EVENTS

History Matters. ‘Archival’ resources, in their many-splendored variety, are therefore of the greatest consequence, constituting the foundations of scholarship in-depth, both in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Moreover, they possess a unique relevance and magnitude in the study of Foreign Policy and International Relations. To researchers exploring Indian foreign policy and the history of independent India’s relations with its neighbours, the search for archival materials was made much easier, when the late Shri AS Bhasin embarked on his long exploration - and subsequent publication - of the resources within the Historical Division of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India. His meticulous efforts transformed dispersed official records, policy statements, and diplomatic exchanges into a coherent and accessible body of knowledge, enabling scholars, practitioners, and students to produce more detailed analyses of India’s international engagements, grounded in official documentation. Bhasin’s work constitutes a significant act of knowledge production, shaping how India’s foreign policy particularly in relation to key regions such as China and South Asia is documented, interpreted, and understood. It highlights how archival material is indispensable to historically grounded, transparent, and analytically rigorous scholarship in Foreign Policy and International Relations. This panel discussion is not merely a set of expositions about the unarguable criticality of archival resources and the challenges faced by scholars in India, but also an acknowledgement and tribute to Shri Bhasin’s contributions to the foreign policy and IR scholarly community. His compilations have enhanced transparency, bridged the gap between policy and academia, and established a robust methodological foundation for archival research.

Speakers

Amb. Kishan S. Rana is a member of the Association of Indian Diplomats. He is an Emeritus Professor, DiploFoundation, Malta and Geneva; and, Member, Association of Indian Diplomats, New Delhi. He will speak on ‘Documents and Archives in Terms of Modern Maintenance’

Amb. Ashok K. Kantha is a former career diplomat who served as Ambassador/High Commissioner to China, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. He is the Subhas Chandra Bose Chair Professor of International Relations, Chanakya University, and Distinguished Fellow, Vivekananda International Foundation. He is also former Director and an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies. He will speak on ‘A.S. Bhasin’s Documentation on China.’

Amb. Yash Sinha is the President of the Association of Indian Diplomats. He will speak on ‘Preserving Knowledge for Posterity: My Encounters with Shri A.S. Bhasin.’

Amb. T.C.A. Raghavan is a former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan (2013-2015). He is a member of the Governing Council of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi; and Adjunct Professor, School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Study, Bangalore. He will speak on ‘A.S. Bhasin’s Documentation on Pakistan/South Asia.’

Joe Thomas Karackattu is Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the IIT, Madras. He will speak on 'Archival Records and the Imperative of Transparency: Between Privacy and Preservation.'

Avijit Banerjee is a Professor and Head of the Department of Chinese Language and Culture (Cheena Bhavana) at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. He is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies. He will speak on ‘Importance of Archives in the Study of India China Relations.’

Rityusha Mani Tiwary  teaches at the Department of Political Science at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi. She is an Honorary Fellow at Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi . She will speak on ‘The Role of Archival Research in the Study of International Relations.’

Chair

Patricia Uberoi is an Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), New Delhi. She has held teaching and research posts at the Australian National University (Canberra), the University of Hong Kong, the Institute of Advanced Studies (Shimla), the University of Delhi, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), and the Institute of Economic Growth (Delhi), where she also for many years edited the journal, Contributions to Indian Sociology. She was the Director, and later, also Chairperson of the ICS (2015-21).

Please register for the lecture here