- भारत सरकार Government of India
- शिक्षा मंत्रालय Ministry of Education
- भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान खड़गपुर Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
As part of the SPARC project (RES/MHRD/AR/C0207/1819/0055), âCultural Heritage as a Facilitator for the Sustainable Development Goalsâ we have undertaken until now several activities and have planned several more over the next two years. During the initial period of the year, we were in contact with Prof. Claire Smith over her visiting schedule, and we arranged for a visit of 2 months to IIT-Gandhinagar from Jan-Feb 2020. She came together with a distinguished cultural anthropologist, Dr. Gary Jackson, an international archaeology scholar Dr. Ralph Jordan and her RA, Mr. Luke Rooney.
Prof. Smith taught a half semester credited course entitled Indigenous Archaeology and Digital Repatriation which was the first of its kind to be taught in India. The course covered the experiences of Indigenous peoples all around the world, with a focus on the Indigenous peoples and ancient science of Australia. Dr. Alok Kanungo took lectures on Naga artifacts and repatriation and Dr. Nishaant Choksi (IIT-Gandhinagar) took a lecture on community museums run by Adivasi Bhil communities in Gujarat. As part of the course, Prof. Claire Smith and her team, and the PI and Co-PI from IIT-Gandhinagar took a group of students on two field trips. The first was to the community museum at the Tribal Academy, Tejgadh Gujarat as well as to Adivasi villages in Chota Udepur, where we looked at the museum, the library, and the different activities taking place, and we also visited the homes of the simple living communityâs or Indigenous craftsmen. We discussed how digitalization could further the museumâs mission, and possible engagements between museum personnel and IITGN/Flinders. The next field trip was to Dholavira where Prof. Claire Smith and her team could visit one of the archaeological wonders of India, and see how artifacts, excavations, and monuments have been managed. Discussion on sustainable heritage model has been inspiriting for the students and the Indian PIs at the site.
During her stay, Prof. Smith and the IITGN team were very active in charting out a future course of action. Prof. Smith invited the IITGN collaborators, researcher and two more Indian archaeologists for a 2 month trip to Australia in July-August, where we will visit her fieldsite in Burunga (Northern Territory) and conduct research on the work being done to further the use of indigenous knowledge and sustainable development. We will then spend some time at Flinders University to develop this research and teaching. She also invited one Ph.D. level student and four Master level students of IITGN to participate in this fieldwork as intern (entire expenses are taken care by the Flinders University)
During Dr. Claire Smithâs visit we also charted the future plans of the research. We will be involved in several joint publications, for instance Professor Smith and Kanungo already have a contracted book with Oxford University Press on indigenous archaeology which team members will contribute. Team members and students will also contribute to Prof. Smithâs âEncyclopedia of Global Archaeologyâ which is a peer-reviewed publication by Springer, and we are also currently working on a co-published paper Recording Unmarked Graves in a remote Aboriginal Community: cultural heritage driving Sustainable Development which will be submitted to a peer-reviewed indexed journal of the highest quality.
Prof. Smith and Dr. Chris Wilson will come again in December-January after which we will do our field visit to Nagaland (December 2020) and a workshop (January 2020), for which we will call national and international resource persons. We also plan/propose to hire two post-doctoral scholars to work full time on the project, both in Australia and here. They will be working full time to analyze the data we collect from the field, and also be exposed to new methodologies and concepts in Australia which they can bring back to the country.
Following the field work and workshop, the research team will consolidate our findings and by March-April 2021, submit a book manuscript entitled Cultural Heritage as a Facilitator for Sustainable Development Goals: Case studies from India and Australia in the Indigenous Archaeologies series of Routledge or Berghahn or some other international publisher who will publish an Indian and international edition. We are very much looking forward to this output and believe it will bring a big change to the Indian scenario on the topic.
All participants are IITGandhinagar Students
Prof. Claire Smithâs 2nd visit to India was in January-February, 2022. She, Dr Alino Sumi (PDF) and Dr Alok Kumar Kanungo conducted fieldwork in Nagaland (Khonoma and Wui) and Manipur (Maram, Maramkhullen and Shomai). This complemented her earlier field trip in 2020 to the Bhil areas of Gujarat.
