Inaugural Address

Prof. Dr. Judith Becker is a distinguished historian and theologian specializing in the early modern and modern history of Christianity. Since October 2017, she has been serving as a professor at the Faculty of Theology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In 2006, she earned her Ph.D. in Church History from Ruhr University Bochum.

Prof. Becker has been a senior researcher at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, Between 2007 and 2017, where she led the research group "Transfer and Transformation of Missionaries’ Images of Europe in Contact with the 'Other', 1700-1970," funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Her research interests encompass the ecumenical movement in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, internationalism and nationalism, the history of missions, World Christianity, reformed confessionalisation, faith migration, and Protestant church ordinances in the Reformation era.

Prof. Becker has been a fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala (2015–2016) and at the Institut d'études avancées de Nantes (2021–2022). 

She is actively involved in several academic organizations and scientific advisory boards, including the Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online and the Edition Reformierter Bekenntnisschriften. 

Sucheta Mahajan retired as Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has been Gillespie Visiting Professor at the College of Wooster, Ohio, US, a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, and a Visiting Professor at the Maison des Sciences de l' homme, Paris.

Sucheta Mahajan retired as Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has been Gillespie Visiting Professor at the College of Wooster, Ohio, US,  a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, and a Visiting Professor at the Maison des Sciences de l' homme, Paris.

Her significant books include Independence and Partition: The Erosion of Colonial Power in India (2000); India's Struggle for Independence (1988; with Bipan Chandra et al); RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi- The Hindu Communal Project (2008; with Aditya and Mridula Mukherjee) and Education and Social Change: MVF and Child Labour (2008). 

Her fields of interest span the short and long history of the twentieth century, its politics, political economy and social change. She will deliver the keynote address on the theme of 'Swaraj and Nation-Building: Struggle, Vision and Transformation'.

Professor Smita Sahgal teaches at the Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. She completed her PhD at the University of Delhi and a second Post-Graduation in Theology from Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra. Prof. Sahgal was awarded a teaching chair at the University of Haifa, Israel and was also felicitated by the Romanian Embassy for promoting Indo-European cultural ties. Her publications include several articles, a monograph titled Niyoga: Alternative Mechanism to Lineage Perpetuation in Early India: A Socio-Historical Enquiry and a co-authored book Teaching History. Prof. Sahgal has been awarded research projects by the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi and is currently associated with a Dr Bharat Ram Research Project titled, ‘Recalibrating Kshatriya Masculinity in the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata: A Reading Against the Grain’. She will deliver the keynote lecture on 'Decoding Myths: Intimate Conversations and Socio-Historical Reality'.

Eva Ehninger is Professor of Modern Art History at the Institute of Art and Visual History, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She is interested in the transfer of heritage into, and by means of, different media, its dissemination in varied historical and cultural contexts, and in changes of meaning and value that are based on these transformations. The implications and potentials of digitization are a significant consideration. Her current research interests also include conceptions of art and aesthetic education, with a geographical focus on India, as well as alternative modes of time and history, in colonial, postcolonial, transnational and transcultural contexts. She will deliver the keynote lecture on 'The Social and/in/through/as the Quotidian. Notes on a Complex Relationship'.

Dr. Swapna Liddle is known for her research on the history of Delhi including its architecture and buildings and food. Her love for the city of Delhi, and in particular Shahjahanabad, led her to write a PhD thesis on its cultural and intellectual life in the nineteenth century. Dr. Liddle seeks to raise awareness about the city’s historic precincts, and was the convener of the Delhi Chapter of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). She is the author of Delhi: 14 Historic Walks; Chandni Chowk: The Mughal City of New Delhi and Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi. She holds a  M.A. and MPhil degrees from Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Ph.D. from Jamia Millia Islamia.  Dr. Liddle is an art curator and advocates people's participation to help preserve heritage. She contributed to the Margrit Pernau edited volume The Delhi College: Traditional Elites, the Colonial State, and Education before 1857 (2006) and edited Sair-Ul-Manazil. Her recent work includes The Broken Script (2022) which focuses on Delhi under the rule of the British East India Company. She will deliver the keynote lecture on 'The Colonial Understanding of Crime and Punishment - Contestation and Continuity'.

Prof. R. Mahalakshmi is a Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Ancient Indian History from JNU and an M.A. in History from the University of Hyderabad. Her research focuses on early and medieval South Asian history, particularly state formation in early medieval South India, Tamil influences in Sri Lanka, gender and patriarchy in early India, and Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions in South and Southeast Asia. She is the author of The Making of the Goddess and The Book of Lakshmi, and has published widely on religious traditions, art, and socio-political structures. Recipient of the Prof. Hira Lal Gupta Research Award, she has also led international collaborative projects, organized field studies, and contributed to curriculum development for NCERT. Since joining JNU in 1999, she has been an influential scholar and educator in her field. She will deliver the Valedictory address on the theme of 'Sources and Historical Interpretation: Issues and Challenges'.