APPROACH PAPER ON THE NATIONAL POLICY ON CULTURE & OBSERVATION, COMMENTS, RECOMMENDATIONS THEREON

 AN APPROACH PAPER ON NATIONAL 
 POLICY ON CULTURE

PART I

INTRODUCTORY

1.1 Culture permeates every sphere of human activity, determines and governs life and pattern of Indian society in diverse regions and equally diverse fields. It is a crucial part of development deserving careful attention and substantial investment. Although the Government of India have spent in the last 35 years six hundred thousand crores on development, the amounts spent on culture have usually been around 0.11 per cent of its annual expenditure. It is evident that investment in improving that aspect of the quality of life namely the cultural dimension has not been commensurate with the broad social needs and its intrinsic value.

1.2 The country has reached a stage in its economic and technical development when the cultural dimension needs to be brought into sharper focus and strengthening.

1.3 The cultural underpinning the developmental effort has now been internationally recognised. As a report accepted by UNESCO's Inter- Governmental Committee of the World Decade for Cultural Development has stated:

"It is most important to understand the term development in its philosophical and conceptual meaning. Development has all too often been perceived as modernisation patterned after a particular dominant design, while in fact, there is a need for a multi-cultural and pluralistic conception in which different ways of living, different belief systems, (and) values are accommodated to reach the ultimate goals of various communities. Modernisation does not mean the mechanical imitation of a particular way of life..... The concept of development has to be redefined in these terms. In particular, it would be necessary also to emphasise the linkage of the development elements to cultural elements, including local relevance, relevance to geographical and environmental factors, historical traditions, traditional knowledge and skills, etc. The importance of the aesthetic and artistic dimension of life should also be My recognised.... The motivation of the people who are the beneficiaries and participants in the development process is of utmost importance in successful design and implementation of programmes. Cultural factors play an important role in energising the motivation calling forth requisite participation and are thus crucial to sustainable development in which new concepts and ideas are absorbed in a permanent manner.

- Final Report of the Inter-Governmental Committee of the World Decade for Cultural Development. Second Regular Session. Annex IV PAGE 3.

1.4 A stage in development has arrived when the importance of culture has to be clearly and candidly defined, the area of public intervention in culture identified, the role of state in culture assessed and readjusted, importance of societal and voluntary efforts in this area recognised and further encouraged.

With this aim in view the Govt. of India have decided to formulate a National Policy on Culture, basically to outline conditions conducive to more satisfactory self-expression and participation in cultural life by the Indian people at large. The policy recognises the need to develop strategies to sensitise people, particularly the young to creative expression in a framework of values which are generally accepted as those which enrich the quality of life.

It is also to devise strategies to promote the development of the various forms of creative expression; to preserve what is of abiding value in the. manifestations of creative expression through the centuries; to document forms of expression which may be changing or giving way to others; and to recognise the diversity in these forms which taken together constitute what can be called the culture of India.

1.5 More actively the policy proposes that as far as possible the state should play only a catalytic role in the development and progress of culture, its role being what may be called "arm's length intervention". It also should resist the wide-spread coarsening of sensibility, loss of sense of values, erosion of pluralistic vision and reduction of vast masses into passive recipients rather than active participants in processes of culture.

1.6 Culture is a central instrument of discovering, integrating and asserting the national identity of India which is truly and inevitably pluralistic. Our culture, while being Indocentric, has always been open to global influences and interaction. While resisting any colonization of mind, the policy believes, our culture should remain in constant dialogue with the world at large in the realm of ideas, perceptions, media and expressions.

1.7 Cultural enrichment can only take place if values of complexity, subtlety, elegance, beauty are cared for. Essentially there is no antipathy between aesthetic sensibility and scientific temper. The policy would lay stress on this more wholesome view.

1.8 In the current context of dissension and growing intolerance, it is imperative that the composite character of our culture, the crucial contribution made by various communities to it and its inclusive, humane and humanising ethos are highlighted and widely brought home to all. The policy would insist that Indian culture cannot be identified with any single tradition and consists of an ever enriching multiplicity of many traditions.

1.9 Growth has frequently been conceived in quantitative terms, without taking into account its necessary qualitative dimension, namely the satisfaction of man's spiritual and cultural aspiration. Any cultural policy should restore to development its profound, human significance and should democratically provide for enjoying of artistic excellence by all communities and the whole population.