Archaeology
Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology
Ahead of Mahatma Gandhiâs 151st birth anniversary, IITGN and Flinders University, Australia jointly organised a one-day international webinar on âGandhi and the Adivasi Questionâ, on October 01, 2020. The webinar aimed to understand the legacy of Gandhi and Gandhian for understanding Adivasi communities, politics, and identity today. This was part of SPARC (Ministry of Education, Government of India) initiative.
Many Gandhian experts, scholars and Adivasi activists participated in the webinar to discuss Gandhian political philosophy, the history of Gandhian movements post-independence, contemporary struggles for Adivasi rights, Gandhiâs legacy in relation to Adivasis, and how his ideas have impacted the present day Adivasi social movements.
The interdisciplinary panel discussion on âGandhi and the Adivasi Questionâ brought forth various topics. In his talk titled âGandhi and the Category of Adivasis: Understanding Extra Parliamentary Vocabularyâ, Dr Dhananjay Rai from the Central University of Gujarat discussed Gandhiâs various constructive programs, the omission of Adivasi issues in the initial constructive programs and its inclusion in the later ones (after 1945). He said, âThe inclusion of Adivasi issues in the constructive program brought the question of collective rights and territorial rights into the discourse. The constructive program gave an âextra-parliamentaryâ vocabulary to the Adivasi question that has various repercussions for future Adivasi politics in India.â
Dr Bina Sengar from Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, talked about âHistoricising Political Discourse of Gandhians and Adivasi Communities in Western India.â She argued that Gandhi was the first leader in the Indian political system who integrated the rural masses in the independence struggle. Still, Gandhi had very little interaction with the Adivasi communities. It was mainly the Gandhians like Jugatram Dave and Thakkar Bapa who mostly interacted with Adivasis. Gandhians didnât adequately engage with the history and cultural life of the Adivasi communities, they built the ashrams, leading to Sanskritisation of the ashram system.
Talking about âPerceptions of Gandhi among Tana Bhagats of Eastern Indiaâ, Dr Sangeeta Dasgupta from Jawaharlal Nehru University, discussed how a section of the Oraon tribal community in Jharkhand known as âTana Bhagatâ reveres Gandhi as a deity in the community. Adding further, she said, âThis was due to the participation of the Tana Bhagat in the nationalist movement, it was believed that Gandhi was a spiritual entity who inspired the Tana Bhagats to sacrifice land to fight the British. In this case, Gandhi takes on the same features as other famous tribal leaders, such as Birsa Munda, as he is interpreted in the local context.â
The fourth speaker of the panel discussion, Mr Arjun Rathva from MC Rathva College, Pavi Jetpur, Gujarat, discussed âHind Swaraj from a contemporary Adivasi perspectiveâ. Talking about the concept of âHind Swarajâ, he said, âIn âHind Swarajâ, Gandhi has clearly stated what kind of India he is expecting after freedom. According to Gandhi, freedom for India was to be free from the very nature of colonialism. The concept of freedom that he talked about was very important for Adivasis. âHind Swarajâ reflected what Adivasis were fighting for a long time. But in modern India, Adivasis are facing an identity crisis and feel displaced from their culture.â
The keynote talk of the webinar was delivered by Dr Daniel J Rycroft, who is the Chairperson of India Dialogue at the University of East Anglia, UK. He specialises in South Asian art and anthropological history. He has worked and published extensively on representations of Adivasis in Indian art, and the colonial anthropological legacy on Adivasi politics and self-determination. In his talk titled âThe Question of Human Dignity in Adivasi Studiesâ, Dr Daniel discussed the idea of âAdivasi citizenshipâ within the field of human dignity laid out by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. He said that early anthropologists who dealt with Adivasis had identified certain aspects of Adivasi democracy which exists in their village systems and the equal distribution of power.
âThe idea of âdignityâ also circulated in early pictures of Adivasi heroes such as Birsa Munda, which was recognised by Gandhi in the 1940 Congress conference in Ramgarh (Jharkhand). So Adivasi struggle and academic engagement with Adivasis helped shape Gandhiâs ideas, and this can be a contribution to the field of âHuman dignityâ on an international stage with respect to global indigenous peopleâs movementsâ, he said.
