Usha Rk
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(Knowledge always protects culture)
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(Cultured people share abundantly)
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(Specialised Knowledge begets
Creativity)
For a country with numerous languages, folk and tribal forms, traditional music and dance forms, literature that can boggle the minds of litterateurs across the globe, crafts and techniques that are incomparable and inimitable, gastronomical excellence and its spices that have kept the world mouth watered from time immemorial, lifestyle practices and techniques that are followed and aped by people the world over, yet this heritage country has moved with the times leading in technological progress where the young can boast of understanding or singing a Kabir composition with the strains of the ‘tanpura’ playing from their mobiles!
Each of our main cities incorporates multiple disciplines and techniques. The people of India are known for their creativity and indigenous knowledge. Traditionally our ‘varna’ system enabled every group or community to learn, practice and earn from his or her vocation that came to them by birth. The respective communities and their generations have stuck to the practice and technique for their livelihood and also the primary reason being keeping the technique alive through oral traditions or the often known ‘guru shishya parampara’. Many of the earlier generations finding that their vocation was not financially viable and that they needed alternative methods of earning to take care of their family’s upkeep, encouraged their children to get formally educated and get into the mainstream rather than continue in their ancestral profession. Some of the younger members tried to retain the vocation and amplify the earnings by moving to urban areas.
The Government of India through its visionary approach of thinkers like Pupul Jayakar, Kamaladevi Chatopadhyaya, Kapila Vatsayan and others led by the political lights of the country contributed their might to sustain our crafts, arts and techniques. Of course, one has seen the leakages, self preservation, amassing from the poor artisans etc. Nevertheless it is not incorrect to say that a great deal has been done to support the ‘intangible cultural heritage’.
In 2014-15 it was the dynamic insight of the Mayor of Varanasi Sri. Ram Gopal Mohley and his associate Sri. Raj Kumar Agarwal that discovered, through an inquiry with the representatives of Unesco in India with regard to the nomination of Varanasi in the heritage city list, that the city could also be entered for nomination to Unesco’s Creative City network, which includes various domains including Crafts & Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Music and Media Arts. The Creative Cities Network is currently formed by 116 Members from 54 countries. Immediately the Mayor wrote to the Prime Minister requesting that the city of Varanasi be nominated in one of the enlisted domains for UCCN. This was some time in December 2014 and the request was forwarded by the PMO to the relevant Ministry of Culture for further action. However, later multiple reminders from the Mayor’s office brought this request back to light. The project was handed over to the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the nodal agency for the Advisory Body for Intangible Cultural Heritage—Unesco (ABICHU) which had just in the mid of April 2015 appointed a Member Secretary to take charge of the Unesco- related activities. For the first time the member secretary of ABICHU and her small team of just one assistant submitted an application 18 days prior to the last date of submission of the nomination of Varanasi as the creative city of Music.
The process and application for the UCCN is a complicated one that entails and incorporates not only the history of the domain in the city, its growth, the economic contribution to the city, the main geographical, demographic, cultural and economic characteristics, mode of governance, principal cultural facilities, infrastructure, international connections etc. What did the city do as preparation towards the submission, who were the groups and stake holders that were involved in the process, what is the expected impact as a result of this nomination, the activities of the city in this direction in last couple of years and also three projects that the city will take up as a result of this nomination to enhance city’s creative domain.
The Unesco allows every country to nominate a maximum of three cities and this happens once in two years. With the vast creativity in our cities and each city owning multiple domains it probably is imperative that India uses its infrastructure to nominate as many cities as possible. It is widely known that the world over countries take these nominations seriously and have a dedicated team of experts who work tirelessly on making dossiers and presentations for the nominations for UNESCO. Countries find that these nominations enhance visibility, global interaction, cultural and artistic tourism, contribution to the economic growth etc.
Most of our cities could easily be nominated for more than one domain for eg: Varanasi was nominated for music, we could next time in 2019 nominate it for Crafts, Design—Benaras motifs and for literature. Similarly, Hyderabad could be nominated for Crafts, Film and Gastronomy, Lucknow could be nominated for gastronomy and crafts—chikan kari, Kumbakonam could be nominated for crafts—metal works, Thanjavur could be nominted for Folk forms and Literature, Kutch could be nominated for crafts, Mumbai for film and so on. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Kutch to Assam to Orissa across the length and breadth of India every city owns and flourishes in multiple forms, techniques, genres and domains of culture.
This year we are given to understand that the Ministry of Culture through its nodal agency has submitted the nomination of Chennai as a creative city of music just in time on the last night of submission!
Why only one and not three? Is there a lack of creative cities in India to nominate? Why are we not thinking for the best of the country? Is it not the time to look at the world and learn? We need to have a dedicated team to consistently work towards bringing pride to the country in all these areas.
After all lakhs and crores of rupees are spent on cultural projects and programs that hardly do much in the global space. We have the knowledge, the brains, the professionals, the infrastructure, the know-how and everything that it needs.
The art community is more often than not just scared of speaking up. They do feel the pain,and get hurt to realise that we lose out on huge international
opportunities.
It will be sad moment when the Prime Minister of India is globally and internationally creating a vibrant and respectful image for India, and we do not take the baton and run forward to make the heritage of this country globally known and appreciated.
(The writer is a Delhi-based Arts Consultant)
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