BIC TALKS

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.

Neoclassical economics tells us that because both individuals are assumed rational, their regret levels ought to be identical since their economic consequences are identical. Behavioural economists, however, combine psychology with economics, and focus on how real people, with their cognitive biases, actually behave. The friend who just missed the flight does indeed experience greater disappointment than the one who missed the flight by a margin of four hours. Does that make one or the other irrational? In this episode of BIC Talks, academic, author and corporate executive V Raghunathan and Applied Behavioural Economist Nikhil Ravichandar navigate the journey of such rationality-irrationality arguments, showing why economics shorn of psychology may be incomplete. This conversation is situated around Raghunathan's book, Irrationally Rational that collates the works of ten Nobel Laureates largely responsible for the rise of behavioural economics, that makes understanding behavioural economics more fun and accessible. 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.  

Journalist Venkat Ananth talks to returning host Pavan Srinath on what it takes from good journalism to hold Big Tech accountable, in light of the retracted XCheck / Meta story by published by The Wire.  Tech platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and Twitter wield immense societal, economic and political power across the world today. Good tech journalism requires a deep knowledge of large multinational conglomerates, deep technical and business knowledge, as well as carefully cultivated access and immense persistence.  Venkat Ananth explains each aspect of sound tech journalism and the processes and the discipline needed for them, sharing his own experiences across stories, as well as analysing what may have gone wrong with the ambitious and now-retracted story by The Wire.  Venkat Ananth is a journalist with over 15 years of experience in leading Indian newspapers and business publications such as The Hindustan Times, Mint, The Ken, and, The Economic Times. He is also co-founder and CEO of The Signal, free-to-read, daily, curated newsletter that helps understand the latest developments in technology, business, finance, economy and policy. BIC Talks is brought to you by the Bangalore International Centre. Visit the BIC website for show notes, links and more information about the guest. 

The Penguin Book of Indian Poets, the definitive anthology of Indian poetry in English for the next decade and more edited by Jeet Thayil, returns the forgotten figures of Indian poetry to the centre where they belong.  Jeet compiled the work of 94 poets for this anthology, the oldest born in 1924 and the youngest in 2001. With the aim of giving readers a deeper understanding of a vast and fluid poetic tradition, this collection brings together writers from across the world, a wealth of voices that present an expansive, encompassing idea of what makes an ‘Indian’ poet. This anthology is the culmination of a project Jeet began twenty years ago with a special supplement for Fulcrum, a poetry annual out of Boston. That was followed by 60 Indian Poets (Penguin India) and The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (Bloodaxe UK). This anthology, the final iteration, encompasses 75 years of Indian poetry in English. At 908 pages, it is voluminous and exhaustive, with 94 poets from all over the world. The poets of the Indian canon include Ezekiel, Kolatkar, de Souza, Das, Mehrotra, Ramanujan, Jussawalla, but so are vital newer voices such as Vijay Seshadri, Vahni Capildeo, Bhanu Kapil, Daljit Nagra, Rajiv Mohabir and Raena Shirali, among many others. This episode of BIC Talks is adapted from a BIC Venue event that took place in late April 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.

Through the last two millennia, Indian poets and philosophers have addressed existential questions surrounding the individuals role in society, dealing with inequity, discrimination and oppression. Their answers have ranged from a philosophical acceptance to outright call for revolution. Yet others didn’t wait for a crisis to occur before calling for change, from the minor to a complete overhaul. Vivartana presents the work of such social revolutionaries —poets, politicians, rulers and sants in a musical tour across time and territory, from Kerala to Kashmir. The program is anchored by performance of songs by Musician Chitra Srikrishna accompanied by Adamya Ramanand on the Mridangam and Vaibhav Ramani on the violin in multiple languages, interspersed with a narration to provide the audience both context and a thread of continuity. This episode of BIC Talks is adapted from a live concert that took place in early June 2022 in the BIC premises. 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 recent proposal by the current government to reform agricultural markets through three controversial farm laws, the farmer protests that ensued, and the ultimate repeal of these laws has raised questions on what a desired policy on agricultural markets should be. Providing farmers access to agricultural markets in a mode that benefits both farmer and consumer has proven elusive. At one end is the mode adopted by the farm laws - a privatisation of agricultural markets by offering space and incentives for private corporate investment, creating a fear that this will lead to a take over by profit-grabbing corporates who exploit both farmers and consumers. The demand of the farmer protests for strong state intervention guaranteeing minimum-support-prices and purchase commitments has been criticised as creating market inefficiencies, that it overlooks structural problems and the presence of inconsistencies in the current mandi system, and that it will also create problems for India in abiding to commitments made to WTO rules. A middle ground of reform based on a structure of cooperatives, as was done for the dairy industry, has received insufficient attention. The debate also overlooks the fact that most agricultural holdings in India are termed as ‘marginal’, below five acres in size, leading to both inefficiencies and exploitation in agricultural markets under current conditions. In this episode of BIC Talks, which is an extract from a virtual BIC Streams a session that took place in early September 2022, Sudha Narayanan, Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi; T. Nandakumar, Former Secretary Food & Agriculture, Government of India and Prakash Kammardi, Former Chairman, Karnataka Agricultural Prices Commission engage in a discussion, moderated by Editor, The India Forum & Founder-Trustee, Vichar Trust C. Rammanohar Reddy, in which they will seek to identify and reflect on, the vision and structure of a sensible policy on agricultural markets in India. 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.