BIC TALKS

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.

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.

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.  

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.