Lamakaan invites all for a second Hasan Memorial Lecture by a leading political activist Bharat Patankar on the topic titled 'Bol, ke Lab Azaad Hain Tere: 'Cultural Freedom Curtailed'

Mr. Patankar will be delivering this lecture on the increasing intolerance by the state on cultural and political activists and institutions in India.

Bharat Patankar is an activist intellectual who has worked for almost 40 years in movements of workers, farmers, dam evictees, agricultural laborers, the drought eradication movement, alternative cultural movement, women’s liberation movement, anti-SEZ and coal-based power plant movement based on alternative energy proposals, rights of farmers on windmills, and radical anti-caste movements.

Lamakaan's Annual Hasan Memorial Lecture is mooted to engage in the current political scenario and question its deviations.

Prof Moyed Hasan in whose memory the annual lecture is named, was a scientist, a photographer, an environmentalist and a person with deep concern for the lives of ordinary people. His house, that he named Lamakaan (as in the Sufi literary tradition to mean 'an abode for those who travel without any worldly possessions') has now become an important part of Hyderabad’s cultural and political life. The once-in-a-year lecture is dedicated to foregrounding the most important political questions of our contemporary moment. Prof Hasan left behind an imaginary of what an engaged life is. From science to art, and environment to international affairs he encompassed a vision of how we must live our lives meaningfully. There is no better way to memorialize such a life than to bring it into play the liberal activists.

All are welcome to this evening's talk.