RIVERINE CULTURES OF INDIA – ENVIRONMENT
News: Reviving
a ‘dead’ river: cultural event to celebrate legacy of Yamuna
What's in the news?
● A
cultural programme in Delhi, planned for September on the banks of the river,
aims at rekindling the connection of people with the ‘sacred’ river, through
historical, cultural, and ecological insight.
Riverine Cultures of India Project:
Cultural event in Yamuna:
● The
Yamuna, an important tributary of the
Ganga, is considered holy in Hinduism. Its confluence with the Ganga and
the mythical Saraswati at Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj is one of the country’s most important pilgrimage spots
for Hindus.
Why this project?
● A
river influences the socio-cultural life
of the entire region, whether it is cropping pattern, festivals, or
religious rituals.
● India
is “losing that connection very fast”
and this project is an effort to reconnect with rivers.
Hosted by: Indira Gandhi National Centre
for the Arts (IGNCA), Ministry of
Culture.
Features:
● The
highlight of the event will be a short
film festival on water bodies like ponds, rivers, streams, and wells, shot
by children near their homes in villages, towns, and cities across the country.
● Other
events and displays will include a photo exhibition comparing the Yamuna of
today with what the river was like 50 years ago.
● Symposia
on various aspects like ecology and conservation of India’s rivers and their
importance in the country’s heritage.
● An
exhibition themed on 15 ghats across the country in Sanjhi or paper stencil
art.
Other rivers in focus:
● The
larger project is focusing on six rivers
right now such as
○ Ganga,
Yamuna, and Sindhu in the north.
○ Krishna,
Godavari, and Kaveri in the South.
● Until
now, festivals have been organized on the banks of the Ganga in Munger (Bihar),
Godavari in Nashik (Maharashtra), Krishna in Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh), and
Hooghly in Kolkata (West Bengal).
Provisions of the project:
● The
project envisages festivals celebrating
rivers in different cities, a study on these rivers in their contemporary
context, and workshops along the banks involving environmentalists, cultural
historians, anthropologists, and folklorists.
● They
hope to develop a major study on riverine cultures, along with one on the
mythical river Saraswati to “understand its importance in the evolution of
human cultures”.