Cultural Institutions of India

The Constitution of India places on the State the duty to preserve, conserve and propagate the country's culture. To do this, India has built up a network of institutions that look after the nation's heritage. Some are run by government ministries, others are autonomous bodies, and a few are non-government trusts.

It helps to keep two kinds of heritage apart:

• Tangible heritage: the physical remains you can see and touch: monuments, temples, sculptures, antiquities, manuscripts and records. The Archaeological Survey of India and the National Archives guard this.
• Intangible heritage: the living traditions you cannot touch: music, dance, drama, oral and tribal literature, crafts and folk forms. The three national Akademis, IGNCA and others nurture this.

Most of these bodies sit under the Ministry of Culture. A few, such as broadcasting and film bodies, fall under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. For the exam, fix in your mind, for each institution: what it does, when it was founded, who founded or inspired it, and where its headquarters and regional centres lie.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is the country's foremost institution for archaeological research and the protection of its tangible heritage, covering ancient monuments and archaeological sites. It works directly under the Ministry of Culture.

Two laws guide its work:

• Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958: the main law for protecting and maintaining monuments of national importance and regulating excavations.
• Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972: directs the ASI to prevent the illegal export of Indian antiquities out of the country.

For smooth administration, the ASI divides the whole country into 24 Circles. Each Circle is responsible for the monuments within its jurisdiction. The ASI employs trained archaeologists, architects, conservators and epigraphists (experts who read ancient inscriptions). Under its wing it runs:

• Museums and excavation branches.
• Epigraphy branches, Temple Survey Projects and Building Survey Projects.
• A Horticulture branch that maintains gardens around monuments.
• An Underwater Archaeology Wing, its most specialised unit, for exploring submerged sites.

The ASI also trains future archaeologists through the Institute of Archaeology in New Delhi, which offers diplomas and degrees in the subject.

In the years after independence, the government set up three national academies. Each is devoted to one broad field of the arts. Their names and founding years are heavily tested, so learn them precisely.

• Sangeet Natak Akademi (1952): the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, and the first national academy for the arts set up by the Government of India. It was inaugurated by the first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad. It is the central agency for the performing and intangible heritage of India. It works with State and Union Territory governments and collaborates with UNESCO. It administers the National School of Drama (1959) for dramatics. It has also run a decade-long project on Koodiyattam, the ancient Sanskrit theatre of Kerala. Its work covers research, regional theatre, folk and community art forms, and martial and ritual music.
• Sahitya Akademi (1954): the National Academy of Letters, set up to promote literature and foster unity across India's languages. It is autonomous and works in 24 languages: the 22 listed in the Constitution, plus English and Rajasthani. In recent years it has focused on preserving oral and tribal literature. It also hosts literary gatherings such as Samvad, Meet the Author, Kathasandhi, Mulakat and Asmita. The highest honour the Akademi confers on a writer is electing him or her as its Fellow. The Fellowship of the Sahitya Akademi therefore ranks above all its other awards. Those other awards include:
  • Bhasha Samman: for significant contribution to languages not recognised by the Akademi, and to ancient and medieval literature.
  • Ananda Coomaraswamy Fellowship: for work in the field of art, especially of ancient India.
  • Premchand Fellowship: for contribution to literature.
• Lalit Kala Akademi (1954): the National Academy of Art, an autonomous body funded by the Ministry of Culture to promote the fine and visual arts. Its main centre is in Delhi, with Regional Centres at Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Shimla, Shillong and Bhubaneswar. It runs the National Exhibition of Art and the Triennale India. It maintains a permanent collection of modern and contemporary Indian art, a library, an archive and a conservation laboratory. It also gives scholarships and grants to artists.

The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) was launched in 1985 by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in memory of his mother, Indira Gandhi. The trust that governs it was registered in 1987 at New Delhi.

IGNCA is an autonomous institution. It works on research, conservation, display and dissemination of the arts. It centres on the visual and performing arts, but also promotes creative literature. It is built around six functional units:

• Kala Nidhi: the multi-form library and reference resource.
• Kala Kosa: the study and publication of fundamental texts in Indian languages.
• Janapada Sampada: lifestyle and folk-culture studies.
• Cultural Informatics: technology-based tools for cultural preservation and propagation.
• Kala Darsana: the executive unit that turns research into exhibitions and visible forms.
• Sutradhara: the administrative spine that supports and coordinates all the activities.

Its goal is to be the chief resource centre for India's oral and visual art forms. It conducts research and publishes reference works, glossaries and encyclopaedias.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture. It was set up in 1950 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, independent India's first Education Minister. Its job is to project Indian culture abroad and build cultural exchange with other nations.