PART II

OBJECTIVES

2.1 While attention to and investment in culture may have been far below expectation, it has to be recognised that there is a cultural pattern in India where interaction has taken and continues to take place amongst regions, between different art disciplines and levels of society, from the most affluent to the most weaker sections of the society at the urban, rural and tribal levels. Dialectics of continuity and change, of stability and innovation, and of individuality and inter-dependence have been the defining feature of cultural processes in our time. The policy is an attempt to delineate a blue print for areas which need urgent attention and public support. Large areas broadly covered in culture are engaging both attention and action by individuals, the creative community and numerous voluntary agencies. The policy recognises, therefore, that it shall be dealing not with the total spread and complexity of culture but only with some of its aspects and segments.

2.2 India's cultural diversity is too well known to need discovery or recognition. However, this enriching diversity should be recognised in all plans for development and the strategies for the protection and promotion of culture. There should be no attempt to give any single direction or ideological orientation or prescribe any standards in culture which is indeed the true area of societal action and consensus. While diversities and multiplicities must be allowed free play, this should happen in an overall context of harmony and consonance.

2.3 In keeping with the various changes and mutations which have come about, there is need to revive and reintegrate the holistic vision of culture in India in such a way that no segment, area or community feels excluded and each one is encouraged to freely contribute towards identifying, promoting, fostering and projecting cultural growth and enrichment. Care would have to be taken for promoting and projecting cultural contribution of the weaker sections and minorities in all parts of India.

2.4 The old notion patronage should be replaced by that of public support and there should be effective coordination between the activities of various agencies in the states and the Centre with a clear recognition that more than anywhere else decentralisation is a key factor in cultural promotion and that an important role is and should continue to be played by individuals and voluntary agencies.

2.5 Both education and media of mass communication are playing important role and participating in the

society at large and are crucial culturising agencies. One of the objectives of the policy is to constantly emphasises the cultural consequences of education and media, and to deepen and strengthen their cultural components. It would also aim to see that consumerist tendencies are not allowed to create cultural distortions and tensions.

2.6 As stated in the National Policy on Education, 1986, "deculturalisation, dehumanism and alienation must be avoided at all costs and education and culture must bring about a fine synthesis between change oriented technologies in the country's community of cultural traditions. Efforts should be made particularly to enable children and youth to develop sensitivity to duty, harmony and refinement". Stress would have to be laid on the growth of cultural literacy along with verbal literacy. It would also aim "at interweaving into the formal and non-formal systems of education at all levels, of the content of culture and escalation and sharpening of cultural inputs in educational curricula with a view to arouse deeper interest in cultural heritage, to provide free creativity and to foster elements of composite culture". Respect and striving for creativity and excellence must be inculcated from early level of education.

2.7 It would be necessary to ensure community participation at all level including formal, non-formal and informal agencies such as panchayats, local bodies, etc. Literacy is an essential condition for people's cultural development.

2.8 NPC would promote evaluation of a dynamic relationship between tradition, including the pan Indian and Asian traditions, and modernity.

2.9 It would wish to preserve cultural heritage in its different ways recognising the need of preserving and documenting those aspects of classical, rural, tribal and community culture traditions which are in danger of extinction on account of social change, market forces, technological onslaught etc. particularly of those elements which have so fir been sustained through oral communications.

2.10 It would promote concrete steps to be taken to provide wider opportunities to citizens both rural and urban of meaningful and continuing exposure to various forms of cultural manifestations.

2.11 It would aim at use of existing infrastructural facilities in a more coordinated manner to provide multi points for promotion, exploration and conservation of various forms of creative expression. For better and maximal use of funds and infrastructure, duplication of work should be scrupulously avoided.

2.12 It would recognise the need to preserve the tradition as also the need for new ideas, new combinations, original interpretation etc. It would encourage openness to new forms and manifestations. Photography, cinema and contemporary architecture need to be seen as new cultural expressons.

PART III

PLAN OF ACTION

With a view to attaining broadly the objectives stated earlier, the following plan of action is suggested.

3.1 Although the state has a very definite responsibility to foster and nurture the seminal values which manifest themselves in creative expression and endeavour in different ways, the direct state intervention needs to be avoided. The state must provide funds and facilities for such activities, on a scale commensurate with perceived needs in the context of the integral link between them and the plans to improve the quality of life. However, the state must not be involved id any direct grant giving activities. Such avoidance would also eliminate various forms of intervention such as bureaucratic and political. While taking care that a fool-proof mechanism for accountability for the use of public funds is agreed, it is proposed to set up a statutory body to be called "Bhartiya Sanskriti Parishad".

