradictions of being a 'native diplomat', of being treated as an equal on the worl...

Known as the Father of India's Space Programme, Vikram Sarabhai's interests included space and nuclear energy, architecture, industry and business, institution building, management development, art, music, and theatre. He was a scientist and entrepreneur, an educator, and a businessman. When he passed away unexpectedly at the young age of 52, he left behind a legacy few can match, having set up in...

As COVID-19 raged through Bangalore, the city's crematoria and burial grounds were overwhelmed with the dead and their grieving kin. The hard labour of processing corpses as well as collective grief fell on Bangalore's crematorium and cemetery workers. Overwhelmingly Dalit, city funerary workers are generationally condemned to labour under a social stigma that is designed to deprive them of dignit...

On July 11, 2006 tragedy struck when a series of bombs went off along the Western line of the suburban train network in Mumbai killing and injuring commuters by the hundreds. In the investigations and arrests that followed, Abdul Wahid Shaikh was held as one of the twelve accused who were incarcerated for over 9 years as undertrials. In this episode of BIC Talks, teacher, lawyer and activist Abdul...

Writer-politician Muthuvel Karunanidhi is amongst the most important political figures India has ever seen. He was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for over five decades. Still remembered for his fruitful career as a regional leader who helped in the formation of various coalition governments at Delhi, his contribution to Tamil histo...

Neha Sahgal, Associate Director, Pew Research Center walks us through the major new Pew Research Center survey of religion across India that has been subject to many analyses, opinion pieces and discussions in formal and informal settings. In this episode of BIC Talks, Impact Investor and co-founder of Bangalore Literature Festival, Srikrishna Ramamoorthy engages Neha in a conversation about what...

Ramachandra Guha has been an astute and lucid guide to Indian history, with an ability to paint both the broad canvas as well fill in the minute details. Most people know him as a columnist – sometimes controversial, but always insightful and engaging. But there is another side to him, that of the scrupulous historian and scholarly path breaker –  in the field of environmental history, the social...

The Light of Asia is an epic poem by Sir Edwin Arnold that was first published in 1879. It is a narrative of the life and message of the Buddha. It quickly became a huge sensation and has continued to resonate powerfully across the world over the last century and a half. Weaving together literary, cultural, political and social history, author and parliamentarian Jairam Ramesh talks to author and...

In this episode of BIC Talks author Moin Mir and historian Rana Safvi discuss 'The Lost Fragrance of Infinity', a historical novel by Moin that glows with the essence of Sufism. In 1739, Qaraar Ali, a young craftsman from Delhi witnesses the destruction of his world as he has known it. His wondrous city where he found love, spirituality, the friendship of poets and philosophers becomes a desolate...

' Do I talk into this thing?' These were the first words ever broadcast live , albeit inadvertently, by Mohandas Gandhi ahead of his speech to the USA. The year was 1931 and the location, London. Gandhi was in town as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress to attend the Second Round Table Conference. He was just weeks shy of his 62 nd birthday. This episode adapted from a BIC Stre...

Saadat Hasan Manto was born on 11 May, 1912 in Ludhiana. Bangalore International Centre and Bangalore Literature Festival marked the author and playwright's birth month through a BIC Streams session with the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University, Ayesha Jalal and writer, columnist and translator of Manto's non-fiction work, Aakar Patel. Drawing parallels to the times of partitio...

This conversation around understanding India's investments in infrastructure links recent laws and practices relating to these projects, and provides an approach to these issues from a commercial and legal perspective. Author of the book, Investing in India's Infrastructure and Energy Sectors , Prashanth Sabeshan, in this conversation with urbanist and policy researcher Champaka Rajagopal covers a...

This episode of BIC Talks remembers an individual who has been described as "the conscience of the collective self known as Andhra society". Arvind Narrain in a conversation with Aishwarya Ravikumar provides a primer and an insight into the inner workings of a profound and rare mind of clarity and action, as we mark his birth anniversary on the 10th of June.  K Balagopal (1952-2009) was a trained...

