The AIDEM presents the inaugural speech of Romila Thapar at the Thunchathu Ezhuthachan Festival at Thunchan Memorial, Tirur, Malappuram, Kerala. In her speech, Romila Thapar explains how cultures and languages have always evolved only in contact with other cultures and civilisations, and never in isolation. She also warns that if a civilisation tries to remove the traces of other cultures from it, that will only result in self-harm as was witnessed in Germany and many other countries.