150. Colonial Art and the Museum

As the pillars of democracy crumble across the globe, big and small actions of resistance prop up hope and keep alive a way to rebuild. In the past few decades, ordinary folk in India have stood up to repressive state authority over and over again. Their vital acts of hope preserve the collective spirit of resistance and unwavering resilience necessary to continue the fight for democracy.

Audacious Hope is an archive of these struggles, including the protests that united farmers across state borders in 2020 and the national outcry following the controversial CAA legislation. From the myriad ways people came to the aid of their fellow citizens during the pandemic to the testing of free-speech boundaries by cultural activists, this book undertakes the task of documenting resistance in its many forms.

The author, Indrajit Roy challenges the reader with his account of how a proud people are battling to save their beloved democracy. The question is, how can we, through individual and collective action, resist authoritarianism, casteism and majoritarianism? The answer is, of course, through the audacity of hope.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Indrajit is in conversation with journalist and editor Prem Panicker. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in February 2024.

Ruchira Gupta grew up on her father’s bedtime stories, sparking a desire to become a storyteller like him. Inspired by a childhood article titled The Autobiography of a Pencil, published at the age of ten, Ruchira resolved to become a journalist. Despite initial disinterest in college, she pursued it to secure a job at a Kolkata newspaper.

A turning point occurred during a work assignment in Nepal, where she discovered the harrowing reality of girls being trafficked into Indian brothels. Her documentary, The Selling of Innocents, earned her an Emmy. Unfulfilled, Ruchira left journalism, founded the NGO Apne Aap, and collaborated with the United Nations to combat sex trafficking globally. Despite accolades and a book, I Kick and I Fly, she remains dedicated to eradicating human trafficking and envisions a world free from the buying and selling of human beings.

In this episode of BIC Talks Ruchira shares her story on art and activism and discusses with activist and educator Manira Alva, her book, her work and the work that is yet to be done.

This is an excerpt from an in-person event that took place in the BIC premises in February 2024.

The global economic outlook in the future is going to be uncertain with wide disruption in all walks of life. The accelerating progress of AI comes at a pivotal moment in the global economy. AI and automation may offer a broad-based surge in productivity – resulting in all-round development and a more positive outlook. But to harness the true power of an AI-powered economy, a robust policy framework that fosters collaboration, and enhances human potential and responsible management of data is required.

In this episode of BIC Talks economist & Nobel Laureate, Michael Spence is in a conversation educationist & CEO of Azim Premji Foundation with Anurag Behar. 

This is an extract from an in-person event that took place in the bic premises in February 2024

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Walter Benjamin born in 1892 was a German Jewish philosopher and cultural critic. Renowned for his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," he explored the impact of mass media on art and culture. Benjamin, associated with the Frankfurt School, engaged deeply with Marxist theory and surrealism. His works often blended philosophy, literary criticism, and historical analysis, reflecting a unique interdisciplinary approach.

Fleeing the Nazis, Benjamin died by suicide 1940 at the Spanish-French border, leaving an influential legacy in critical theory and cultural studies. In this presentation, we delve into the ethical and political dimensions of Walter Benjamin's curated selection of private letters from the nineteenth-century archives. Initially published in a daily newspaper in 1930 and later compiled into the book "German Men and Women" during his exile in France in 1936, Benjamin's strategic dissemination of these letters, accompanied by commentaries, serves as a focal point for analysis.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Professor of German Language and Literature, Columbia University, Dorothea von Mücke, unravels the nuances of Benjamin's publication strategies, illustrating how they offer alternatives to the construction of a national character. The following discussion between Prof. von Mücke and author and translator Prashant Keshavmuthy particularly emphasises Benjamin's intervention in the political philosophy of history, exploring how his approach informs our quest to perceive, model, and document humaneness in behaviour and character.

This is an extract from an in-person session that took place in December 2023 at the BIC premises.

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Can a song trigger a murder? Can a poem spark a riot? Can a book divide a people?  From catchy songs with acerbic lyrics to poetry recited in kavi sammelans to social media influencers shaping opinions with their brand of ‘breaking news’ to books rescripting historical events, ‘Hindutva Pop’ or H-Pop is steadily creating societal acceptability for Hindutva’s core beliefs.

What makes H-Pop so popular? Who are its stars and its audience? Who is pouring in the money,  the effort and the resources to produce and broadcast it? What is the political economy of H-Pop? These are some of the questions that award-winning independent journalist Kunal Purohit  explores in his riveting investigative book, H-Pop: The Secretive World Of Hindutva Pop Stars, as he travels through India profiling some of H-Pop’s  most prolific and popular creators—its stars and celebrities. In the process, he interrogates whether the creators are driven by ideology or commerce, and what motivates the audience to  consume their daily dose of bigotry.

In this episode of BIC Talks, an extract from an in-person event that took place in December 2023, Kunal along with stand up comedian Namit Jain and cultural practitioner Arundhati Ghosh discusses the key issues raised in the book and explore the effects of the the Political Influencer Economy.

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Described as “a brilliant history of economic ideas” by Amartya Sen, Aditya Balasubramanian’s recent book Toward a Free Economy: Swatantra and Opposition Politics in Democratic India, shows how ideas of ‘free economy’ emerged from communities in southern and western India as they embraced new forms of entrepreneurial activity, in opposition to the so-called ‘socialist planned economy’ of Nehruvian India.

