#TheIndiaInternationalCentre #NewDelhi – #IIC Quarterly #இந்தியாஇண்டர்நேஷனல்சென்டர் – ஐ.ஐ.சி காலாண்டிதழ் (#கதைசொல்லியின் முன்னோடி)

#TheIndiaInternationalCentre #NewDelhi – #IIC Quarterly #இந்தியாஇண்டர்நேஷனல்சென்டர் – ஐ.ஐ.சி காலாண்டிதழ் (#கதைசொல்லியின் முன்னோடி) ---------------------------

இந்தியா இண்டர்நேஷனல் சென்டர் புதுடெல்லியின் ஒரு முக்கிய அடையாளம். டெல்லி லோடி எஸ்டேட்டில் மேக்ஸ்மில்லர் மார்க்கில் இந்த மையம் அமைந்துள்ளது. டெல்லி சென்றால் இங்கு தங்குவதுண்டு. அருமையான ஜாகை. நல்ல நூல் நிலையம், நல்ல நண்பர்களை சந்திக்கலாம். இங்குள்ள சுற்றுச் சூழலே மனதை ஈர்க்கும். இந்தியா இண்டர்நேசனல் சென்டரில் பல்வேறு தரப்பினர் மட்டுமல்லாமல் பல்வேறு நாடுகளைப் சேர்ந்தவர்களும் வந்து தங்குவதுண்டு.

இந்த மையத்திலிருந்து ஆங்கில காலண்ட்டிதழ் நடத்தப்படுகிறது. தொடர்ந்து 1965லிருந்து 53 ஆண்டுகளாக இந்த காலாண்டிதழ் வெளிவருகிறது. இந்த இதழில் இந்தியாவின் படைப்பாளிகள் மட்டுமல்லால் நோபல் பரிசு பெற்ற உலக ஆளுமைகளும் தங்கள் படைப்புகளை வழங்கியுள்ளனர்.

அமர்த்தியா சென், இவான் இளிச், கேப்ரா, கேத்ரில் ரெய்ன், ராமானுஜன், அனந்தமூர்த்தி, மேகானந்த் தேசாய், நாராயணா, என்.ஆர்.மூர்த்தி, ஜெயந்த் நாலில்கர் மற்றும் அப்துல் கலாம், தலாய் லாமா, குஷ்வந்த் சிங், ரோமிலா தாப்பர், நிகில் சக்கரவர்த்தி, ஷியாம் பெனகல் போன்ற பல முக்கிய படைப்பாளிகளின் படைப்புகள் இந்த ஆங்கில காலாண்டிதழில் இடம்பெற்றன. இதை முன்னோடியாக கொண்டு தான் இதன் வடிவமைப்பிலே கதைசொல்லி இதழை கொண்டு வருகிறோம்.

இந்தியாவில் உள்ள பல்வேறு தேசிய இனங்கள், கலாச்சாரங்கள், பழக்கவழக்கங்கள், நாட்டுப்புறவியலையும் பல்வேறு பயனுள்ள பத்திகள் ஆய்வுப் பூர்வமாக அற்புதமான பத்தியாளர்களிடம் (Columnist) இருந்து பெறப்பட்டு வெளியிடப்படுகிறது.

The India International Centre publishes a journal for the exposition of cultural patterns and values prevailing in different parts of the world. In 1965, the Centre launched Conspectus, which was subsequently discontinued. In 1974, the journal was revived as the IIC Quarterly, as a multi-disciplinary publication with essays from leading statesmen, writers, thinkers and activists from India and abroad, many of them being policy-makers in the government, academia, members of the intelligentsia and activists.

Originally initiated to publish talks given at the IIC, the Quarterly has widened its scope to focus on concerns of the Centre: on civic and international affairs, ethics and society, folklore and anthropology, indigenous knowledge systems, ecology and the environment, governance, and the arts and literature. The journal’s foremost concern is to promote an understanding of different cultures and civilisations, as well as to focus on contemporary issues of the day, reflecting in print the concerns of the institution.

Over the years, several eminent writers have contributed to this journal. Among them are Amartya Sen, Ivan Illich, Fritjof Capra, Kathleen Raine, A.K. Ramanujan, U.R. Ananthamurthy, Meghnad Desai, Sudhir Kakar, Narayana N.R. Murthy, Jayant Narlikar and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, to name just a few.

The Quarterly’s in-depth interviews with world leaders and people of commitment engages them in personal insights and political commentary. H.H. the Dalai Lama, Khushwant Singh, Romila Thapar, Nikhil Chakravartty, Shyam Benegal and Ebba Koch are a few among them. Rich in visual commentary, photo essays present the work of outstanding photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard and Pablo Bartholomew, Raghu Rai, Dayanita Singh and Ram Rahman. India’s foremost cartoonists – R.K. Laxman, Sudhir Dar and Abu Abraham – have all contributed generously to the Quarterly.

These volumes are now treasured as collectors’ items.