Concluding his talk, Dr Daniel said, âWe need to understand the permutations of human dignity because it affects our capacity to know and understand each other. We can explore how human dignity often sits in a productive triangulated relationship with both: human rights and human responsibility.â
The webinar concluded with a detailed discussion and conversation with Shri Ashok Chaudhari, a senior Gandhian leader and Adivasi activist from Adivasi Ekta Parishad and Dr Jitendra Vasava, President of the Adivasi Sahitya Academy, a forum to promote awareness on Adivasi culture and literature. Both of them gave several historical and intriguing perspectives on how, before Gandhi, there were a number of Adivasi social movements in western India, and the Maharaja of Baroda state extended education facilities to Adivasi areas to create an educated class of Adivasis. They expressed that Gandhi and Gandhians took a lot of inspiration from Adivasis, for instance, charkha and handspun cloth were already there in many Adivasi communities, the concept of Gram Swaraj was already practised in Adivasi communities. Shri Ashok Chaudhari was of the opinion that instead of following western models, we should incorporate Gandhiâs ideas into the development process of the country.
Dr Daniel J Rycroft, University of East Anglia, UK
Dr. Mudit Trivedi, Stanford University
Shri Ashok Chaudhari, Adivasi Ekta Parishad
Dr Jitendra Vasava, Adivasi Sahitya Academy
Dr Dhananjay Rai, Central University of Gujarat
Dr Bina Sengar, Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University
Dr Sangeeta Dasgupta, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Mr Arjun Rathva, MC Rathva College
The workshop aimed to unsettle established archaeological practice; and paved the path
forward for integrated and engaged community studies as a distinctive medium to
safeguard material culture and heritage; strengthen the sense of community and
social cohesion; promote community wellbeing; decipher conceptual and practical
issues faced by the Indigenous Peoples; tap the strengths of both Indigenous and
non-Indigenous worldviews and initiate knowledge translation. In contemporary
times, archaeology need not only be relevant to, and guided by, the communities
with whom we work, but to be needed by these communities.
Prof. Supriya Varma, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. Jaya Menon, Shiv Nadar University; Dr. Tilok Thakuria, North Eastern Hill University; Dr. S.K. Aruni, Indian Council of Historical Research; Prof. Fabian W Marbaniang, Martin Luther Christian University; Dr. Rongsenzulu Jamir, Delhi School of Public Policy and Governance,
University of Delhi; Dr. Larilin Kharpuri, Martin Luther Christian University; Gardinia Nongbri, Northeastern Hill University; Dr. S.B. Ota, Tagore National Fellow; Prof. K Rajan, Tamil Nadu State Archaeology Department; Prof. Sarit Choudhury, Rajiv Gandhi University; Dr. L.P. Monia, Rajiv Gandhi University; Nokkai Wangsa, Independent Scholar; Dr. Sunil Gupta, Ghent University; Prof. Kishore K. Basa, Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University; Dr. Madhulika Samanta, Archaeological Survey of India; Prof. Ravi Korisettar, Indian Council of Historical Research; Prof. Dorothy T. Lippert, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Prof. Sonya Atalay, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Prof. Kellie Pollard, Charles Darwin University; Prof. Desiree-Martinez, Cogston Resource Development; Bellina Berenice, French National Centre for Scientific Research, Evrard Olivier, French National Centre for Sustainable Development; Sorathach Rotchanarat, Thai Fine Arts Department; Larry Zimmerman, Indiana UniversityâPurdue University; Dr. Shahida Ansari, Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute; Mrinmoy Ghosh, Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, Ravi Kant, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts; Arun Kumar Reddy Sama, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts; Claire Smith, Flinders University; Gary Jackson, Flinders University; Alok Kumar Kanungo, IIT Gandhinagar; Dr. Oishi Roy, Bihar Heritage Development Society, Hatim Sham, Indian School of Development Management; Alino sumi, IIT Gandhinagar; Prashant K. Singh, IIT Gandhinagar; Nishaant Choksi, IIT Gandhinagar; Ambika Ayadurai, IIT Gandhiangar; Md. Asim, IIT Gandhinagar; Sheersha Barik, IIT Gandhinagar; Shriti Sharam, IIT Gandhinagar; Mithesh Solanki, IIT Gandhinagar, Bhavana Harichandan, IIT Gandhingar; Abdul Adil Paray, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University; Sayak Kar, University of Calcutta; Sayantan Chakraborty, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Dubai