A pioneering endeavour to research and catalogue the country’s intangible cultural heritage is on with a pan-Indian vision, as the National Museum Institute (NMI) has begun work on documenting age-old human treasures in the fields of performing and fine arts.
NMI’s Department of Museology, which has embarked on the ambitious task of developing inventory on ICH (intangible cultural heritage) from across India, has initiated pilot projects in the plains of western Uttar Pradesh and mountains of ladakh.
To begin with, the institute organised a community-led event at Sikhera village off Meerut and Gaya on the highest plateau in Jammu and Kashmir, NMI officials said.
The daylong workshops, which aimed to explore the range and nature of ICH in the Indian context, was held late last week, thus setting off a series of endeavours such as testing the forms and formats for the country’s cultural domain, according to Dr Venu V, director-general of the National Museum under which NMI functions. “We have started listing the ICH elements of these two regions. They will be the models for other such studies,” he said. The events in both places were held on October 17 and it turned out to be a huge success and the organisers say that this exercise will be repeated in other parts as well.