It would be created by law and funds will be made available to it also by law. It would place a report on its activities before Parliament annually and its accounts will be audited by the CAG.

The proposed Council would consist of top level experts from various fields of culture and would evolve a well thought out system of valuation of works of the various grant receiving institutions

whether voluntary or set up by the Central Government, and for which they would be receiving grants from the Council. The Parishad's relationship with the three national Akademies and other institutions would also be provided for in the proposed law.

3.2 Centre for Cultural Resources and Training should be adequately strengthened to play a more active role. Organisations such as Spic Macay must be provided generous financial support & the various procedural forms etc., be simplified.

Cultural education needs to be introduced in schools not as an additional but as an integrated component in curriculum teaching. The aim should be to make child aware of the ancient traditions which have survived and are woven into the very fabric of the fives of the people living in this continent, to familiarise the youth with the philosophical concepts and images based on centuries of evolution of aesthetic values, creativity and thought.

3.4 The students also need exposure to nature and man made environment and it be encouraged through creative activities and conservation of both. Suitable revision/strengthening of school curricula from this point of view will have to be taken and cultural training be made essential part of teachers training programmes. On the lines of sports hostels in various States, setting up of artists hostels may be considered, where young talents from schools may be picked up and trained in various art forms.

3.5 Languages of India have been very valuable vehicles of both cultural articulation and dissemination. Development of linguistic skills and a sense of pride in mother-tongues must be encouraged at all levels.

Learning of our classical languages and training in traditional disciplines available only in them should be seen as preservation of an important aspect of our cultural heritage and its continuing relevance.

3.6 In view of the vast number of cultural organisations, and agencies needing specialised management, a programme of training in cultural administration should be evolved and implemented. Agencies such as CCRT, IIPA, State Institutes of Public Administration and Institutes of Management could be involved in this work.

3.7 Education in various forms of culture such as fine arts, music, dance, theatre, literature etc., needs to be critically reviewed and substantially reorganised with a clear annunciation of aims and objects and teaching methods, etc. The time tested system of Guru Shishya Parampara. should be strengthened, widened and strongly supported.

3.8 The development and promotion of art education imply not only the formulation of specific programmes designed to foster artistic appreciation and support groups or institutions engaged in creation, and dissemination but also the encouragement of activities that will stimulate public awareness of the social importance of art and intellectual creation.

3.9 With an infinitely rich cultural heritage, thousands of monuments, historical relics, wealth of sculptures and artifacts, surviving traditions of performing arts, philosophy ideas and literature, preservation of this cultural property and its proper conservation would constitute a major area of action in the NPC.

While monuments of national importance and state importance would continue to be looked after by the Government of India and the various State Govts., due to financial and fiscal constraints of funds, number of monuments remain unprotected and it will be important either for the Central or the State Govts. to protect all the monuments worthy of protection. The local people through voluntary groups, the panchayat system and other institutional structures must be the primary guardians of what is, in a sense, their patrimony. The centrally sponsored scheme for the purpose with matching grants provided by either side would be launched.

Adequate protection to existing monuments through well trained and motivated watch and ward staff and the development of more site museums will be taken up as an on going activity.

3.10 Museums have to become active centres for increasing awareness to the people regarding our heritage and the preservation of monuments. They would be encouraged to have programmes and suitable campaigns through the media will be taken up. Popular awareness of conserving our monuments is to be an important item of the Policy.

3.11 The law relating to the protection of our antiquities and art treasures would be further strengthened to remove inadequacies in implementation and to block all loopholes. Individual and corporate agencies would be encouraged to collect and exhibit art objects through a suitable process of regulation. The Municipal bodies as also the Panchayati Samities would also be encouraged to take up local-level museums of arts, artifacts and archaeological remains.

3.12 Action would be taken for the declaration of heritage zones in respect of identifiable and compact areas which have large bodies of significant historical and cultural property. Such zones should be protected fully against the location of commercial and industrial establishments and the other spread-effects of urbanisation.

3.13 The management and protection of cultural property demand the availability of suitably trained technical personnel. Particularly important is the need for training personnel in the rapidly expanding fields of conservation of cultural property. Conservation techniques are now highly developed in such specific areas as painting, textiles, stone objects, leather, furniture, paper and palm leaf utilising the latest available technology. Devising suitable technical courses for these areas and making them available in selected technical institutions would be a major objective so that we incorporate the services of the latest technology and well-trained personnel in the task of conservation of cultural property. Autonomous bodies like MACH have to dovetail their activities with that of Government in this very important area.