BIC TALKS

Anthropologists Veena Das and Maya Ratnam explore what sociology and anthropology can inform us about the ongoing pandemic and crisis and how it affects the everyday lives of people, the nature of the State, and societal reaction to the crisis. Veena Das is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at the Johns Hopkins University. Before joining Johns Hopkins University in 2000, she taught at the Delhi School of Economics for more than thirty years and also held a joint appointment at the New School for Social Research from 1997- 2000. Veena is passionately interested in the question of how ethnography generates concepts; how we might treat philosophical and literary traditions from India and other regions as generative of theoretical and practical understanding of the world; how to render the texture and contours of everyday life; and the way everyday and the event are joined together in the making of the normal and the critical. Maya Ratnam is an Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences Division of Ahmedabad University. Her training is in Social Anthropology, and her academic areas of focus are the environmental history and anthropology of India, with particular reference to indigenous and resource-dependent communities. Don't miss jazz singer Radha Thomas from Bangalore and pianist Tomoko Ohno Farnham from New York presenting the love song, Corona Kinda Crazy, at the end of the episode. 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.

Varun Deshpande and Ramya Ramamurthy of the Good Food Institute discuss the future of meat and the viability of plant-based substitutes with researcher and journalist Shailesh Rai. Varun and Ramya talk to Shailesh about the recent success of the Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods brands in the US, about what makes true meat substitutes work, why they are necessary, and how they can contribute to sustainable food consumption across the world. They dive into the technology, the trends, the culture and conflicts around food, and demystify up and coming food technologies that could fundamentally change what we eat. Varun Deshpande is the Managing Director, and Ramya Ramamurthy is Communications Specialist, at the Good Food Institute India. They also host the Feeding 10 Billion Podcast, on the IVM Podcasts Network. Shailesh Rai is an independent researcher and journalist based in Bangalore. 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.

Priyamvada Gopal talks to Salil Tripathi about her latest book, Insurgent Empire: How rebellious slave colonies changed British attitudes to Empire (2019). Insurgent Empire shows how Britain's enslaved and colonial subjects were active agents in their own liberation. What is more, they shaped British ideas of freedom and emancipation back in the United Kingdom. Priyamvada Gopal is a Professor in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge, where she is a Fellow of Churchill College. Her main teaching and research interests are in colonial and postcolonial literature and theory, gender and feminism, Marxism and critical race studies. Salil Tripathi is a Bombay-born writer based in New York. He is the author of several books, and his next book is about the Gujaratis. He chairs PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee. Salil has been a correspondent in India, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and worked at human rights organisations in London. His journalism has won awards in India and abroad. He writes for Mint and Caravan. 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.

Kumar Sambhav from Land Conflict Watch talks to host Pavan Srinath about the trends, nature and root causes of land conflicts in India, with a special focus on urban growth and industrialisation. Sambhav and Pavan discuss land conflicts that arise from infrastructure and real estate projects around cities, the routine bypassing of progressive land acquisition provisions, the lack of recognition of traditional rights of rural residents over village commons. They also discuss some of the recently announced changes in land laws and rules across the country, and explore how they affect ongoing and future conflicts. Land Conflict Watch (@LandConflicts) is a data a data-research project, which maps and analyses ongoing land and resources conflicts in India. As of August 2020, they are tracking over 770 ongoing land conflicts in India, affecting over 6.6 million people. Kumar Sambhav Srivastava (@Kum_Sambhav) is Co-Founder and Research Director of Land Conflicts Watch, who has been in journalist for over a decade, working on issues at the intersection of public policy, business and social justice in India. 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.

Author and writer Janaki Lenin shares tales from her latest book¸Every Creature Has a Story, with host Pavan Srinath. Janaki and Pavan discuss nature writing, the challenges of connecting readers to the strange lives of various creatures, the perils of imbuing animals with human tendences, and more. Janaki Lenin is a freelance journalist, filmmaker, and conservation policy expert, and has written columns for The Hindu, Firstpost, and The Wire. She currently writes for The Hindu Sunday Magazine and RoundGlass Sustain. Every Creature Has a Story (HarperCollins 2020) is Janaki's fourth book. She has also authored My Husband and Other Animals, My Husband and Other Animals 2: The Wildlife Adventure Continues, and Stories from the Wild. This episode of BIC Talks is shared under a Creative Commons license, CC-BY-SA-4.0. The episode features clips of bird songs from the Common Nightingale (Credit: Benoit Van Henke, Xeno-Canto) and the Asian Koel (Credit: Tushar Bhagwat, Xeno-Canto). 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.

