Virtually SALA Series 2021 – Art Forum S.F. is a not-for-profit that strives to define and promote all art forms emerging from South Asia. We endeavor to present the visual, the literary, and the performing arts in their various versions, thus enabling a broader reach for South Asian voices.
We organized the South Asian Literature and Art festival that debuted, with grand success, in October 2019 at the Montalvo Arts Center’s picturesque site in Saratoga, California. The festival features prominent experts experienced in the cultural-literary-artistic histories of South Asian countries and different aspects of the humanities, to give talks, have exhibitions and performances, book reading, and so on for local audiences. Learn more here.
In these “uncertain times,” we move to host the Virtually SALA Series 2021 with featured talks throughout the year till it is safe to assemble in a festival setting. The first Virtually SALA Series 2021 panel is as follows:
CROSSROADS – CHINA’S ROLE IN SOUTH ASIA.
Analyze and discuss China’s foreign policy and economic strategy for South Asian countries – Tibet, Nepal, and Ladakh.
Panelists
Brig Ajay Talwar, Military Personnel
Mukul Sanwal, Policy Advisor
Vijay Kranti, Author, Media Educationist
Moderator
B R Deepak, Professor, and Chair, Centre for Chinese & Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Brig Ajay Talwar: An alumnus of Mayo College, Ajmer, Brig Ajay Talwar was commissioned into the MECH INF Regiment. He was the Defense Attaché at the Embassy of India, Ankara, concurrently accredited to Syria and Lebanon. He has commanded an Armoured Brigade and has been the Deputy General Officer Commanding of the Infantry Division in Ladakh. He has seen operational service in Nagaland, Jammu, and Kashmir and the 2006 War in Lebanon.
Mukul Sanwal
He has served in various policy positions in the Indian government, including in industry, agriculture, and the environment. He represented the Indian government at the Rio Conference in 1992 as a lead negotiator for the Climate Change treaty. He joined the U.N. in 1993 as a policy adviser to the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme and later to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He retired in 2007 and is now associated with think tanks in India and China. He has a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University.
Vijay Kranti
Vijay is an expert on China and Tibet affairs, author, traveler, photographer, media educationist, a former staffer of the BBC World, Deutsche Welle (German), and Radio Voice of America. Between 2003 and 2010, Kranti traveled incognito on a tourist visa deep into Tibet and China on eight separate occasions. Equipped with his camera, he captured vivid details of the Chinese suppression of Tibetan people, arts, culture, and religion besides their military infrastructure development and India’s borders. While doing so, he narrowly survived the scrutiny of suspicious Chinese authorities on many occasions. He has penned about a dozen books.
B R Deepak
B R Deepak is a Professor and Chair at the Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was trained in Chinese history and India-China relations at the Peking University and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and University of Edinburgh, U.K. He has been the Nehru and Asia Fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. Dr. Deepak’s portfolio comprises numerous noteworthy publications, including Chinese Poetry: 1100 BC to 1400 AD (2011), for which he was awarded the 2011 Special Book Prize of China. In addition, he writes the “Eye on China” column for The Sunday Guardian Live.
Date & Time
Pacific Standard Time – January 29, 2021, | 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Indian Standard Time – January 30, 2021, | 8:00 am to 9:00 am
Watch via Facebook LIVE at www.facebook.com/events/779014086159887.
Follow us on Social Media @ArtForumSF, and for more information, visit www.artforumsf.org or contact Ambika Sahay, Director, Art Forum SF, at ambika.sahay@artforumsf.org | 425.736.1779
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~30~ Virtually SALA Series 2021
