Shimla, September 2026: The Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Rashtrapati Niwas, Shimla, is set to mark its Diamond Jubilee with a special week-long celebration from 11 to 15 October 2026, bringing together books, scholarship, art, history, heritage and contemporary intellectual engagement in a distinctive public programme.

The Diamond Jubilee Week is not merely a commemorative occasion. It is envisaged as a celebration of the Institute’s continuing role as a national centre for advanced research, dialogue and reflection on subjects of deep human and social significance. The programme seeks to take this intellectual engagement beyond the academic community and create opportunities for students, teachers, researchers, art enthusiasts, readers, tourists and the wider public to encounter ideas, books, artistic expressions and India’s diverse intellectual and cultural heritage.

The year 2026 marks a significant milestone in the history of IIAS. The Indian Institute of Advanced Study Society was registered on 6 October 1964, and the Institute was formally inaugurated by President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on 20 October 1965. Its founding vision was centred on creating an environment for advanced academic research and encouraging a “meeting of minds” capable of extending the horizons of knowledge and wisdom.

Six decades later, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations seek to reaffirm that founding vision by connecting serious scholarship with questions that continue to matter to contemporary Indian society.

The academic component of the week will begin on 11 October with a special lecture by Prof. Raghvendra Tanwar (Padma Shree), Chairman, Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), New Delhi, on “Jammu Kashmir Ladakh Through the Ages: An Overview of Historicity Issues & Event.”

The subject is significant because the history and historical memory of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh extend across a long and complex civilisational continuum. A scholarly examination of such themes can contribute to a more informed public understanding of the region by bringing questions of history, evidence, chronology and interpretation into academic discussion.

For students and the wider public, such engagement is valuable because historical understanding is not limited to remembering events; it also involves understanding the diverse forces, traditions and interactions that have shaped regions and societies over time.

On 12 October, the academic programme will feature a special lecture by Professor Vasant Shinde, a Globally Renowned Archaeologist and Former Vice-Chancellor, Deccan College, Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, on “Evolution of Bharatiya Knowledge System: Archaeological Perspective with Special Reference to Rakhigarhi.”

By approaching the subject through archaeology and the material record, the lecture provides an opportunity to move beyond purely textual understandings of the past and examine how archaeological evidence can contribute to debates about ancient settlements, technologies, social organisation and cultural development.

For younger researchers and students, such scholarship can demonstrate the importance of evidence- based inquiry and interdisciplinary approaches while encouraging renewed interest in India’s archaeological and cultural heritage.

A special lecture on “Vande Mataram” will be delivered on 13 October by Shri Akhilesh Jha, ICAS, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi. The theme provides an opportunity for historical and cultural reflection on one of the most recognisable expressions associated with India’s national movement and public life. Placing such a subject within an academic environment allows audiences to engage with its literary, historical and cultural dimensions and to understand how words, texts and symbols acquire meaning through different periods of history.

Such conversations are especially relevant for students and young citizens seeking to understand how literature and cultural expressions intersect with the making of modern India.

The Diamond Jubilee Week will also showcase the Institute’s engagement with Indian artistic traditions, and promotion of Bhartiya art & culture. An Art Gallery featuring creations by artists who participated in the IIAS Art Camp on “Folk and Rural Imagery in Kangra Miniatures: An Indigenous Indian Art Perspective”, held at IIAS from 15 to 19 June 2026, will be inaugurated during the celebrations.

The initiative is important from the perspective of cultural preservation as well as cultural continuity. Kangra miniature painting is not simply an artistic form; it represents an important visual tradition through which landscapes, everyday life, communities, emotions and cultural memory have been expressed. Bringing contemporary artists into dialogue with this tradition creates an opportunity to reinterpret and sustain indigenous artistic vocabularies for newer generations.

Alongside this, an Art exhibition titled “Bhartiya Forms, Expression and Consciousness” by Nisha Jaiswal, an international acclaimed artist, will be inaugurated on 11 October 2026 and remain open till 15 October 2026. She has also showcased her work at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, Art Santa Fe (USA), Bikaner House, Lalit Kala Akedmi, India Art Festival, Amrita Kala Veethika, Purvanchal Sanghrahalaya & Craft Village, ICCR’s Azad Bhawan Gallery in Delhi, amongst others.

The exhibition places Indian epics within a visual and intellectual framework, opening avenues for audiences to explore how epic narratives have influenced artistic expression, cultural imagination and ideas of consciousness across generations.

Together, the two art initiatives underline an important social purpose of the Diamond Jubilee celebration: heritage is not only something to be preserved in archives and museums; it can also be interpreted, discussed and experienced by contemporary society.

A significant highlight of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations will be the inauguration of the IIAS Digitised Rare Manuscripts Library Portal on 11 October 2026 at 4:00 PM at Rashtrapati Niwas, Shimla. The portal will be inaugurated by Prof. Reicha Tanwar, Professor and Former Director, Women Studies Research Centre, Kurukshetra University. This initiative represents an important step towards preserving and disseminating rare manuscript resources through digital technology, thereby facilitating wider access to valuable textual heritage for scholars, researchers, students and the academic community.