Economists S.L. Rao, Uma Kapila and Ravi Kanbur discuss the life and work of V.K.R.V. Rao. V.K.R.V. Rao (1908-1991) was an eminent Indian economist, politician and institution builder. Studying under John Maynard Keynes, Rao worked on some of the earliest estimates of India's national income statistics and published a range of important economic research on poverty, developmental economics, and macroeconomics. Apart from a career in politics, Rao also mentored generations of Indian economists, and helped establish numerous Indian institutions like the Delhi School of Economics, the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi, the Institute of Social and Economic Change Bangalore, the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and many more. S.L. Rao, Uma Kapila and Ravi Kanbur share their personal reminiscence of V.K.R.V. Rao, discuss his contributions to economics and to institution building. Dr. SL Rao is a columnist and an emeritus professor who has worked in academia, at think tanks and in the private sector through his life. He was previously the Director General of NCAER in Delhi and Chairman of ISEC in Bangalore. Dr. Uma Kapila is a retired faculty of economics at Miranda House in Delhi, and the co-founder of the Indian publishing firm Academic Foundation. Dr. Ravi Kanbur is a Professor of Economics at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. Other readings - The Partial Memoirs of VKRV Rao, SL Rao, 2002; A Passionate Humanitarian: VKRV Rao, Academic Foundation, 2008; Ravi Kanbur's transcription of VKRV Rao's Correspondence with John Maynard Keynes. 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.

Author Annie Zaidi and writer Poorna Swami discuss home, belonging, displacement and identity on Episode 35 of BIC Talks. Annie Zaidi won the Nine Dots Prize for 2019-20 by exploring the question, 'Is there still no place like home?' and published Bread, Cement, Cactus: A Memoir of Belonging and Dislocation in May 2020. Annie and Poorna discuss how where people are born, where they live, what they speak, where they feel safe are all tied to their sense of identity and belonging, sometimes determined by themselves, and sometimes by others. Annie Zaidi is a journalist, scriptwriter and author, and Bread, Cement, Cactus is her fourth book. The full book is available for free reading as a PDF download, and physical copies can be purchased as well. Poorna Swami is an independent writer and journalist based in Bangalore. Poorna was also on BIC Talks on Episode 28, where she spoke to Rahul Rao about the politics and the morality of taking down problematic statues. 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.

Nandi Hills is a popular tourist destination for Bangaloreans. Siddharth Raja talks to Pavan Srinath about how the real history, heritage and the action is at the foot of the Nandi Hills rather than the top. Siddharth walks listeners through the rich geological history, medieval history, the marvellous architecture of the Bhoganandishwara Temple and its surroundings, and shares glimpses of the past that have survived to this day. Siddharth and Pavan also briefly discuss challenges to heritage conservation at the edge of a growing metropolis like Bangalore. Siddharth Raja is a corporate lawyer by weekday, and runs a Nandi Valley Walks over weekends along with his wife, Priya. Nandi Valley Walks is a successful historical walking tour company. In his free time, Siddharth pursues historical research on the Princely State of Mysore, through the biographical prism of one of its Dewans, Sir Albion Rajkumar Banerji. He was also a member of the Bangalore Tourism Advisory Committee established by the Government of Karnataka. For more about the geology underlying the Nandi Hills and the formations underlying India, do listen to Episode 23 of BIC Talks, Glimpses of India's Deep Natural History, with Pranay Lal. For a larger history of medieval India and the Deccan, listen to Richard Eaton and Prashant Keshavmurthy on Episode 32 of BIC Talks, India and the Persianate Age. 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.

Priya Ravichandran and Shruti Viswanathan explore the role of women in the Constitution making and nation building process on Episode 33 of BIC Talks. Priya and Shruti explore the rise of political feminist consciousness in the Indian national movement, looking at the influence of global, and home grown, suffragette movements on the Indian independence movement. They also discuss the roles of individual women in the Constituent Assembly and their political and personal struggles. While political rights were granted to women under the Constitution, the Constituent Assembly and the Indian Republic fell short of guaranteeing equity in public life and in personal law. They critically examine sexism in the Indian national movement and within the Constituent Assembly. Priya Ravichandran (@binaryfootprint) has been a student and analyst in the field of politics and policy making for the last 14 years. She has written extensively about the women in the Indian constituent assembly in a number of publications and in her blog, 15 for the Republic. Shruti Viswanathan runs 'The Equals Project', which conducts workshops for children and young adults, teaching Constitution creation through experiential learning. Shruti is a graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. She has a Master's in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University. 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.

Historian Richard Eaton talks to Prashant Keshavmurthy about his latest book, India and the Persianate Age: 1000 to 1765. Richard and Prashant discuss how the complex interaction, coexistence, and clash of Persian and Sanskritic worlds shaped the Indian subcontinent for nearly 800 years. They discuss how it was the linguistic and cultural spheres, and not just modern views of religions, that defined society, statecraft and culture in india. Richard and Prashant also discuss different amalgam of ideas on statecraft and worldviews, the role of military recruitment in driving caste formations and caste identities, of Sufism and its equations with kingship, and a lot more. Richard M. Eaton is a Professor of History at the University of Arizona who focuses on the social and cultural history of pre-modern India. He has previously written monographs on the social roles of Sufis (Muslim mystics) in the Indian sultanate of Bijapur (1300-1700), on the growth of Islam in Bengal (1204-1760), and on the social history of the Deccan from 1300 to 1761, and on the interplay between memory and art in the Deccan plateau between 1300 and 1600. Prashant Keshavmurthy is an Associate Professor of Persian-Iranian Studies at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. His first book was published in 2016 titled, Persian Authorship and Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi: Building an Ark (Routledge). He is currently making an English verse translation of Amir Khusrow's poem of 1302, Hasht Bihisht (Eight Paradises) as well as other works. 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.