BIC TALKS

Rebels Against the Raj tells the little-known story of seven people who chose to struggle for a country other than their own: foreigners to India who, from the late nineteenth century, arrived to join the freedom movement fighting for independence. Of the seven, four were British, two American and one Irish: four men, three women. Before and after being jailed or deported, they did remarkable and pioneering work in a variety of fields, from journalism and social reform to education, organic agriculture and environmentalism. In this episode of BIC Talks Ramachanchandra Guha and Alex Ellis discuss the stories of these remarkable people - each rebel motivated by idealism and genuine sacrifice; each connected to Gandhi, though some as acolytes while others were endlessly infuriated by his views; each understanding they would likely face prison sentences for their resistance, and likely live and die in India; each one leaving a profound impact on the region in which they worked, their legacies continuing through the institutions they founded and the generations and individuals they inspired. Through these entwined lives, we receive deep insights into the relationship between India and the West, and India’s story as a country searching for its identity and liberty beyond British colonial rule. 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.

Our diverse culture has something for everyone. Our young population is thirsty for education and achievement. And a strong private sector is our engine of growth. We can lead the world in the future yet, we struggle to create a business-friendly environment. We lag in innovation. Education, public health and quality of jobs demand attention. Our governments control some things too much and neglect others. How can the government, citizens and firms turn our struggle into promise and enable India to lead? How can we fix things by learning from best practices elsewhere? How can we ensure openness, inclusivity and innovation? How can independent institutions make up for low state capacity? How can our culture deliver leadership? In this episode of BIC Talks which is an extract from an in-person conversation with Ramachandra Guha around his book, ­The Struggle and the Promise, Naushad Forbes answers these and other critical questions concerning India’s progress. He provides a logical, actionable blueprint for getting the balance right between industry, institutions and policy. Backed by rigorous research and copious data, here’s a book that shows how to fulfill India’s potential. 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.

Climate change and the Anthropocene: both terms are commonplace, but their consequences are contested as their origins continue to be studied. Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen’s idea that humans came to exert a force for change in the earth’s ecology from the late 18th century neatly conflated the onset of the Industrial Revolution in England with the start of the Anthropocene. Other dates have been proposed. The latter is about much more than the increased emission of Green House Gases but these remain a key feature of these changes that may be altering the material flows that sustain human civilizations. To a student of history, the issue of origins cannot be separated from when, where and how the pace, scope and nature of environmental transformation underwent epochal shift. A peace among nations and between people requires a peace with the fabric of life. History has no silver bullet solutions but is vital to know how we came to this cross roads. This episode of BIC Talks was adapted from the in-person lecture by Prof. Mahesh Rangarajan in collaboration with Azim Premji University as part of their Let’s Talk Climate Change talk series. 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.  

Democracy does not begin or end at the polling booth. It takes a committed government and an alert society to make it work. Our passive belief that we are helpless is a self-imposed delusion, for there are ways in which we can engage positively with what we see happening around us. Protests and dissent, if carried out in the right manner, will nourish and strengthen our democracy which has been fraying insidiously. Aakar Patel, writer, activist and chairperson of Amnesty International speaks about the methods that are open to us. This episode of BIC Talks is an extract from the The Annual Vijay Nambisan Lecture 2022 that took place in October 2022. 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.  

Anuk Arudpragasam’s first novel, The Story of a Brief Marriage was called an unflinching debut - a feat of extraordinary sensitivity and imagination, a meditation on the fundamental elements of human existence His writing has been variously described as 'absolutely devastating, unbearable reading, incredibly introspective and a portrait of the universe that zooms out from planet Earth and then back in to a quark'. Anuk’s second novel, The Passage North, which was on the 2021 booker prize shortlist is said to be written with precision and grace, and a masterful piece that is an attempt to come to terms with life in the wake of devastation, and a poignant memorial for those lost and those still alive. In this episode of BIC Talks, scientist, author and editor of Out of Print magazine Indira Chandrashekar speaks to Anuk about the evolution of his writing. 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.

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.