Whose Heritage is it anyway?

The article is a reflection of a layman’s difficulties in accessing and exercising ownership of his own culture and heritage and the questions that he poses to its guardians.

                        

“Proud to represent a culture enriched through millennia” says a slogan on the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) website. In the ICCR library one encounters liberally displayed quotable quotes of the revered Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Minister for Education of independent India and a member of the Constituent Assembly who established the ICCR in the year 1950. The Maulana, talking of the rich history and legacy of the nation inherited by him spoke for every citizen of the country, when he said, “I am an essential element which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim.”

At the sleepy office of the ICCR at Azad Bhawan, New Delhi; locating some officers at their work place is quite often, an arduous task. Often the person one is looking for is late to come to the office; supposedly tied up with some official work, of course, on his way to the office. Another is availing a wash room facility from which he takes forever to get back to his desk; or one is told that the person one is trying to locate is in a meeting in somebody else’s office; and appears only in the second half of the day back at his desk. These seem to be the often repeated reasons for the officials not to be found at their desks. One does not suspect the truth of the reasons given. But the utter disinterest and disdain of the manner in which a visitor is informed about the same reeks of a sedate work culture.  And finally, when one gets to meet the person one was looking for after a long and patient vigil; he barely lifts up his eyes from the files which are in front of him; and is evasive, disinterested and dismissive in his interaction. This seems to be the general behavioural trait at the supposedly busy office which takes the Indian culture abroad and brings the cultures from abroad to us Indians.

An innocuous request by a scholar to examine the annual reports of the ICCR since 1950 is met with derision. She is set off on a wild goose chase. After meeting a dozen officers in the building she discovers that the annual reports for the past 10-15 years are available but the older ones are not there. Instead of making an effort to trace them and make them available for her study, they suggest to the scholar that she should study only the past 15 years of the ICCR operations. This, they further suggest, will keep her vast project from getting out of hand. When asked if one could file an application under the RTI Act to get the necessary information, an officer sarcastically remarks that it would be a sure shot away to fish out the reports.

That was not all; the poor researcher enquires about the reports of the seminars and workshops conducted/ funded by the ICCR in the past years. The details would assist her in evaluating the programs and the operations of ICCR over the years. The officer is matter of fact in replying that once the artist gets the ticket to the foreign land or once the cheque is sent out to support a seminar/workshop; that is the end of the event they hear of. Not even a brief report is filed by the artists or the organisers on the proceedings for which the ICCR has doled out the money; the ICCR does not insist on one. The body seems to be a mere disburser of money and there is no apparent accountability/ assessment of their various assistance programs. Moreover, the premier body which cannot even preserve its own annual reports does not generate much confidence about its vision, planning skills and effectiveness of its operations.

The imposing National Museum is another institution which could swell ones heart with pride with the collection it holds. However, an interested layman unarmed with academic credentials could never gain access to see the objects which are not on display but are catalogued and are in its store; he dare not undertake scholarly research.  The mammoth set up allows only a bona fide scholar to make a special request for accessing its archives. The library at the National Museum is at any time empty with hardly any users; but even a Senior Research Fellow, Ministry of Culture, Government of India is reluctantly allowed its use only for a day or two, for reference purposes. The kind permission is accorded only after the scholar assumes a grovelling demeanour to please the librarian. The seemingly surplus staff is usually seen twiddling its thumbs with no work. But a visitor is shooed away with myriad eligibility norms and discouraged from using the library. One cannot but help contrast it with the British Library in London which trusts even a mere verbal information by a foreigner about his scholarly credentials and promptly issues its membership card after a brief, hassle free procedure.

National Gallery on Trafalgar Square in  London is always abuzz with visitors

The British Museum in London does seem to be the most visited museum in the UK

One cannot but help but remember museums like the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery, the National Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London which are at any time full of interested visitors. Often one sees droves of dedicated parents on trips to the museums with their children and also innumerable youngsters. The friendly atmosphere and the audio visual aids/guides to familiarise the visitors with the objects in the museums are a delight; which sadly, the Indian museums do not offer much of. Museums in India are tomb like with an air of decadence, separation and alienation from the artefacts; while in contrast, the above mentioned museums offer a lively air of belonging and continuance of the heritage and history to the visitor.

Ram Gopal's painting by Feliks Topolski at the National Portrait Gallery in London

The Powis Castle in Wales where Clive's Museum is located

The Clive Museum at the Powis castle in Wales displays many Indian pieces including a couple of swords and a tent belonging to Tipu Sultan. The museum hand who was stationed at the display chamber was ever courteous and one could even detect a tinge of sensitiveness on her part to the issue that such objects of our national pride found their way to Britain. It was most gracious of the staff there to assure an ordinary Indian visitor that our treasures are well looked after and respected in their country; and that they are as proud of our heritage as we are. Every question was answered with utmost alacrity and sincerity which definitely is the hallmark of culture and heritage, be it ours or theirs.

The politics of propagation and preservation of culture and heritage in our country, at one extreme, has assumed farcical proportions. At the other end they do help safeguard them. Another glorious institution, the fourth estate, plays a significant role in the safeguarding of our culture and its art forms. While many newspapers have done away with the reporting of classical arts, the others which do so cannot assure much beyond mere reporting. There are few serious writers who plod along with brave efforts at writing and educating the readers on classical arts, albeit always keeping in mind the need to catch eyeballs. There are also others whose reports are incredulously manufactured under the cloud of the unhealthy nexus of the media and the artists. Often the philanthropic policy of a section of media which still devotes space for classical arts boomerangs at them and they become the unwitting propagators of dubious standards in arts. Mediocrity and the outright lack of ethics in reporting at the individual level by the half baked experts on the subject do the harm. The basic question still remains, whose art and heritage is it anyway and who are its guardians?

Pascal Gielen(2010) rightly says that it is a sociological commonplace that cultural practices always go hand in hand with a strict hierarchy of values and norms; and according to classical sociology an institution apart from possessing other characteristics also brings with it a moral authority and a certain historicity. It may well be significant to recognise that great institutions/ businesses of any country stand out not only for their exemplary successes but also the cultural values in their operations and end products which they extend to the farthest reaches of the society.