Fifteen years and still counting

The IGNCA plan had five major components. The Sutradhara, the administrative and data processing centre of the complex, has been grandly likened to a “centre radiating dynamically into autonomous units, each interconnected and part of one whole, reflecting the basic unity of the arts.” The Kala Nidhi is a storage and retrieval system for data pertaining to the art and culture of India. This will be disseminated by scholars in the the Kala Kosha. There will be a core team of scholars and a larger network of institutions, scholars and academics associated with its projects. The fourth component, the Janapada Sampada, focuses attention on the rich and varied heritage of tribal and rural India the interrelationship between art and environment, knowledge, social structure, traditional technologies, life cycles and so on and to later include other cultures.

To present living traditions under its study, the Samapada will have a two-hectare landscaped area which will provide for a 200-seat open theatre, exhibition centres, a museum for tribal and folk art, a puppet theatre (with a capacity for 200 people) and an experimental theatre (for 300 people), conference facilities (for 300 people), residential dormitories for 200 visitors, galleries and a bookshop. The final section, the Kala Darshana, will complement the Samapada. While the latter will cover nonformal and less institutionalised manifestations of creativity, the Darshana will cater to more formal presentations. It will be the destination for creative activity in all genres, from architecture to multimedia projection and photography. It will comprise of a National Theatre with an auditorium for 800 people, a concert hall for 2,000, a traditional Indian theatre based on the Kerala Kuttampalam, a restaurant and residential suites for prominent artistes.

The Sutradhara and Kala Nidhi, along with the adjacent shared facilities, would be built in Phase-I, Kala Khosa and Sampada along with the second set of shared facilities in Phase-II and Kala Darshana would round off the Centre in Phase-III. The sequence of construction was orchestrated so that building activity did not impair the functioning of the IGNCA, nor allow it to look incomplete.

It sounds great on paper, but the construction site of the complex, where building activity has swung wildly from overdrive to inaction, looks like a war zone. So far, only the library building (Kalanidhi) is structurally ready and there are six more to go. Says an architectural expert who has been with IGNCA for a while, “Look, if you are looking for a quality product, then we have major problems on hand. There are infrastructural limitations in this country. For instance, the former IGNCA trustees were so quality-conscious that even the water to be used in construction was tested in specially set-up labs. It takes time to search for the right materials and craftsmen, and permission has to be taken from various local authorities. It took four years to get clearance for the construction of the second group of buildings because of height restrictions. Then there’s the resource crunch, so work can only begin after we are confident of the money coming in.”

The Centre has already microfilmed 3 million ancient Indian manuscripts and inscriptions which have been collected from all over the world, and they wait to be housed in the Kalanidhi. For the moment, they are being put to good use by research scholars and academicians who source it from a temporary library.

Creditably, the construction work has not hampered the progress of the Centre’s projects in the last 10 years. Whether the trustees were successful in achieving targets cannot be assessed as the review committee which was to be appointed by the President was never set up. But apart from the ambitious microfilm project (the Centre intends to include another 10 million manuscripts in the next five years), it has published at least 100 books, ranging from a 21-volume encyclopedia of the arts to research works by scholars, held seminars (49 so far), academic lectures and talks regularly on subjects ranging from the cave art of India and China to lifestyle studies of the Santhal tribes. Every two years, a themed interdisciplinary programme is organised, like Kham (space) in 1986, Akara (form) in 1988, Kala (time) in 1990, Panchmahabhuta (the five elements) in 1992 and Rta Rta (cosmic order and cycle of seasons) in 1996.

The IGNCA has also embarked on an active arts dialogue across the world through cultural exchange programmes, invited specialists over and sent IGNCA’s own members to various international fora. It would warm the hearts of the present government, which booted the former trustees out, that the IGNCA has set up a multimedia lab in collaboration with Xerox Corp, USA, to launch a project on Jaidev’s Gita Govinda. The endeavour aims to familiarise audiences with the fundamental concepts of Indian music, dance, arts and bhakti, and their inter-relationship.

The IGNCA has shown some fund-raising initiative the Centre is theexecuting agency for an agreement signed between the government and UNDP, under which the latter provides assistance of $2.723 million for interactive multimedia documentation. It has formulated 14 proposals for UNESCO, has established a UNESCO chair in the Centre, the Ford Foundation has sanctioned almost $400,000 for training schemes, the Japan Foundation Grant has assisted in building up the library, and has envisaged a global computer network of cultural institutes through NICNET. With many more projects in the pipeline, it remains to be seen whether the new board of trustees will give IGNCA its rightful place among arts institutions and whether it will be able to complete Lutyens’ plan for Delhi.