The Speakers

Aswathy Thirunal Rama Varma, better known as Prince Rama Varma, a member of the Royal Family of Travancore, a direct descendant of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma and Raja Ravi Varma, is a well- known musician, musicologist, orator, writer, poet and translator. His proficiency in a handful of Indian languages and foreign languages is reflected in his writings and his eloquence is revealed through the innumerable speeches, lectures, and interviews. His music is noted for its strict adherence to tradition coupled with his own charming brand of creativity.

Prince Varma has given concerts all over India and in other countries like USA, UK, France, Germany, Kuwait, Dubai and The Netherlands, to mention a few. His first CD was released at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, London and he has performed at some of the most prestigious venues in Europe. He spearheaded the move to allow women inside the Navarathri Mandapam, both as performers and as listeners, breaking more than three centuries of the men-only tradition thereby establishing gender parity in his worship of music. He was invited to perform at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan by His Excellency the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who calls himself Prince Varma's fan after listening to his CD, ‘Thaanam - The Pulse Of The Veena.’

Githa Hariharan has written novels, short fiction and essays over the last three decades. Her highly acclaimed work includes The Thousand Faces of Night which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book in 1993, the short story collection The Art of Dying, the novels The Ghosts of Vasu Master, When Dreams Travel, In Times of Siege and Fugitive Histories, and a collection of essays entitled Almost Home: Cities and Other Places. She has also written children’s stories; and edited a collection of translated short fiction, A Southern Harvest, the essay collection From India to Palestine: Essays in Solidarity and co-edited Battling for India: A Citizen’s Reader.

Hariharan has, over the years, been a cultural commentator through her essays, lectures and activism. In 1995, Hariharan challenged the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act as discriminatory against women. The case, Githa Hariharan and Another vs. Reserve Bank of India and Another, led to a landmark Supreme Court judgment in 1999 on guardianship.

Prof. G. J. V. Prasad is a translator, poet, and a literary critic. He has been teaching English Literature for more than thirty years. He was teaching at the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has served as a Visiting Professor at Grinnell College, University of Essex, University of Hyderabad, and University of Paris. His areas of research interest include Indian English Literature, Translation Studies, Postcolonial Literatures, and Drama & Performance Studies. He is the chairperson of the Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature & Language Studies and the Secretary of Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. Prof. Prasad is the editor of the Journal of School of Language, Literature & Cultural Studies, JNU. He has to his credit one novel, A Clean Breast, and a volume of poems, In Delhi without a Visa. He has also edited more than 10 books and published more than 40 articles in reputed journals and books.

Prof. Sushant Kumar Mishra is the Chairperson of the Centre for French and Francophone Studies, School of Languages, Literature and Culture, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was the Director in Charge of School of Foreign Languages, Indira Gandhi National Open University for two tenures. His areas of research interests are Comparative Studies in Languages and Literature, Translation Studies, Language Teaching Theories, and Implementation. Prof. Sushant is a recipient of prestigious awards like the Young Scholars Award by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research and the Katha Translator’s Award for his translation of Rajakamal Jha’s Maithili into English. Fourteen scholars have received Ph.D. under his guideship. He has edited eight books, and three chapters in reputed publications. He has published and presented twenty papers in notable journals. As a faculty member of French at IGNOU, New Delhi, he has conceptualised and implemented Masters and Ph.D. programmes.

J. Devika is a Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Kerala. She is a member of the Editorial Board, Indian Journal of Gender Studies. She is a renowned feminist researcher and a historian. Her areas of research interest are gender studies, development studies, and cultural studies. Her writings range from journalistic pieces to newspapers, journal articles, chapters, books and translations. Her work has cut across the boundaries of academia, social sciences, and pedagogical discourses. She has published over fifty articles in reputed journals. She has contributed chapters to over thirty books. She is a recipient of the Gurudarshana award. Prof. Devika has started an online platform called Swatantryavaadini which is a living memorial to Kerala’s first-generation feminists.

Catherine Thankamma is a writer, translator, and critic. She worked as an Associate Professor in English for eleven years at RLV College of Music and Fine Arts. She served in various government colleges in Kerala for more than three decades. During her teaching career, she has directed many student theatre performances, of which some performances bagged prizes. She has translated important works of literature produced by the tribal and Dalit writers. Her translation of Kocharethi and Pulayathara are great contributions to the field of translation. Her translation of Narayan’s Kocharethi for Oxford University Press won the Crossword Book Award for 2011.

Dr. S. Kannappan is the member secretary of Tamil Nadu Text Book and Educational Services Society (TNTB&ESC)

Dr. Shankara Saravanan is the Joint Director of Tamil Nadu Text Book and Educational Services Society (TNTB&ESC)

Justice Prabha Sridevan, former Justice of the Madras High Court is an artist, author, and translator. She is the author of Of Vineyard Equality. Her well-known translations include, Seeing in the Dark: Short Stories by R. Chudamani, Essays of U Ve Sa: The Man who revived Ancient Tamil Literature and Echoes of the Veena which won the Translation Award at the Valley of Words Literary Award. Post retirement, she was appointed as the Chairperson of the IPAB (Intellectual Property Appellate Tribunal) from 2011 to 2013. Her role as part of the Feminist Judgment Project of India has uplifted the role of women throughout India. She was nominated by Managing IP three times as one of the 50 most influential people in intellectual property (MIP 50 list) throughout the world.

Vasantha Surya is a writer, translator, poet, and journalist. She has translated novels, short stories, and poetry from English to Tamil and vice versa. Her translations from Tamil include novels by Cho Dharman, R. Chudamani, Sa. Kandasamy, Vaasanthi, and A. Madhaviah. She has translated poems by Brecht and Rilke from German to English, and a narrative folk poem from Bundeli Hindi to English. Over the past forty years, she has written about three hundred articles/reviews on issues of social and cultural change and education. Her poetry collection The Stalk of Time was shortlisted for Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Her works for children include Mridu in Madras, translated into Tamil by Prema Srinivasan and herself in three volumes as Medraasil Mirudu, and Ramayana, serialized in Chatterbox magazine.