Its main work includes:

• Framing and running India's external cultural relations and exchange programmes.
• Funding visual and performing-arts events of international appeal, such as the Jazz Festival in New Delhi and the North-East Music Festival in Guwahati.
• Building ties with similar cultural organisations across the world to promote international friendship and exchange.

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a non-profit NGO founded in 1984 in New Delhi. Its purpose is to spread awareness of India's heritage and to conserve it. Its first governing council included Rajiv Gandhi, M.G.K. Menon, Dr Kapila Vatsyayan and Madhavrao Scindia.

INTACH works through local branches called Chapters, present in about 170 Indian cities and several abroad. Its main tasks are:

• Restoring monuments and ruins to their original state and then helping manage and sustain them.
• Spreading awareness through school drives, workshops and Heritage Walks through historic cities.
• Focusing especially on monuments that fall outside the ASI's purview, working with local authorities to preserve them.

Its work is backed by other agencies and foreign partners. A notable example is the INTACH UK Trust (1987). It was set up through a bequest from the Charles Wallace foundation and funds heritage projects in India.

The National Archives of India (NAI) is one of the oldest such institutions in the country, holding the non-current public records of the Indian state. Its story:

• The idea of a "Grand Central Archive" is attributed to the British Civil Auditor Sandeman in 1860.
• It was established as the Imperial Records Department (IRD) in 1891 at Calcutta, under Prof. G.W. Forrest.
• The IRD moved to New Delhi in 1911 when the capital shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.
• Its records were opened to public research in 1939, and a Conservation Research Laboratory (CRL) was added in 1940.
• After independence the IRD was renamed the National Archives of India, headed by a Director.

It has regional centres at Jaipur, Bhubaneswar and Puducherry. Its mission is to preserve India's documentary heritage, manage records scientifically, and build closer ties among archival institutions in India and abroad. Note that public records are appraised every 25 years in consultation with the NAI. Only those of lasting value are kept.

India holds an enormous wealth of manuscripts, handwritten records of its ancient and medieval heritage. On the recommendation of the ASI and the National Archives, the government set up the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) to look after them. The NMM's key tasks are:

• Build the National Electronic Database, with about one million manuscripts, the largest database of Indian manuscripts in the world.
• Conserve manuscripts using both indigenous and modern methods, retaining their ancient character.
• Digitise the rarest and most endangered manuscripts.
• Train the next generation of manuscript conservators through diploma and degree courses in languages, scripts and critical editing.
• Catalogue texts and publish critical editions of unpublished manuscripts.

Several more bodies round out India's cultural machinery. Learn each one's founder/year and its one distinguishing fact.

• Crafts Council of India (CCI): a non-profit founded in 1976 by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay to support craftspersons and preserve craft traditions. Its headquarters are in Chennai, it has over ten State Councils, and it is affiliated to the World Crafts Council. Its chain of craft shops is named "Kamala" after its founder.
• All India Radio (AIR): India's premier public-service radio broadcaster, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Its motto is "Bahujan Hitaya, Bahujan Sukhaya" ("for the good and happiness of the many"). It broadcasts in about 23 languages and 146 dialects and is governed by the Prasar Bharati Act.
• Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML): housed in the Teen Murti House in New Delhi. The building was built in 1929–30 as the residence of the British Commander-in-Chief and later became the home of Jawaharlal Nehru. After Nehru's death in 1964, it became a museum and library devoted to his life and to the study of modern Indian history.
• Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT): set up in 1979 under the Ministry of Culture at the behest of Dr Kapila Vatsyayan and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay to link education with culture. It is headquartered in New Delhi, with regional centres at Udaipur (west), Hyderabad (south) and Guwahati (north-east). It runs the Cultural Heritage Young Leadership Programme.
• Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF): set up in 1973 under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to organise national and international film festivals. It runs the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), selects the Indian Panorama, and organises the National Film Awards, including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in cinema.
• Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR): an autonomous body established under the Societies Registration Act in 1972 to promote objective historical research. It draws funds from the University Grants Commission (UGC). It publishes the Indian Historical Review (English) and Itihas (Hindi), and has regional centres at Bangalore (south) and Guwahati (north-east).
• Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS): an independent non-governmental organisation, not an autonomous body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Examiners test exactly this status, so do not confuse the two. It works to conserve nature through action-based research, education and public awareness. For the general public it organises nature trails and camps that build first-hand familiarity with wildlife.