Safeguarding the Indian art heritage is the need of the moment. Comment. (150words)
Ans. A country rich in art heritage like India needs to have a policy on not only cultural promotion but also its protection and preservation. Although art heritage of India has immense value in terms of its historical, national, economic and political significance, many of the art forms and monument building are dissipating from the Indian map rapidly.
Protecting and preserving art has become need of the moment given the challenges that have been brought in by industrialization, globalization, modernisation, environmental degradation and automation which has made the traditional arts and crafts outdated for the people.
Increasing pollutants in atmosphere will have drastic impact on the heritage sites of India which includes Taj Mahal, Red Fort of Delhi, and thousands of temples and shrines.
All these challenges require an immediate attention and need of the hour is to make a holistic strategy to preserve and protect our cultural heritage.
Some of the steps which could be instrumental in reviving and retaining our art heritage include:
The UP government’s One District, One Product scheme launched in Kumbh mela in 2019 seeks to promote traditional industries synonymous with their respective districts to spur the local economy and create jobs. It will also promote rich regional art forms.
• Tapping of the Public-Private Partnership models for sustenance of arts and crafts. e.g Adopt a Monument Mitra and Heritage Scheme of government.
• Greater involvement of universities in schemes promoting arts and culture as well as inclusion of Fine Arts as a subject in universities.
• Preserving and properly promoting India’s rich intangible cultural heritage by inventorising and documenting oral traditions, indigenous knowledge systems, guru-shishya systems, folklores and tribal and oral traditions and also extending patronage to various dance forms like Bihu,Bhangra, Nautanki, Dandiya and other folk dances besides classical forms.
• Setting up at least one museum in each district with different chambers for visual and other forms of art, architecture, science, history and geography with regional flavour.
• Enhancing assimilative capabilities in order to adapt to emergent challenges of globalisation and technological innovations.
• Promoting regional languages.
• Making cultural and creative industries work in tandem for growth and employment.
• The promotion of export of cultural goods and services for taking the country in the list of first 20. countries ranked by UNESCO for export of culture.
Protection, conservation, preservation and promotion to our Indian art heritage is not only an important source of socio-economic upliftment of the society but also to promote tourism as well as soft power diplomacy in our foreign policy.