When JBS Haldane died in 1964 in Bhubhaneswar, he was an Indian scientist. He had the passport, but he also had a deep and abiding love for the country. His move to India was the final act in the boisterous life of Haldane - a geneticist, a staunch Communist and an all-round rabble-rouser. This story of a man who wrote his first scientific paper in the trenches of the First World War; who was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party; who went to Spain to fight the Fascists during the civil war; who was under heavy suspicion of being a spy for the Soviets; who courted trouble and ticked off the establishment repeatedly. In this episode of BIC Talks, historian of science, Jahnavi Phalkey and author of A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of JBS Haldane, Samanth Subramanian discuss how Haldane's contributions to genetics which are singular, and  in tandem with his Communist beliefs, they make us think about how science and politics intersect, along with how genetics continues to throw up great ethical and political conundrums today, as it did in Haldane's time. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.

Karnataka will be holding Assembly elections in the middle of 2023. This BIC series - Karnataka Votes 2023 – highlights the various elements of state politics, its culture and history that are often unique to this state, and affect the voting pattern. The first in this lecture series is a talk by long-time observer of Karnataka politics, Prof. James Manor, who will discuss the political history of Karnataka bringing it up to date. Among the themes that Prof. Manor will be discussing are the difficulties that ruling parties have faced in winning re-elections in Karnataka since 1985, the social and geographical bases of the main political parties and the promise and limitations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity in state elections. He will also debate the role of campaign funds and the potential role of social polarisation in the upcoming Legislative Assembly elections. His assessment of the three main parties will go alongside his analysis of the impact of recent changes in the delivery of goods, services and benefits. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.

The Heirs of Vijayanagara: Court Politics in Early Modern South India by Lennart Bes is a comparative study investigating court politics in four kingdoms that succeeded the south Indian Vijayanagara empire during the 16th to 18th centuries: Ikkeri, Tanjavur, Madurai, and Ramnad. Building on a combination of unexplored Indian texts and Dutch archival records, this research offers a new analysis of political culture, power relations, and dynastic developments. The monograph provides detailed facts and insights that contest existing scholarship. By highlighting their competitive, fluid, and dynamic nature, it undermines the historiography viewing these courts as harmonic, hierarchic, and static. Far from being remote, ritualised figures, we find kings and Brahmins contesting with other courtiers for power. At the same time, by stressing continuities with the past, this study questions recent scholarship that perceives a fundamentally new form of Nayaka kingship. Thus, this research has important repercussions for the way we perceive both these kingdoms and their ‘medieval’ precursors. In this episode of BIC Talks author Anirudh Kanisetti speaks to Indologist and author Lennart Bes. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.  

Across the world, people watch more than a billion hours of video on YouTube every day. Every minute, more than five hundred additional hours of footage are uploaded to the site, a technical feat unmatched in the history of computing. YouTube invented the attention economy we all live in today, forever changing how people are entertained, informed, and paid online. Everyone knows YouTube. And yet virtually no one knows how it works. In this episode of BIC talks, Mark Bergen, Business and Tech journalist and author of the book, Like, Comment, Subscribe is in conversation with Padmini Ray Murray, researcher and founder of Design Beku; and reveals the riveting, behind-the-scenes account of YouTube’s technology and business -how it helped its parent company Google achieve unimaginable power, introduces the narrative told through the people who run YouTube and the famous stars born on its stage. It’s the story of a revolution in media and an industry run amok, how a devotion to a simple idea—let everyone broadcast online and make money doing so—unleashed an outrage and addiction machine that spun out of the company’s control and forever changed the world. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.

Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan or PTR as he is more commonly known, has had a interesting journey thus far. He comes from a family with strong political roots in Tamilnadu – his Grandfather, PT Rajan, was Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency in 1936 and his father, PTR Palanivel Rajan, was Assembly speaker and Minister in TN. PTR initially chose to go overseas and be part of the Wall Street brigade. His experience in the financial sector stretches from Wall Street to Singapore. He transitioned from his life in finance, to a life in politics, following the footsteps of his grandfather and father. He was elected as MLA for Madurai Central Constituency and currently serves as the Minister for Finance & Human Resources Management in the Tamil Nadu Government. In this episode of  BIC Talks, PTR talks about his personal journey and how a family legacy of politics combined with his eclectic overseas life as an Investment Professional has prepared him for his current role in State and National Politics. He talks about how the past has shaped his thinking, his learning and the value of public-private cross pollination as he addresses the emergent challenges and issues of the day. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.  

Ela Ramesh Bhatt, affectionately called Elaben, was one of India’s most impactful daughters. She was a tireless activist for women’s livelihood and rights and passed away in November 2022 at the age of 89. She matched her clarity of thought with powerful action, impacting millions of women. Founder of SEWA, she was one of the pioneers of financial inclusion for women. This conversation between Mirai Chatterjee and Narayan Ramachandran will trace the arc of her life and her continuing legacy in SEWA. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher. 

