Long before modern diplomacy, before Indian immigrants arrived in the 20th century, New England merchants were already sailing to India within a decade of American independence — carrying goods from Boston and Salem to Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. That's the starting point of a free public program coming to Lexington Sunday, tracing 250 years of connection between the two nations.

What's happening, and why here.

"Lexington: Where America's Fight for Freedom Began—a Global Story Unfolded" runs from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Temple Emunah, free with registration through Eventbrite. It's organized by the India–U.S. Legacy 250 Initiative, founded by Boston-based social entrepreneur Kanchan Banerjee, who lives in the Lexington area with his wife, Haimanti Banerjee. The two are co-authoring a book on the subject, and their reasoning for tying this history to Lexington and nearby Concord runs deep.

The Concord connection most people don't know.

Henry David Thoreau read the Bhagavad Gita at Walden Pond and watched ice cut from the pond shipped off for export to India, later writing in Walden that "the pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges." Ralph Waldo Emerson called the Gita "the first of books" in his own journal. The exchange didn't stop there: Swami Vivekananda addressed nearly 7,000 people at Chicago's World's Parliament of Religions in 1893, and Mahatma Gandhi later credited Thoreau's writing as an influence on his philosophy of nonviolent resistance — a philosophy Martin Luther King Jr. studied closely and carried into the Civil Rights Movement.

The thesis behind the program.

"The relationship between India and America did not begin with modern diplomacy or the arrival of Indian immigrants in the twentieth century," the Banerjees wrote. "It began much earlier — with merchants, scholars, philosophers, sailors, reformers, and visionaries whose exchanges quietly shaped both nations."

What to expect Sunday.

The program aims to bring together historians, educators, students and community leaders, though specific speakers haven't been announced yet. More information is available at here.

Details: Sunday, July 26, 3-4:30 p.m., Temple Emunah, 9 Piper Road, Lexington.