By making rare manuscript resources accessible through a digital platform, the initiative seeks to strengthen research opportunities, support the documentation and preservation of knowledge traditions, and encourage further scholarly engagement with India’s rich intellectual and cultural legacy. The initiative also reflects the growing importance of integrating technology with the preservation of historical resources, ensuring that valuable manuscript collections can serve future generations of researchers and knowledge seekers.

A major attraction of the celebration will be the IIAS Book Fair, being held from 11 to 15 October 2026, from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Renowned national and international publishers will participate and put up their stalls at the Institute. Entry to the book fair will be free and visitors will be exempted from the regular ticketing requirement.

The book fair acquires particular significance in an age in which reading habits and information consumption are rapidly changing. By bringing publishers and readers together in one place, the fair can help strengthen a culture of reading and provide students, researchers and the public access to serious scholarly, literary and academic publications.

The IIAS Book Fair will bring together a diverse range of leading academic, scholarly, literary and knowledge-focused publishers and book distributors, providing visitors with an opportunity to explore and access publications across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Publishers and vendors participating in the Book Fair include Taylor & Francis India, Cambridge University Press, Manohar Publishers, Orient BlackSwan Pvt. Ltd., Niyogi Books, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Indica Publishers & Distributors, Today & Tomorrow Printers and Publishers, Segment Book Distributors, Bharatiya Sahitya Bhavana, and International Book Distributors. The participation of these publishers and distributors is expected to make the Book Fair an important platform for readers, researchers, students, teachers and academics to discover scholarly resources, new publications and diverse perspectives.

For a city such as Shimla, which has a strong educational, cultural and historical identity, the initiative also offers an opportunity to make scholarly resources more accessible to the local community and visitors from across the country.

Taken together, the programmes of the Diamond Jubilee Week represent a broad understanding of the role of a national academic institution in society. The celebration brings books to readers, scholarship to public discussion, art to wider audiences and heritage into contemporary conversations. It creates a common space in which academics, students, artists, publishers and ordinary citizens can encounter one another.

The public character of the programme is particularly important. The book fair and exhibitions are being offered with free entry and ticket exemption during the celebration period, helping make the activities accessible to a much wider audience.

The significance of the week also lies in its multidisciplinary character. History, archaeology, literature, knowledge systems, visual arts and technology are being brought together under one institutional platform. This reflects the very nature of IIAS, whose founding mandate was to encourage advanced research and intellectual engagement across the humanities and social sciences.

The Institute’s library today serves as a major research and reference resource in the humanities and social sciences, with more than 1.5 lakh books and a substantial rare-book collection. As IIAS enters its seventh decade, the Diamond Jubilee Week thus provides an opportunity not only to look back at six decades of intellectual endeavour but also to consider the responsibility of academic institutions in addressing the cultural, historical and intellectual questions of the present.

The five-day celebration is expected to attract scholars, researchers, teachers, students, publishing professionals, artists, cultural enthusiasts and visitors to Rashtrapati Niwas, Shimla. For Shimla, the programme also adds an important intellectual and cultural dimension to the city’s public life. The coming together of publishers, academics and artists offers residents as well as visitors an opportunity to participate in a celebration of knowledge and creativity within one of India’s important heritage settings.

The Diamond Jubilee Week of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study therefore stands as a bridge between institutional legacy and contemporary relevance—celebrating the journey of the Institute while opening its intellectual and cultural spaces more widely to society.

Governor of Himachal Pradesh to Grace the Closing Ceremonies; Shovana Narayan will inaugurate Art Exhibition The art exhibition “Bhartiya Forms, Expression and Consciousness” by internationally acclaimed artist Nisha Jaiswal will be inaugurated on 11 October 2026 by renowned Kathak danseuse Shovana Narayan. A distinguished exponent of Indian classical dance, Shovana Narayan’s presence at the inauguration adds a significant dimension to the celebration of India’s artistic and cultural traditions.

The celebrations will conclude on 15 October 2026 in the presence of Hon’ble Shri Kavinder Gupta, Governor of Himachal Pradesh, who will be the Chief Guest at the closing ceremony. His participation will lend special significance to the concluding programme, which brings together academic engagement, the promotion of Indian art and heritage, and the Institute’s enduring commitment to advancing knowledge and fostering dialogue between scholarship and society.

The participation of the Governor and Shovana Narayan underscores the significance of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations as an occasion to reaffirm the role of academic and cultural institutions in preserving India’s intellectual heritage, encouraging informed public discourse and making knowledge more accessible to wider sections of society.

From 11 to 15 October 2026, Rashtrapati Niwas will become a meeting ground for books, ideas, art, history and heritage—marking sixty years of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study and reaffirming the enduring value of free inquiry, scholarship and cultural dialogue in public life.

SS/NK

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