India’s former chief of staff to lecture at IU

The IU India Studies Program will host several distinguished guest speakers this semester, including V.P. Malik, former chief of staff of the Indian army. The lecture series will kick off at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow in the India Studies House, 825 E. 8th St., with General Malik’s lecture “Indo-US Defense and Military Cooperation.” Malik will discuss the importance of foreign relations between the United States and India and the policies between the two states, said India Studies Director Sumit Ganguly. \nThe series, which is free and open to the public, will continue in October with former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. Talbott will give a presentation on future international reparations to be made after the Bush presidency, according to an IU press release. \nTalbott’s “Patten Lecture: Repairs Ahead: American Foreign Policy in the Post-Bush Era,” will be held at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10 in Room 100 of Rawles Hall. \nThe former deputy secretary played a vital role in Indian-U.S. negotiations in 1998 during the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, Ganguly said. \nAnother highlight of the lecture series will be the release of Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh’s book “In Service of Emergent India: A Call to Honor,” printed here at the University. \nSingh’s book is a memoir of his service to India, Ganguly said. \nCo-hosting with the IU School of Journalism , the India Studies Program will also feature a two-day symposium that is focused on the past 60 years of reporting on India, Ganguly said. \n“There will be guest speakers from The Washington Post and The New York Times,” he said. “A majority of these prominent people have been bureau chiefs in New Delhi for a number of years.” \nOne of the reporters is Salig Harrison, who reported for The Washington Post in the early 1960s, barely a decade after India received its independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, Ganguly said. \nIU professor of journalism and former National Geographic photographer Steve Raymer will also be speaking during the lecture series, releasing his photojournalistic piece “Images of a Journey: India in Diaspora.” \nThe book takes an in-depth look at an entire range of Indians of all economic status, Ganguly said. \n“There are people who are not so well-off, professionals, hotel tycoons in Hong Kong, entrepreneurs – just a large spread of the global Indian community,” Ganguly said. \nOther lectures will be held at the India Studies House as the semester continues. A calendar listing these events can be obtained at www.indiana.edu/~isp or by e-mailing the department at india@indiana.edu.