India and the Kurdish People: Re-Starting a Civilizational Dialogue

Chair: K.N Shrivastava, Director, IIC

Moderator: Kallol Bhattacherjee, Journalist at The Hindu

Discussants: Miloon Kothari, Visiting Professor, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva; Arif Rhein, Kurdistan National Congress (KNK)

The cultures of India and West Asia are deeply interwoven. The millennia-old values and customs of the 60 million Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria resemble those of the Indian subcontinent in many ways. How can this historical bond be transformed into practical relations today? What opportunities for cultural exchange exist?