Area Highlights

The IGNCA interacts with scholars devoted to the study of different aspects of culture from all parts of the world.

A lively presentation with an exhibition of vivid colour slides and a first person account of the experiences in the Third China Art Festival, 1992, was given by Smt. Komala Varadan, the noted dancer. The Festival, as it appeared from the presentation, gave the glimpse into the cultural variety found in the region.

Mr. Jagdish R. Hiremath, the retired diplomat, who visited many of the front line states in South Africa to coordinate NAM’s assistance to them, shared his findings and observations at the Centre. In the lecture titled The Present status and the future Prospects of Indians in South Africa he concentrated on the experiences and problems of the large number of Indians settled in South Africa. Though subjected to the same kind of apartheid racism as the other non-white groups, Pretoria has singled them out for relatively preferential treatment in the last thirty years. In the context of the forthcoming non-racial, multi-party elections next year, both the whites and the blacks are trying to win the support of the Indians in South Africa. The lecture thus offered a panoramic survey of the present status and future prospects of these ‘Overseas Indians’.

Dr. Edi Sedyawati, Director General of Education and Culture, Govt. of Indonesia, Jakarta, in her address Indian Influence in Indonesian Culture observed that Hinduism and Buddhism, the two great religions originating in India, have had a penetrating influence on Indonesia’s cultural life. New ideas in all vistas of life developed in Indonesia, and the Indian element was completely indigenised, with the result that a totally different style of art emerged there. The speaker dealt with these observations in relation to specific disciplines – visual art, theatrical art and literature.

What happens to an art form (in this case, music) when the government takes over its sponsorship and makes it a handmaiden to serve narrow political interests? This issue was seen in relation to the fate of the black people of South Africa in the 1960’s, when the government tried to curb original forms of music and replace them with neo-traditional styles. The speaker was Prof. Denis-Constant Martin, Director, National Foundation for Political Sciences (Paris).

Prof. Ranjit Roy Choudhary, Emeritus Professor, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, in an illustrative talk In and Around the Great Pagodas of Burma attempted to capture some of the splendours of Pagan, Pagu and the great Shwedagon Pagodas at Rangoon.

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