Tagore’s commitment to Santal villages near Santiketan – UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Keeping Rabindranath’s ideas in mind, Surendranath Kar prepared the architectural plan and Nandalal Bose [>>Wikipedia] prepared the visual perspective based on the Borobudur style. The entire outside wall was decorated with beautiful relief work by Kala-Bhavana students under the guidance of Nandalal Bose. The Santals on either side of the main door and on the … Read more

Traditional social structures of Adivasis and the constitutional right to food: “Will this be the end of malnutrition and starvation in India?”

Source: 2022 Global Hunger IndexURL: https://www.globalhungerindex.org/india.htmlDate Visited: 30 June 2022 Legally entitled to a full stomach Fifty percent of the world’s hungry live in India [2012 estimates, see globalhungerindex.org for more recent figures]. But India is a democracy, which gives her citizens a lot of rights – for instance, the constitutional right to food. Based … Read more

eBook | The Dhodia community: Celebrating history and legends through songs and storytelling – Gujarat

Dhodia Adivasis are spread across Gujarat and Maharashtra. They have songs for all occasions: birth, death, marriage, harvest and festivals. Their main musical instrument is the Toor. They have a rich repertoire of stories of human, animals and birds, tales of wit and cleverness, historical stories, mythical and magical tales, stories of origin, legends and … Read more

eBook | The Tale of a Mouse (Chaudhari) – A story from Gujarat

Once there lived an old woman. One day the woman sat before the fire, preparing rotlas. A mouse passed by the hedge outside. As it rushed by, a thorn stuck in its legs. The mouse came slowly inside the house to the old woman and said, “Oh Grandmother, a thorn has stuck in my leg … Read more

School enrolment and literacy: State priorities towards education under colonial rule and since India’s independence – Gujarat, Jharkhand, Manipur, Rajasthan & West Bengal

Why does China soar where India continues to struggle? The most basic reason is state priorities towards education. As of 1947, the literacy rate in India was barely 11%. But the Chinese emulated Japan’s earlier policy choices (and were themselves soon copied by the south east Asian “tigers”) by investing very heavily in primary education. … Read more