This series of lectures attempts to critique the more popular and currently accepted accounts of Vachana expression. First of all, Shivaprakash’s approach problematizes the relationship between Vachanas and Lingayatism. It also seeks to demonstrate that Bhakti traditions cannot be seen independently of Natha/Siddha traditions. Though Basavanna’s role in the formation of Vachana focus cannot be denied, it is in fitness of things, in the light of the range and number of castes actively involved, to see the Vachana efflorescence as a collective expression of all the castes and communities of Karnataka. Whereas the available literature has emphasized the devotional and mystical elements, this approach will emphasize the contribution of Vachana poets from the artisan class who evolved their own spiritual philosophy of Kayakayoga (the Yoga of labour), which is unique in our spiritual traditions. The framework of pan-Indian Bhakti is also interrogated in these lectures. The argument is placed that Bhakti traditions cannot be seen independently of Natha-Siddha and Saman traditions which have different spiritual orientations.  Those among Vachana poets whose philosophy and poetry is coeval with Siddha and Nirguna poets from elsewhere in India will be discussed. This episode is the last of series of four lectures that were originally part of a masterclass  that took place in the BIC premises in late july and early august titled The Paths of the Hand, Heart and Void by Prof. HS Shivaprakash - poet, playwright and educator. Recommended background readings: A.K. Ramanujan, Speaking of Shiva Velcheru Narayana Rao, Shiva’s Warriors Manu Devadevan, A Pre-history of Hinduism Ayyappa Panikkar: Medieval Indian Literature, 4 vols . Sisir Kumar Das: History of Indian Literature, 3 vols Manu Devadevan: God Is Dead, There Is No God (Vachanas of Allama) H. S. Shivaprakash, I Keep Vigil of Rudra H. S. Shivaprakash, The Word in the World  

The composition of a rich and huge body of Vachanas is one of the most impressive expression of Indian spiritual heritage. Both the quantity and quality of this corpus is unparalleled elsewhere. This enormous output consists of impassioned socio-spiritual prose poems composed by approximately four hundred seeker poets hailing from all sections of society – the whole gamut, from Brahmin to the untouchable, a considerable number of these poets are women representing various castes and professions. Such a phenomenon was not replicated anywhere else in the annals of pre-modern Indian literatures. The main progenitor of Lingayatism, say scholars, was Basavanna, Finance Minister of emperor Bijjala. The literature also further assumes that  Basavanna set-up in Kalyana Anubhava Mantapa, an assembly of saint-poets. The Vachana poets are supposed to have gathered in this assembly to debate matters spiritual, compose, read, and discuss each others’ compositions. The Lingayat literary harvest is said to be contemporaneous with the active period of Basavanna’s tenure with the emperor. This brief but intense poetic efflorescence was cut short by political upheavals caused by the violation of traditional caste rules. The questioning of the caste order and gender subjugation irritated the hegemony so much that it led to the unleashing of violence against the followers of the new sect. A series of twists and turns resulted in Bijjala’s assassination by some militant followers of the sect which called for a violent response by the hegemony. In consequence, the revolution failed. This is the widely accepted version of this period. The available scholarship, for the most part, locates Vachanas on the map of India’s Bhakti movements. In this episode of  BIC Talks the specifics and varieties of Bhakti in the Vachana focus will be explored to show how similar and different is Vachana Bhakti from the rest of the Bhakti movements in Karnataka and the Indian subcontinent. This episode was originally part of a masterclass series that took place in the BIC premises in late July and early August titled The Paths of the Hand, Heart and Void by Prof. HS Shivaprakash - poet, playwright and educator.

Vachana expression has till now been identified with a sect of Shaivism called Virashaivism/Lingayatism. Its historical framework is considered to be 12th century, in Kalyana, the imperial capital of the Chalukyas and later, of Kalachuryas. The main progenitor of Lingayatism, say scholars, was Basavanna, Finance Minister of emperor Bijjala. The literature also further assumes that  Basavanna set-up in Kalyana Anubhava Mantapa, an assembly of saint-poets. The Vachana poets are supposed to have gathered in this assembly to debate matters spiritual, compose, read, and discuss each others’ compositions. The Lingayat literary harvest is said to be contemporaneous with the active period of Basavanna’s tenure with the emperor. This brief but intense poetic efflorescence was cut short by political upheavals caused by the violation of traditional caste rules. The questioning of the caste order and gender subjugation irritated the hegemony so much that it led to the unleashing of violence against the followers of the new sect. This episode of BIC talks which outlines the new approach to literary and cultural context of Vachanas was the second of the four part masterclass titled The Paths of the Hand, Heart and Void, by Prof H S Shivaprakash on the Vachana efflorescence of Karnataka examines the neglected contribution and philosophy of artisan Vachana poets, to show that it was an independent soteriological approach different from Bhakti and mysticism. Recommended background readings: A.K. Ramanujan, Speaking of Shiva Velcheru Narayana Rao, Shiva’s Warriors Manu Devadevan, A Pre-history of Hinduism Ayyappa Panikkar: Medieval Indian Literature, 4 vols . Sisir Kumar Das: History of Indian Literature, 3 vols Manu Devadevan: God Is Dead, There Is No God (Vachanas of Allama) H. S. Shivaprakash, I Keep Vigil of Rudra H. S. Shivaprakash, The Word in the World  

The composition of a large and rich body of vachanas is one of the most impressive expressions of Indian spiritual heritage. Both the quantity and quality of this corpus is unparalleled elsewhere. This enormous output consists of impassioned socio-spiritual prose poems composed by approximately four hundred seeker poets hailing from all sections of society – the whole gamut, from Brahmin to the untouchable, a considerable number of these poets are women representing various castes and professions. Such a phenomenon was not replicated anywhere else in the annals of pre-modern Indian literatures. This episode of BIC talks which outlines the new approach to literary and cultural context of Vachanas was the first of the four part masterclass titled The Paths of the Hand, Heart and Void, on the vachana efflorescence of Karnataka will be an attempt to interrogate the subject from a new angle by poet, playwright and Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, H S Shivaprakash.