The word Dissent in its various misinterpretations has been in use for a while; within the zeitgeist of uncertainty that we are now living in, the immediacy of an engaged artist, citizen, human being has become apparent and urgent. This episode of BIC Talks with musician and author TM Krishna in conversation with activist and author Kavita Krishnan begins as a conversation based on Krishna's newes...

This episode of BIC talks is an extract from a BIC Streams session, where Zubin Balaporia and Shwetant Kumar take us on a journey celebrating Vanraj Bhatia's music and memory on what would have been his 94th birthday. You could say Vanraj Bhatia's music crosses boundaries the way people cross the street! He was trained in Indian classical music from his schooldays, and in western classical music i...

How do you build a scientifically and technologically strong modern nation with limited means and resources? Indian scientists faced this challenge seven decades ago when the country became independent and confronted a world rapidly advancing in science and technology. In the years that followed, they battled poor funding and archaic regulations to build India's science infrastructure from scratch...

We are well into the 21st century, and yet 50% of women and girls in developing countries, including India, cannot afford basic sanitary products to manage their periods, and rely on unhygienic practices such as old rags, sand and ash. Together with limited knowledge and limited sanitary facilities, this leads to serious health risks, such as reproductive and urinary tract infections. It also prev...

Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, a distinct form of Islamic thought and practice developed among Muslim trading communities of the Indian Ocean. In this episode of BIC Talks, economic historian and author of Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast, Sebastian R Prange and art historian and researcher, Ayesha Matthan explore the argument presented in Sebastian's book...

'So, what's your exit strategy?' The question often leaves most entrepreneurs stumped as running a business leaves little time to think about anything else. While business owners recognise that they may have to exit their business at some point, few give enough thought to how they will sell it. And fewer prepare for it. In this episode of BIC Talks, K Srikrishna, serial entrepreneur, business ment...

The enduring persistence, resurgence and mutation of many epidemic diseases have made apparent the problematic nature of the 'epidemic disease narrative' in the 21st century. Through the lens of the history of polio vaccination and treatment from a seemingly peripheral, Eastern European perspective, Dora Vargha aims to shift our attention to question what, when, and for whom is an end of an epidem...

Memories of a city and its unique brand of life come from the people who make it memorable and places that work as pegs for those memories. One such person who created that space which so many Bangaloreans remember with unfaltering fondness and affection is Mr. Shanbhag, the gentle bibliophile who created a warm and welcoming space, synonymous with his personality in Premier Bookshop. Premier is r...

Gandhi's autobiography is famous for the austerity of its narration, and its veracity. Less known are his autobiographical observations made, almost incidentally, in the course of his speeches and writings. This episode of BIC Talks features Gopalkrishna Gandhi  in conversation with scholar and author Sunil Khilnani about the latest book 'Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: Restless as Mercury: My Life as...

This episode of BIC Talks with author and historian Tripurdaman Singh and lawyer Siddharth Raja contextualises and discusses the lead up to the first ever amendment to the Constitution of India in the year 1951, only a year after the Constitution was brought into effect, the subject of Tripurdaman's new book Sixteen Stormy Days - The Story of the First Amendment of the Constitution of India .  The...

In this episode renowned lawyer Sriram Panchu, pioneer of Mediation in India speaks with Kamala Naganand on the evolution of Mediation as a successful dispute resolution mechanism. We explore how mediation fosters mindfulness and healing with non judgemental justice; and the myriad applications of the process to public, private, domestic and international conflict resolution. Sriram Panchu has bee...

Is India obsessed with IT & engineering studies and are we ignoring investment in pure science education? With the limited resources we have shouldn't we be focused on finding answers to the immediate issues of today's  society or should we invest in pursuing long-term scientific breakthroughs as well as well? What are the big questions in Science that impact Indian society and what should be our...