Campus; Rajnish Kumar, Archaeological Survey of India; Subhadeep Saha, Calcutta University; Sarathchandrababu, Tamil University; Ashish Varma, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Ruma Mukherjee, Visva Bharati University; Debjani Mahato, University of Calcutta; Keya Chanda, University of Calcutta; Trishita Shandilya, IIT Gandhinagar; Dr. Nilam Subhash Dhapare, Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute; Dr. Aparna Kulkarni, Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute; Dr. Amrita Sarkar, Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute; Ankita Bhattacharya, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Paramananda Barman, CSIR- National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research; Shobharani Ravula, Independent Scholar; Pt Sathya, Independent Scholar; James Smith, Independent Scholar; Sivaranjini Raja, Independent Scholar; Sivaselvi Raja, Independent Scholar; Rajakumari Raja, Independent Scholar; Joanne Smith, Independent Scholar
Across the world, heritage is being placed under increasing stress as globalization accelerates, tourism diversifies, cultural diversity is eroded, the environment changes, and development pressure increase. However, heritage is powerful. The material objects and traces created by past and present people, and the social memory that is woven around them, anchors individual people and their memories to broader, societal understandings of the past. These cultural objects are embedded in environments that have their own histories and trajectories and within the context of a global environmental crisis that disproportionally affects Indigenous communities. In an increasingly fragmented world, heritage can strengthen a sense of community by fortifying its relationship to place. It can boost a regional economy through sustainable tourism. Moreover, heritage is an important resource for fostering cultural resilience, reducing disaster risk, and supporting social cohesion.
Since the 1970s, sustainable development was viewed through an environmental lens, usually in terms of environmental degradation. However, there is a sea change in relation to the way in which cultural heritage is envisaged in this process. In 2013, UNESCO convened the Culture: Key to Sustainable Development international conference in Hangzhou, China. Since then, momentum has built. UNESCO (2015) outlines the challenge in Introducing Cultural Heritage into the Sustainable Development Agenda:
The cultural heritage has been absent from the sustainable development debate despite its crucial importance to societies and the wide acknowledgment of its importance at national level ... Globalization, urbanization and climate change can threaten the cultural heritage and weaken cultural diversity. What measures are needed to promote the safeguarding of the cultural heritage in the global development agenda? What are the concrete actions that need to be taken in order to integrate cultural heritage conservation and promotion into the sustainable development debate? (UNESCO 2015).
A watershed occurred when the Sustainable Development Goals came into effect in January 2016. The 17 goals that were identified are supported by 169 targets. While cultural heritage was not identified as a specific goal, it can be used to further all 17 goals.
This book offers fresh perspectives on the legacy of colonialism in the North-east frontiers of India, especially the Naga Hills. The book interrogates the presence of British administrators and anthropologists in the Naga Hills as part of a popular discourse on (post) colonialism. It weaves a coherent chronological sequence of events and the prevailing attitudes of administrators-cum-anthropologists to understand the whole process of colonial intervention in the Naga Hills. It examines the conventional notions of 'tribes' and 'identity' within the context of the Naga Hills. It explores the transformation of Naga Hills through the lens of colonialism, providing a critical perspective on identity and the intricate web of historical narratives. It is a must-read for scholars, anthropologists, historians, and all those intrigued by the multifaceted legacy of colonialism in the Naga Hills.
Volume: 52
Pages: 0 - 0
Publisher: Tayler & Francis
Volume: 47
Pages: 102 - 103
Publisher: Indian Society for Prehistoric and Quaternary Studies
Volume: 76
Pages: 325 - 344
Venue: Ethnographic and Folk Culture Society
Publisher: Serials Publications Pvt. Ltd.
Ref Doi: http://www.efcsindia.in/eastern.php
Volume: 0
Pages: 0 - 0
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Ref Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197607695.013.44
