India 2047
About the Project
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of India's independence, the Canada India Research Centre for Learning and
Engagement (CIRCLE) at the University of Guelph will undertake a forward-looking virtual lecture series titled India 2047
between January and July 2022. The lecture series brings together established and emerging leaders representing the best
scholarship traditions on India to articulate a vision for India in 2047, the centenary of its independence, and reflect on the
journey towards that vision. Six lecture events present 18 speakers on areas of vital importance to India and the world:
democracy, education, India and the world, health, environment, and science.
At the core of the format of the lectures is the emphasis on non-jargon language aimed for non-specialist audiences. This
deliberate approach is intended to make academic scholarship accessible to the public in Canada and India. The virtual format
of the events brings together a large and wide range of speakers as well as reaches much wider audiences---students,
researchers, and the public---in India, Canada and elsewhere.
The Canada India Research Centre for Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at the University of Guelph is suitably placed to
play a constructive and enabling role to host the lecture events.
The India 2047 series consists of six VIRTUAL lecture events between January and July 2022. Each lecture event will take
stock of India's journey during the past 75 years, celebrate this momentous milestone, and offer a vision, a roadmap and work
to be undertaken in the next 25 years. Given the breadth and depth of topics and scholarship related to each of the six themes,
each lecture event of 90 minutes will include three short lectures of 15 minutes each (inspired by TED talks), which will be
followed by 40 minutes of Q&A and discussion. Each speaker will reflect on their vision of India 2047 and explore the
journey towards that vision drawing from their expertise, experience, and insights. Methodologically, the focus on a vision
requires us to draw on the past and present and is intended to move away from what students often describe as "paralysis
through analysis". Speakers in the series include academic researchers, entrepreneurs, journalists, practitioners, policy
makers, and public intellectuals. In selecting the themes and speakers, we have been attentive to diversity and have used an
intersectional approach such that gender, caste, religious and regional issues are integral to the talks and discussions in each
event.
The audiences will be from universities, research centres, NGOs and public in Canada, India and elsewhere. Graduate
students will be involved in organizing the events and undergraduate students will assist in generating AODA compliant
videos which will be made available after each event for wider uptake. The series will be of particular interest and relevance
to Canada given the shared democratic values, economic interests, multiculturalism, and a large, well-integrated
Indo-Canadian population. It aims to educate students on the workings of Indian democracy and the role of pluralism in
nurturing democratic values, understand and appreciate the transnational nature of challenges facing democracies in the
world, and train a new generation of undergraduate and graduate students for research on India and South Asia. The series
will also be an important launchpad for the graduate conference on India, South Asia, and their diasporas later in 2022.