Heritage, Institutions and Cinema — UPSC Art & Culture Notes

1. The Framework

World Heritage Convention (1972): sites of 'Outstanding Universal Value' are inscribed by the 21-member World Heritage Committee on the advice of ICOMOS (cultural) and IUCN (natural); a site must first be on the country's Tentative List. India ratified the Convention in 1977; in India the ASI is the nodal agency.

Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention (2003): protects living traditions — oral traditions, performing arts, rituals and festivals, knowledge of nature, and craftsmanship. India's nodal body is the Sangeet Natak Akademi. India hosted the 20th session of the ICH Intergovernmental Committee at the Red Fort, New Delhi, in December 2025, and the 46th World Heritage Committee session in New Delhi in July 2024.

2. India's World Heritage Sites (45)

First inscriptions (1983): Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal.

Natural (7): Kaziranga, Keoladeo and Manas (1985), Sundarbans (1987), Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers (1988, extended 2005), Western Ghats (2012), Great Himalayan National Park (2014). Mixed (1): Khangchendzonga National Park (2016).

Recent cultural inscriptions: Dholavira and Ramappa Temple (2021); Santiniketan and the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas (2023); the Moidams of the Ahom dynasty, Assam (2024); Maratha Military Landscapes — 12 forts in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (2025); and the Ancient Buddhist Site of Sarnath (Chaukhandi Stupa and the archaeological remains including the Dhamek and Dharmarajika stupas), inscribed at the 48th session in Busan in July 2026 as India's 45th site.

Other notable sites: Jantar Mantar, Jaipur (2010); Hill Forts of Rajasthan (2013); Rani-ki-Vav, Patan (2014); Nalanda Mahavihara and Le Corbusier's Capitol Complex, Chandigarh (2016, transnational); Historic City of Ahmedabad (2017, India's first World Heritage City); Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai (2018); Jaipur City (2019). No Indian site is currently on the List of World Heritage in Danger (Manas was removed in 2011).

3. Intangible Cultural Heritage (16 elements)

2008: Vedic chanting, Ramlila, Kutiyattam (Sanskrit theatre of Kerala). 2009: Ramman (Garhwal). 2010: Mudiyettu (Kerala), Kalbelia (Rajasthan), Chhau. 2012: Buddhist chanting of Ladakh. 2013: Sankirtana of Manipur. 2014: Thatheras of Jandiala Guru. 2016: Yoga; Nowruz (multinational). 2017: Kumbh Mela. 2021: Durga Puja in Kolkata. 2023: Garba of Gujarat. 2025: Deepavali.

Process: a country can usually have one national nomination examined per cycle; India's own National Inventory of ICH is maintained by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

4. Other UNESCO Programmes

Memory of the World Register (documentary heritage): includes the Rigveda manuscripts (2007), the Gilgit manuscripts (2017) and, since April 2025, the Natyashastra and the Bhagavad Gita.

Creative Cities Network: Indian members include Jaipur and Srinagar (crafts and folk art), Varanasi, Chennai and Gwalior (music), Mumbai (film), Hyderabad and, since 2025, Lucknow (gastronomy), and Kozhikode (literature). Biosphere reserves under the Man and Biosphere programme are another UNESCO list.

Practice

UPSC-style (Prelims): Which of the following are on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list for India: Garba, Kumbh Mela, Chhau, Kathakali? (Answer: Garba, Kumbh Mela and Chhau; Kathakali is not, though Kutiyattam and Mudiyettu of Kerala are.)

1. Heritage and Research Bodies

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI, 1861): founded with Alexander Cunningham as first Director-General; John Marshall led it during the Harappan excavations. It protects more than 3,600 monuments of national importance under the AMASR Act, 1958.

Other bodies: the Asiatic Society, Kolkata (1784, William Jones); the National Archives of India (1891, as the Imperial Record Department); the Anthropological Survey of India (1945); the National Museum, Delhi (1949); the National Gallery of Modern Art (1954).

IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Delhi, 1987): research, documentation and a cultural archive; it hosts the National Mission for Manuscripts (2003). The National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (2007) builds a national database of built heritage and antiquities.

2. The National Akademis and Training

Sangeet Natak Akademi (1952): music, dance and drama; awards and fellowships (Akademi Ratna); recognises classical dance forms; nodal body for UNESCO ICH. Sahitya Akademi (1954): letters; awards in 24 languages; translation. Lalit Kala Akademi (1954): visual arts; organises the Triennale India.

National School of Drama (1959, Delhi; Bharat Rang Mahotsav theatre festival); Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT, 1979, founded with the vision of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Kapila Vatsyayan) trains teachers to bring culture into schools; Kalakshetra (Chennai, founded by Rukmini Devi Arundale in 1936).

Zonal Cultural Centres (7): set up in the mid-1980s (Patiala, Udaipur, Prayagraj, Kolkata, Thanjavur, Nagpur, Dimapur) to promote folk and tribal arts across states; they organise the Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav.

ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations, 1950, founded by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad): cultural centres abroad, scholarships for foreign students, chairs of Indian studies.

3. Schemes and Missions

Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (2015): pairs states to promote mutual cultural understanding. Project Mausam (2014): explores Indian Ocean cultural and trade links. Guru-Shishya Parampara and the scheme for safeguarding intangible heritage support traditional artists.

Heritage and tourism: Adopt a Heritage (2017; companies as 'Monument Mitras' provide visitor amenities); PRASHAD (pilgrimage rejuvenation, Ministry of Tourism); Swadesh Darshan (theme-based circuits); HRIDAY (2015, heritage city development).

Gyan Bharatam Mission: announced in the Union Budget 2025-26 and launched by the Ministry of Culture in 2025 to survey, conserve and digitise more than one crore manuscripts held by institutions and private collections, building on the National Mission for Manuscripts.

4. Major Cultural Awards

Padma awards and Bharat Ratna; Sangeet Natak Akademi awards and fellowships; Sahitya Akademi awards; Jnanpith (literature); Dadasaheb Phalke Award (cinema); Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony (from 2012); Kalidas Samman (Madhya Pradesh government).

Practice

UPSC-style (Prelims): Which body is India's nodal agency for UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage, and which founded the Indian Council for Cultural Relations? (Answer: Sangeet Natak Akademi; Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.)

1. Beginnings

The Lumière brothers' films were shown at Watson's Hotel, Bombay, in July 1896. Raja Harishchandra (1913), made by Dadasaheb Phalke, was the first full-length Indian feature film. Alam Ara (1931, Ardeshir Irani) was the first Indian talkie, and Kisan Kanya (1937) the first colour film made in India.

Studio era: Prabhat (Pune), New Theatres (Calcutta) and Bombay Talkies made social and mythological films; films such as Achhut Kanya (1936) took up social reform.

2. Golden Age and Parallel Cinema

1950s: Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt (Pyaasa), Bimal Roy (Do Bigha Zamin) and Mehboob Khan, whose Mother India (1957) was India's first film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Satyajit Ray: Pather Panchali (1955, Bengali; the Apu trilogy) won a special award at Cannes in 1956; Ray received an honorary Oscar and the Bharat Ratna in 1992. Parallel cinema: Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal (Ankur), Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Girish Kasaravalli, helped by the Film Finance Corporation (later NFDC).

Regional cinemas: strong Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi industries; Tamil and Telugu cinema shaped politics (M.G. Ramachandran, N.T. Rama Rao). Recent 'pan-Indian' films are dubbed and released in several languages at once.

3. Global Recognition

Oscars: Bhanu Athaiya (costume, Gandhi, 1983) was the first Indian winner; A.R. Rahman, Resul Pookutty and Gulzar won for Slumdog Millionaire (2009); in 2023 'Naatu Naatu' from RRR won Best Original Song and The Elephant Whisperers won Best Documentary Short.

Festivals: Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2024.

