Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Regional Centre Ranchi in collaboration with Ranchi University, organised a lecture on ‘Cultural Heritage of India in Tribal Context’ here on Friday. Dr. Dipankar Chatterjee, Assistant Professor, Faculty of IRTDM, Ram Krishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (Deemed University) was the speaker of the lecture session and it was presided by Prof (Dr) Geeta Ojha, Coordinator, Department of Archeology and Museology, Ranchi University.

Dr. Ajay Kumar Mishra,Regional Director, RCR warmly welcomed the Chairperson, Speaker, dignitaries, guests and participants and gave a brief illustration about the importance of studying the rich tribal heritage of India. Prof. Ojha articulated the necessity of gaining knowledge about the framework of tribal culture as a part of India’s cultural heritage, especially for the students of this discipline.

Dr. Chatterjee presented a scholastic lecture, where he defined that, the cultural heritage of India is a coalescence of diversified sub- cultures of distinct communities of people, passed from generation to generationincluding customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions and values. Cultural heritage includes tangible culture (such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity).

According to Census 2011, the tribal people constitute 8.2% of the nation’s total population, which is over 104 million people. Their unique tradition adds to the eccentricity of India’s cultural heritage.

In continuation to the above discussion, Dr. Chatterjee focused on safeguard, preservation, dissemination and popularization of Tribal Art and Craft as Cultural Heritage of India, in his lecture. It was a great opportunity to comprehend the attributes of tangible, intangible heritage and various schemes of UNESCO in the context of tribal arts. The various tribal heritage and archeological sites were also explored through this lecture. The pivotal objective of this session was to make the upcoming generation, students and art aspirants aware of the rich tribal mores, which is a paramount part of cultural heritage of India. After the lecture, an interactive session was conducted where the participants enquired about multiple facts related to the topic and the Speaker enlightened them.

The erudite lecture was successful in attaining the aim of enriching masses about the essential position of tribal culture in India’s cultural heritage.

The programme concluded with the vote of thanks by Aparna Jha, Course Coordinator, RCR.