New Delhi, April 12: A report on Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs)- which were set up 25 years back to disseminate India’s varied cultures to audiences who did not have access to them- says these bodies have completely deviated from their objectives. More than Rs. 288 crores has been spent by ZCCs since they were formed.
The three-volume report on the seven ZCCs was authored by a committee- established by the Central Advisory Board on Culture in August 2010- chaired by Rajya Sabha Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar, actor Amol Palekar and Oriya poet Sitakant Mahapatra. They found that ZCCs have focused on cultural performances at their headquarters and middle-class urban venues, instead of disseminating the cultures of the region across the zone.
The ZCCs were set up in Patiala, Thanjavur, Santiniketan, Udaipur, Dimapur, Nagpur and Allahabad, and not in state capitals to prevent them from being state-oriented instead of catering the region as a whole. The governors of the host states chair the ZCCs, to keep them free from state politics and domination.
Yet, exactly this has happened. While most centres had seen a rise in the number of programmes they conducted, these mostly took place at the state capital or the headquarters of the centre.
The Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre now has headquarters both in Santiniketan and Salt Lake. The report notes that in the last 15 years, with a sizeable increase in funds, “…the concentration of programming at the two Headquarters of the ZCC in Salt Lake City and Santiniketan becomes even more marked.” It adds that little has been done for the poor of Calcutta or other urban centres like Siliguri.
In her deposition for the committee Danseuse Leela Samson, Director, South Zone Cultural Centre (SZCC) stated, “I think if the SZCC is only serving the Governor of Tamil Nadu, then they should equally be serving the governors of all member-States. This is a very partisan kind of situation. It really was not working because there is obviously very high pressure from the Governor’s Office.”
The committee also found that the ZCCs were regarded as a limbo for bureaucrats waiting for a posting. Danseuse Sonal Mansingh stated, “There a lot of aims, lot of money, lot of opportunities, but there is a confusion of aims.”
The committee has recommended that the corpus fund of ZCCs be raised to Rs. 50 crores to prevent them from being dominated by governments of host states, like has happened to the SZCC where all infrastructure funding was done by Tamil Nadu.
It has also recommended that ZCC director posts not be reserved only for bureaucrats.
Structural changes have also been proposed to distance ZCCs from the government, and to give the cultural community as sense of ownership over them, said Aiyar.
An independent Indian Council of Zonal Cultural Centres, integrated with the three national academies and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. ZCCs must be linked with local bodies and youth clubs.
For Naxalite-hit areas, the committee has recommended police action against ultras to be combined with participative development by promoting tribal artistes. “Cultural troupes matter at least as much as armed troops in the struggle,” says the report.
A Folk and Tribal Arts Akademi and museum, along with livelihood security for tribal artistes is an imperative to protect the dying cultural repertoire of tribals, the committee found. Cross country cultural yatras culminating in a silver jubilee Apna Utsav yatra in Kolkata or Chennai coordinated by Amol Palekar, has been proposed for this year.
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