4. Institutions and Regulation

CBFC certifies films under the Cinematograph Act, 1952; the Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023 added age-based categories (UA 7+, UA 13+, UA 16+), made certificates valid permanently and introduced penalties for piracy.

Other bodies: National Film Awards (from 1954); the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (from 1969; first recipient Devika Rani; Mohanlal received it, for 2023, at the 71st National Film Awards in September 2025); FTII, Pune (1960); IFFI (first held 1952, in Goa since 2004); in 2022 Films Division, the National Film Archive and others were merged into the NFDC, which also runs the National Film Heritage Mission to restore old films.

5. Modern Theatre

Colonial period: commercial Parsi theatre (19th century) toured widely with music and spectacle; nationalist plays led the British to pass the Dramatic Performances Act, 1876 to censor them.

IPTA (Indian People's Theatre Association, 1943) staged Nabanna (1944) on the Bengal famine; Prithviraj Kapoor founded Prithvi Theatres (1944).

After independence: Mohan Rakesh (Ashadh Ka Ek Din), Dharamvir Bharati (Andha Yug), Girish Karnad (Tughlaq, Hayavadana), Vijay Tendulkar (Ghashiram Kotwal), Badal Sircar (Third Theatre), Habib Tanvir (Naya Theatre; Charandas Chor with Chhattisgarhi folk actors), Ratan Thiyam (Manipur) and the street theatre of Safdar Hashmi (Jana Natya Manch).

Practice

UPSC-style (Mains): 'Indian cinema has been both a mirror and a maker of Indian society.' Discuss, with reference to its role in nation-building and soft power.

1. Constitutional Basis

Article 49 (DPSP): the State shall protect monuments and places of artistic or historic interest declared by Parliament to be of national importance. Article 51A(f): duty to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture. Article 29: right of any section of citizens to conserve its distinct language, script or culture.

Seventh Schedule: monuments of national importance are in the Union List (Entry 67); other ancient monuments in the State List (Entry 12); archaeological sites other than those of national importance in the Concurrent List (Entry 40).

2. Laws

Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904 (Curzon) was the first major law. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958 governs centrally protected monuments; the 2010 amendment created a prohibited area of 100 m and a regulated area of a further 200 m around each monument and set up the National Monuments Authority to frame heritage by-laws.

Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972: antiquities (objects over 100 years old) cannot be exported except by the government; dealers must be licensed and certain antiquities registered. India is party to the 1970 UNESCO Convention against illicit trafficking of cultural property. The ASI's National Conservation Policy (2014) sets principles for conserving monuments.

3. Threats

Urbanisation and encroachment: construction in prohibited zones, shops and homes built against monument walls; Hampi was on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger from 1999 to 2006 because of bridge construction and development pressures.

Pollution: air pollution yellows marble — in M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (Taj Trapezium case, 1996) the Supreme Court ordered polluting industries in the Taj Trapezium Zone to switch to cleaner fuel or relocate.

Climate change and disasters: coastal erosion and salt spray (Mahabalipuram Shore Temple), floods, heavy rain on fragile murals and landslides in Himalayan shrines.

Theft and neglect: idols and sculptures are stolen and smuggled abroad; a CAG audit (2013) found 92 centrally protected monuments untraceable. Thousands of monuments are protected by neither the Centre nor the states, and the ASI faces staff and fund shortages.

Over-tourism and insensitive restoration: crowding, graffiti and littering; use of cement or modern materials instead of lime damages historic fabric.

4. Good Practices

The Humayun's Tomb conservation by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture with the ASI (public-private partnership using traditional lime and craftsmen); INTACH (1984) listing of unprotected heritage; repatriation of stolen antiquities from the US, UK, Australia and Canada (such as the Annapurna idol returned from Canada in 2021); 3D laser documentation of sites.

Practice

UPSC-style (Mains): 'Safeguarding Indian art heritage is the need of the moment.' Discuss the threats to India's built heritage and suggest measures.