BIC TALKS

On 28 May 1940, in the early days of the Second World War, Major Akbar Khan marched at the head of 299 soldiers along a beach in northern France. They were the only Indians in the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk.  What journey had brought these men to Europe? What became of them and their comrades captured by the Germans? In this episode of BIC Talks, author and historian Ghee Bowman talks to writer and journalist Vaibhav Vats about his book, ‘The Indian Contingent: The Forgotten Muslim Soldiers of the Battle of Dunkirk’ while examining the larger British narrative and place in history, details his research and tells an important although obscure and astonishing story of the Indian contingent – the Muslim soldiers who fought in the pivotal Battle of Dunkirk – from their arrival in France on 26 December 1939 to their return to an India on the verge of Partition.

In recent times, with the proliferation of Over the Top Entertainment platforms and increased access to content from all over the world in various languages, If there’s has been a clear and visible front runner in popularity, fandoms, fan fiction and all round good old hysteria - it’s all things K! South Korean Pop music, Korean Soap Operas, Live action and animated Films, food and Culture are taking over the imagination of a large swathe of the urban Indian population. While the spectrum of the influence of the South Korean Entertainment industry is wide, writer, podcaster and cultural critic Deepanjana Pal and author & journalist Nisha Susan give us an introduction to what is the innocuous gateway to an entire subculture - the phenomenon of the K - Drama.

In mid December, 2021, Dramaturg, Writer, Director & Cultural Critic Rustom Bharucha facilitated a week-long workshop for a cohort of 12 participants on Dramaturgy at Bangalore International Centre with inputs from several artists and practitioners, including philosopher and educator, Sundar Sarukkai. We caught up with the two at the height of churning during the workshop for a tête-à-tête on what was most playing on their minds. In this revealing conversation, they mull over necessary qualities that characterise the concept of “Theatre”, the social context of ‘touch’ in the times of a pandemic; tactility, conversation and sociality. The conversation also seeks to problematise the romantic idea of theatre being democratic and the central idea of theatre being a safe space. Some questions explored are - Can theatre really be viewed as a model of civil society and does it truly allow the practitioner the agency to challenge social norms? What is its role in dissent and what is the true function of theatre?

This episode of BIC Talks features Srikrishna Ramamoorthy in conversation with founder and chairman of Marico, Harsh Mariwala. While there’s a small chance his name may not ring a bell, most of us would have encountered the iconic blue and white Parachute coconut oil bottle at some point in life - one of several FMCG brands from the Marico stable. Harsh has played a key role in converting a traditional commodities driven family business into a leading consumer products and services company. His recent book, Harsh Realities: The Making of Marico, co-authored with global business advisor, Ram Charan, talks about two journeys - of Marico as a company and the personal one of Harsh while he learned, spotted opportunities and took risks in the building of the market entity. Having now stepped away from day to day operations, in this conversation Harsh talks about how he has to reimagine himself, while scripting new chapters in life and work; and his continuing quest to do more, be more and make a difference.

What does it mean to devote yourself wholly to helping others? In her book Strangers Drowning, Larissa MacFarquhar seeks out people living lives of extreme ethical commitment and tells their deeply intimate stories; their stubborn integrity and their compromises; their bravery and their recklessness; their joys and defeats and wrenching dilemmas. In this provocative conversation writer Samanth Subramanian along with Larissa contemplates what it means to be human. In a world of strangers drowning in need, how much should we help, and how much can we help? Is it right to care for strangers even at the expense of those we are closest to?  What exactly do we value most as human beings, and why? This conversation was originally streamed as part of the The Bangalore Life Science Cluster and NCBS Archives’ Public Lecture series and has been adapted to this podcast.

Perhaps no other issue today is as confronting as our warming earth. What we need are thousands - millions - of everyday conversations about the climate to enlarge the ranks of the concerned, engage the disengaged and persuade the cautious of the need for action. While companies and governments are hugely responsible for the mess we’re in, can individuals effect real, significant, and lasting change to solve this problem. Towards the end of October 2021, filmmaker and designer Jenny Pinto engaged authors and researchers Prof. Kimberly Nicholas and Dr. Rebecca Huntley on their work and their books on Climate Change and the shifting of the strategy on conversations around the impending climate emergency.

India has been one of the biggest contributors towards global efforts at reconstructing Afghanistan. Over the last two decades, India’s development partnership with Afghanistan has had four fundamental elements: a) humanitarian assistance; b) infrastructural projects; c) small and community-based development projects; and d) capacity-building programmes. (Source: Observer Research Foundation) In this episode of BIC Talks recorded in November 2021, experts on India-Afghanistan relations, Suhasini Haidar, Shantie D’souza and Anand Arni give us a reading of the situation and analyse the implications of the recent developments with respect to India’s relations with the people of Afghanistan. BIC Talks is brought to you by the Bangalore International Centre. Visit the BIC website for show notes, links and more information about the guests.

Art historian, writer and educator Alice Procter embarks on everything that a historian in mainstream establishment shuns. She speaks about colonial loot, whiteness, historical trauma, myths of national identity besides excavating the colonial story of art in museums. Her unofficial and unauthorised Uncomfortable Art Tours initiative has been unpacking colonial narrative since 2017 across some of Britain’s leading museums.  Her book The Whole Picture: The Colonial Story of the Art in Our Museums & why We Need to Talk about it deftly unpacks many of the themes that guide her work and asks crucially ‘…who has the right to hold objects, and to tell their stories? Alice in this conversation with Pramod Kumar KG, art historian and co-founder of Eka Archiving Services deliberates on repatriation and restitution and the need to explore alternative histories of objects, people, and collections.  This episode of BIC Talks was originally a live BIC Streams session in collaboration with Eka Archiving Services. 

The question of judicial diversity has long featured in global discourse, encompassing demographic characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic background etc. as well as professional background. Arguments in favour of prioritising judicial diversity emphasise that it provides decision-making power to previously disenfranchised sections of society, and that a diverse bench is an essential component of a fair and impartial judiciary. But in the Indian context, popular discourse on courts tends to exclusively focus on case delay, ignoring other systemic problems that are equally important for maintaining public confidence in the judiciary, and for ensuring that the courts function in a just and equitable manner. While there are many dimensions to the diversity debate, this episode of BIC Talks focuses on gender diversity in the lower judiciary. Highlighting some of the outcomes from two research papers on this subject are lawyers and researchers Deepika Kinhal and Shreya Tripathy in conversation with lawyer Poornima Hatti.

Who are the Indian Muslims? Are they a monolithic community practising a faith alien to India? Or are they a diverse people, geographically rooted in the cultural ethos of the land? Is there an ‘Indian Islam’? In this episode of BIC Talks, author Ghazala Wahab in a conversation with historian Rajmohan Gandhi takes a clear-eyed look at every aspect of Islam in India today.  Weaving together personal memoir, history, reportage, scholarship, and interviews with a wide variety of people, Ghazala’s book Born a Muslim highlights how an apathetic and sometimes hostile government attitude and prejudice at all levels of society have contributed to Muslim vulnerability and insecurity. This conversation is an extract from a BIC Streams event.