The Quarterly is published as three volumes a year: two single and one double (theme) volume. Its editors have included a host of distinguished litterateurs such as A. Ravi Shekhar, Mira Sinha Bhattacharya, Roshan Seth, Sima Sharma, Geeti Sen and Ira Pande. It is currently edited by Omita Goyal.

he idea of the India International Centre first came up in October-November 1958, when Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, then Vice President of India, and John D. Rockefeller III discussed setting up a centre for the ‘quickening and deepening of true and thoughtful understanding between peoples of nations’. Mr. Rockefeller suggested an International House on the model of Tokyo’s International House of Japan, in whose founding he had played a great part and offered a generous grant towards this end. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, then Prime Minister of India, was so enthused by the idea that he personally took interest in the selection of the beautiful 4.76 acres site adjacent to Lodi Gardens, on which the present complex stands. Later, as the activities of the Centre expanded, an Annexe was added to the main complex in December 1996.

Some of the best minds of the time came together in the preparatory committee to spell out the objectives of the Centre set up by Dr S. Radhakrishnan. They were Dr. C. D. Deshmukh (Chairman), Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Pt. H. N. Kunzru, Professor Humayun Kabir, Dr. V. K. R. V. Rao, Shri Raja Ram, Dr. Malcolm S. Adiseshiah and Shri Prem Kirpal. Dr. C. D. Deshmukh, then Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), was identified by Dr. Radhakrishnan as the person who would be able to set up such an institution. This faith in Dr. Deshmukh was vindicated for by 24 December 1958, the Centre had been founded and by 19 March 1959, it was registered under the Societies Registration Act (XXI) of 1860.

Dr. Deshmukh invited Joseph Allen Stein to be the architect of the Centre’s building. What Stein created here is best expressed in his own words: ‘There was an attempt to create something which depended upon simplicity and relationships rather than things. So this is not a five-star appearance in marble and granite. But it is a place where a certain kind of relationship exists—between the garden and the building and the water and the earth and the sky, and the learning and activities that take place and the things that happen...’

Dr. Deshmukh was convinced, however, that unlike the Japanese institution, which was mainly supported by businessmen and journalists, the Centre in Delhi would have to lean heavily on the universities--it would have to be ‘a pooled guest-house of the universities--in the metropolis’. Funds were raised from the Rockefeller Foundation, and from 37 Indian universities. On 15 April 1960 Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, a Life Trustee and the first Vice-President of the IIC, turned the first sod. In November 1960, Crown Prince Akihito of Japan laid the cornerstone for the superstructure. The building was completed by 22 January 1962 and inaugurated by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, John D. Rockefeller III and many prominent citizens and intellectuals of Delhi were also present on this historic occasion.

At its inauguration, Pandit Nehru exclaimed, ‘(It) surprises me, now it is here, to realise that we did not have it previously, because the world today is so constituted that there can be no escape from international cooperation…. This international Centre will, of course, not change the nature of the world, but it will help in the process, which is very essential today....’

Through its close contacts with prominent academic and cultural institutions in India and abroad, and through its networking with diplomatic missions in the capital, the India International Centre draws thinkers and professionals from different parts of the world and this country. In the early years visiting delegates have included Pearl Buck, P.M.S. Blackett, Robert Goheen, Paul Gore-Booth, Frederick Leboyer and Ivan Illich.

In recent years, eminent public personalities speaking at the Centre have included H.H. the Dalai Lama, Sogyal Rimpoche, Julius Nyerere from Tanzania, Willy Brandt from West Germany, Henry Kissinger from the U.S., Lee Kuan Yew from Singapore, Shimon Peres from Israel, Fernando Henrique Cardoso from Brazil and Sheikh Hasina from Bangladesh.

The talks and symposia at the Centre range from international and civic affairs, ethics and human rights, environment, ecology and wildlife to dimensions in science and medicine, to religion, philosophy, culture and literature. Among the famous writers and scholars who have been hosted here are such famous personalities as Octavio Paz, Christophe Von Furer-Haimendorf, Gunter Grass, Hasan Fathy, Sayed Hossein Nasr, Dominique Lapierre, Noam Chomsky, Kathleen Raine, Helene Cixous, Mahasweta Devi, Nissim Ezekiel, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Amartya Sen and Jung Chang.

From its inception, decision-making of policies at the Centre has been invested in the authority of the Board of Trustees. The five original Life Trustees of the IIC were Dr. C. D. Deshmukh, Pandit H.N. Kunzru, Lala Shri Ram, Nawab Zainyar Jung Bahadur and Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. The present Life Trustees are: Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Shri Soli J. Sorabjee, Shri N.N. Vohra and Justice B.N. Srikrishna. Each Trustee is an eminent authority in his/her field, bringing years of experience to the governing of the Centre. Every two years, two Trustees are elected in addition to the Life Trustees, to the Board.

Since 1960, there have been ten Directors of the Centre selected by the Board of Trustees, each with years of administrative experience: P.N. Kirpal (I960), D.L. Mazumdar (1961-66), Romesh Thapar (1967-72), J.S. Lall (1973-78), U.S. Bajpai (1979-85), Eric Gonsalves (1986-91), A. Madhavan (1992-95), N.N. Vohra (1995-2003), P.C. Sen (2003-2008) and Kavita A. Sharma (2008-2014).

30-07-2019