‘Free economy’ became the rallying cry for the Swatantra (Freedom) Party, which rose and fell in 1960s India. Its project of opposition politics sought to create a viable conservative alternative to the dominant Indian National Congress and push India toward a two-party system.

In this episode of BIC talks, author Aditya Balasubramanian is in conversation with Narayan Ramachandran. This discussion provides a perspective on the changing relationship between the state and markets and the evolution of democracy in India and help us better understand communities who have been disproportionately successful in the aftermath of liberalisation and shed light on the constructive role opposition has played in Indian society.

This episode is an extract from an in-person event that took place at the BIC premises in December 2023.

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The thinking on political theory that went into the making of the Indian Constitution was not derivative, but highly original. The constitution is based on a long tradition of highly original Indian political reflection. This originality lay in the framers’ forceful critique against some basic axioms of Western political theory.

As illustrations, in this episode of BIC Talks Sudipta Kaviraj (Professor, Columbia University, and Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the NLSIU) shall present Tagore’s thinking on religion and modernity, Gandhi-Tagore-Nehru’s ideas of the nation, and Ambedkar’s late deployment of Buddhism.

Indian nationalist thought also displayed a contending tradition that accepted and elaborated on fundamental Western ideas – as in Iqbal and Savarkar. The constitution sought to develop a state-form that was based on a rejection of the European idea of a nation-state – though this is sometimes obscured, because the framers used a Western-derived language. Thus, those who believe that the constitution is ‘Western’ or colonial are in error; and their search for an alternative is based, ironically, on an imitation of modern Western ideals.

This episode was originally delivered by Sudipta Kaviraj as the MK Nambyar Annual Lecture in November 2023, in collaboration with National Law School of India University.

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It is not often that an author and his editor strike up a relationship that survives forty years of epistolary exchanges and intellectual sparring. The strangely enduring and occasionally fractious friendship that developed between the famously outspoken historian Ramachandra Guha and his reticent editor Rukun Advani is the subject of his new literary memoir. It started in Delhi in the early 1980s, when Guha was an unpublished PhD scholar, and Advani a greenhorn editor with the Oxford University Press.

It blossomed through the 1990s, when Guha grew into a pioneering historian of the environment and of cricket, while also writing his biography of Verrier Elwin. Over these years, Advani was Guha’s most constant confidant, his most reliable reader. He encouraged him to craft and refine the literary style for which Guha became internationally known. Four decades later, though he no longer publishes his books, Advani remains Guha’s most trusted literary adviser. Yet they also disagree ferociously on politics, human nature, and the nature of their commitment to India. They usually make up – because it  just wouldn’t do to allow such an odd relationship to die.

In this episode of BIC Talks, built around letters and emails between an outgoing and occasionally combative scholar and a reclusive editor prone to private outbursts of savage sarcasm, Ramachandra Guha discusses his new book, The Cooking of Books: A Literary Memoir.

This episode is adapted from an in-person event that took place at the BIC premises in early February 2024.

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Dr. Raghuram Rajan Economist, Educator & Former Governor, RBI speaks in context of his latest book - Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future, in the context of a first-time collaboration between Dr Rajan and economist Rohit Lamba. These two distinguished voices from the field of economics and public policy have put together a gripping book about the future of India’s economic development. There is a truly Indian path to prosperity, they argue, that builds on the strengths of our people and our political and societal frameworks. They examine fundamental policy choices that concern every Indian.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Dr. Rajan speaks followed by a conversation with Dr. Lamba and Prof. Manaswini Bhalla, Associate Professor of Economics, IIM-B, tackling questions like - Where is India going today? Is it surging forward, having just overtaken the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world? Or is it floundering, unable to provide jobs for the millions joining the labour force? What should India do to secure a better future? Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future tackles these critical questions that revolve around India’s growth and progress in the 21st century.

This is an excerpt from an in-person event that took place in December 2023.

The ongoing crises in Ukraine and Gaza highlight the pressing need for a revamped international approach that recognizes the increasing autonomy of middle and smaller powers globally. This necessitates a rejection of attempts to revive a failed unilateral U.S. dominance or force diverse conflicts into an outdated "great power competition" model akin to the Cold War.

In both Ukraine and the Middle East, the United States has faced challenges in imposing its will, both militarily and diplomatically. Smaller nations have successfully resisted American-backed military efforts, and a substantial part of the global community diverges from endorsing U.S. diplomatic perspectives on international norms. Importantly, this opposition does not align with the Cold War paradigm, lacking the support of a superpower peer competitor.

The emerging world order is characterized by "regionalization," where middle and small powers worldwide feel empowered to bypass or defy U.S. interpretations of global norms based on localized interests and regional security considerations.

The roots of this situation trace back to the U.S. pursuit of unilateral power during the War on Terror, diminishing the legitimacy of the post–World War Two international order. This has led the international community to seek alternatives to a system perceived as granting unchecked power to the United States.

The U.S. foreign policy establishment must grapple with this newly deglobalized and regionalized world order, as failure to do so poses a significant threat to U.S. power and influence. Relationships with key emerging powers like India and traditional U.S. allies in Europe and Asia are susceptible to the de–globalizing and regionalizing forces observed in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In this episode of BIC Talks, renowned scholar, Dr. Faisal Devji makes sense of the enduring bewilderment that global history was and continues to be, offering a vantage point that is objective in understanding the enigmatic creature that is globalisation.

This episode is an extract from an in-person session that took place in December 2023 at the BIC premises, as part of Alliance’s Public Lecture Series.

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