Ambassador Phillips Talbot
President Emeritus, Asia Society

in Conversation with

Vishakha N. Desai
President, Asia Society

In 1938 few Americans knew about British-governed India or the nationalist movements then burgeoning there. Addressing this, a New York-based foundation, the Institute of Current World Affairs, awarded 23-year-old Phillips Talbot a fellowship to spend several years in India learning about the country. An American Witness to India's Partition is a collection of letters Ambassador Talbot had written between 1938 and 1950, on the buildup to the independence of India and Pakistan, and the early experiences of the new states. His letters and reports from the field, presented here in the original, include his first-hand observations on student life at Aligarh Muslim University, local life in a small Muslim community in Kashmir, a Vedic ashram in Lahore, Tagores Shantiniketan, Gandhis Sevagram, the Kodaikanal Ashram Fellowship, and Hindu and Muslim urban communities in Lahore and Bombay, and Afghanistan. Learning about Indian politics, Ambassador Talbot attended crucial meetings of the Indian National Congress, including the Ramgarh Conclave at the beginning of World War II, and the All India Muslim Leagues Lahore session at which the Pakistan resolution was adopted in 1940, along with other assemblies such as the Asian Relations Conference in the spring of 1947. He came to know Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Jinnah and other leaders. Please join us for an evening discussion with Ambassador Talbot, who had a vantage point in witnessing and recording the events leading up to the Partition as well as his observations of India's transformation over the decades since.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
6:30 - 8:00 p.m. (Reception follows)
Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Registration
$7 Student w/ID;
$7 Asia Society Members;
$12 Nonmembers

For tickets, call the Asia Society box office at (212) 517-ASIA
or visit https://tickets.asiasociety.org

Policy programs at the Asia Society are generously supported by the
Nicholas Platt Endowment for Public Policy.