106. The People’s Process

03/29/21 • 41 min

Bilal Zaidi, founder of the political tech start up, OurDemocracy.in, is in conversation with Sweta Daga, as he gets to the brass tacks of the electoral campaign system in India. This conversation evaluates the ongoing practices which are looked upon as tradition in our electoral democracy, its shortcomings, the opacity in the process and lack of accessibility to the citizenry. Bilal and Sweta talk of the future of political campaign finances with the advent of digital India and whether electoral reforms are in sight or not.

With anecdotal information and comparative analyses with electoral procedures of countries like the United State of America, this conversation presents a possibility and a gradual change of direction towards transparency and greater understanding of how Democracy works.

Bilal Zaidi is Founder and Executive Director of OurDemocracy.in. Prior to founding OurDemocracy, he was a Global campaigner with Avaaz.org (based in New York). He is also a former journalist with more than 12 years of experience working with organizations like Times Now, NDTV, NewsX among others. He has covered more than 24 Assembly and 3 Lok Sabha elections. He believes his interview with Mr Narendra Modi (India’s current PM) and his coverage of the Syrian conflict were the highlights of his career.

Sweta Daga has told stories across platforms, from television and film to theater. As a freelance journalist, she has worked in India focusing on climate justice with intersections in gender and equity. She has also facilitated workshops with change makers across the world on systemic change.

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105. Talking US Politics

Edward Luce, one of the most highly regarded commentators on US politics, talks about the dynamics of US politics, and the impact of the newly elected US government on the world, especially on India.

This episode was originally streamed live on March 12th, 2021 as the annual Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Girish Karnad Memorial Lecture. One of the leading and most prestigious events on the calendar, the New India Foundation Annual Lecture has facilitated debate on important social issues, with talks featuring renowned scholars and thinkers.

Edward Luce is the US national editor and columnist at the Financial Times. Before that he was the FT’s Washington Bureau chief. Other roles have included South Asia bureau chief, Capital Markets editor, and Philippines Correspondent. He is the author of three highly acclaimed books, The Retreat of Western Liberalism (2017), Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent (2012), and In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India (2007).He appears regularly on CNN, NPR, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and the BBC.

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107. Memories of Libraries and Archives

In this spirited lecture, which was originally a LISA distinguished lecture delivered in March 2021, the historian Ramachandra Guha recalls some memorable experiences from a lifetime of working in libraries and archives in India and abroad. He introduces us to some great repositories of printed books, such as the National Library in Kolkata and the Sterling Memorial Museum Library of Yale University, and to some great repositories of unpublished archival material, such as the Manuscripts Division of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi. And he speaks also of the joyous days and months he has spent in the greatest library-cum-archive in the world, the British Library in London. The lecture was followed by a riveting Q & A session as well.