BIC TALKS

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...

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, an...

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 ...

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...

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 interven...

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...

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 democr...

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...

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 acc...

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. Th...

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...

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...

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 t...

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...

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 Dandek...

The mandate of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was claimed as a victory by both the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). Even though BJP's brute majority in the Lok Sabha was dented, the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term was portrayed as a stupendous victory by suppo...