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News Release

Last modified: Monday, September 10, 2007

IU India Studies announces its lecture series

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 10, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Gen. V. P. Malik, former chief of staff of the Indian Army and chairman of India's Chiefs of Staff Committee, this Friday (Sept. 14) will open Indiana University's India Studies Program's lecture series. Strobe Talbott, former U.S. deputy secretary of state, and Jaswant Singh, former foreign minister of India, will be featured speakers in October.

Each semester, the IU India Studies Program sponsors a series of guest lectures that bring the leading political, art and cultural figures from India and South Asia to the IU Bloomington campus. All events are free and open to the public. Talbott and Singh's visit also is sponsored by IU's Patten Lecture Series and IU Press.

Malik was the chief of staff of India's army from 1997 to 2000. Under his tenure, there was substantial enhancement of civil military coordination in the government of India and military diplomacy efforts as part of India's international relations. Since retiring, Malik has been a member of the National Security Advisory Board of India, an honorary advisor to the Centre for Policy Research and president of the ORF Institute of Security Studies in New Delhi.

Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution since 2002, and Singh, author of the new book, In Service of Emergent India: A Call to Honor (IU Press, 2007), will visit the Bloomington campus for three public events on Oct. 10 and 11.

In his new book, Singh provides an account of events that changed India's place in history. As minister of external affairs, defense and finance in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments of 1996 and 1998-2004, Singh was the main foreign policy spokesman for the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, the highjacking of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 to Afghanistan, and the Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan.

Talbott, who wrote the forward to Singh's book, served in the State Department from 1993 to 2001, first as ambassador-at-large and special adviser to the secretary of state for the new independent states of the former Soviet Union, then as deputy secretary of state for seven years. He entered government service after 21 years with Time magazine. His books include Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb (Brookings Institution Press, 2004), The Russia Hand (Random House, 2002) and At the Highest Levels (with Michael Beschloss, Little Brown & Co., 1993).

The lecture series schedule follows:

• Sept. 14 -- "Indo-US Defense and Military Cooperation," presented by Malik, 5:30 pm at the India Studies House, 825 E. 8th St.
• Sept. 28 -- "Police and Democracy: Learning from India," by David Bayley, Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice, State University of New York at Albany, 5 p.m. in Woodburn Hall, room 002. Co-sponsored by the IU Department of Criminal Justice.
• Oct. 4 -- "Sparks and Fires: Reassessing the Role of the State in Hindu-Muslim Violence," Ashutosh Varshney, professor of political science, University of Michigan, 5:30 p.m. at India Studies House.
• Oct. 10 -- "Patten Lecture: Repairs Ahead: American Foreign Policy in the Post-Bush Era," by Talbott, 7:30 p.m. in Rawles Hall, room 100.
• October 11 -- "Book Launch, In Service of Emergent India: A Call to Honor," by Singh, 5 p.m., President's Room, University Club, Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St.
• Oct. 11 -- "Patten Lecture: India, America, and the World," by Talbott and Singh, 7:30 p.m., Rawles Hall, room 100.
• Oct. 22 and 23 -- "Reporting India," a conference focusing on 60 years of American reporting about India co-sponsored by the IU School of Journalism. State Room East, IMU, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 22 and 9 a.m. to noon on Oct. 23.
• Oct. 26 -- "He's a Real Swinger: The Art and Play of Enjoying Krishna," by Cynthia Packert, professor and chair of the Department of Art and Architecture at Middlebury College, 5:30 p.m. at India Studies House.
• Nov. 2 -- "Images of a Journey: India in Diaspora," by Steve Raymer, IU associate professor of journalism, 5:30 p.m. in Ernie Pyle Hall, room 220.
• Nov. 9 -- The Savitaben Kantilal Trivedi Memorial Lecture, "Reading an Ally: A Dozen Books to Help You Understand India," by Tunku Varadarajan, assistant managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, 5:30 p.m. in the Business Building, room 100.
• Nov. 30 -- The Hrishikesh and Sailabala Bhattacharya Memorial Lecture, "India, a Premature Spirit of Triumphalism?," by Edward Luce, Washington bureau chief of The Financial Times, 5:30 p.m. at India Studies House.
• Dec. 4 -- "Uses of Adversity: Social Crisis and the Embodiment of Culture in The Prahlada Nataka of Orissa, India," by John Emigh, professor of theatre, speech and dance at Brown University, 5:30 p.m. at India Studies House.

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