The problem

HOME to nearly one quarter of humanity, South Asia comprises Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Maldives as a coherent region. It represents the confluence and continuities of related cultures, traditions, politics, economies and, more vitally, their intricately linked histories. However, for decades now, territorial security has taken precedence over such cultural affinities and shared wealth. South Asia has remained distraught by its violent and fissiparous tendencies fracturing the subcontinent while its civilizational memories have dissolved into volatile political boundaries. In addition to being one of the most militarized zones on earth, conventional indices such as adult literacy, number of malnourished children, per capita income, and so on describe the region as impoverished with close to forty per cent of our planet’s poorest living here.

Of critical relevance to realizing the strategic intentions of prosperity, peace and coexistence within the South Asian region is the evolution of people-to-people dialogues and coalitions. Innovative interventions based on cultural insights can amplify the agenda for civic action to help mitigate conflicts across the beleaguered neighbourhood. The pressure of geopolitical issues related to the future of work, gender disparity, identity crisis, cross-border apprehensions and environmental degradation need a resourceful deliverance.

A footprint of seamless South Asia offers businesses a lucrative market and massive production and service capacity. However, what has been consistently overlooked is its capacity to reject homogenization: to indigenize global brands and apply innovative skills and resources to drive original commissions. Given a friendlier neighbourhood, the subcontinent could be an arena of opportunity and socio-economic vitality. Consider the scores of women and men in the region – a number next only to agriculture – who work with their time-tested skills, their craft and talent largely inherited but increasingly unrecognized, underutilized, undervalued and undeterred by organized industry. A shift of economic focus to the small and broadly ‘cultural’, ‘creative’ or ‘legacy’ industries is now pertinent to growth and capacity building for this vast populace in the subcontinent. Fortunately, a number of civil society organizations and international institutions in the region are working with the traditional communities at the bottom of the pyramid to help bring their skills into the mainstream and strengthen the entire value chain of products and services.

A statement of true creative democracy, the Sasian Journey is a trans-disciplinary programme being steered by the Asian Heritage Foundation (AHF) in association with Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) offering a formidable mandate to present the contemporary aspirations of the South Asian people to the world. The journey will:

* celebrate grassroots cultures of the South Asia by connecting and reconnecting ideas, experiences and lives within a conflict-ridden geopolitical reality.

* showcase the tenacity of evolving traditional skills and their knowledge banks for a unique positioning in contemporary global markets.

* highlight the great contribution of creative and cultural industries as formidable sources of employment contributing to the economies of the subcontinent.

* innovate and improvise on everyday means of inter-personal communication that negotiates with the phenomenal growth of electronic mass media.

* synergize the resources of the South Asian diaspora around the world, bringing their shared concerns to the forefront.

* provide an opportunity for those hosting the Sasian Journey to engage their respective countries with the fast developing region of South Asia.

The inception of the programme took place over many decades and a number of events. Two formidable figures of our subcontinent, Pupul Jayakar and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, often spoke about the hiatus in what was expected from the independence of the Indian subcontinent and what it brought. The Festivals of India in the 1980s positioned the idea of bringing a fractured civilization together through creative action. The Silk Road Festival anchored by Rajeev Sethi in association with the Smithsonian in 2002, became a seminal meeting ground for the Asian diaspora, helping bring together over 450 Silk Road artists and artisans from more than 20 countries, many meeting each other for the first time. Taj Mall – Agra Bazaar revisited, a theatrical event organized in 2009 for a delegation from the Smithsonian visiting India used Agra as a metaphor to position apparently discordant contrasts of the local with cosmopolitan, tempered by the resurgent longings of the South Asian subcontinent. The concept of Sasian Journey was formally announced in 2010 as part of the Naya Daur symposium at the Gandhi Darshan Smriti and the World Bank lawns in New Delhi.

The way forward includes a trajectory of ongoing design-led interventions scheduled over the next four years. These events are expected to bring together prominent civil society members from the region for continuous engagement, hopefully creating a series of cross-sectoral collaborations covering the whole ambit of creative and cultural industries – pedagogy, architecture, conservation, disaster management, gender issues, fashion, crafts, arts, music, theatre, photography, films and TV, publication, food, festivals, rituals, museums, cottage industries, acrobatics/yoga and traditional sports, martial arts, oral histories, literature, textiles and weaving, and imaginative cross-border itineraries for tourism.

AHF’s Jiyo programme in collaboration with Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Poverty Alleviation Fund is undertaking organizing skill and design development workshops in some of the poorest districts of the country. Recently in March 2016, an intense marketing clinic entitled ‘Capacity Building and Sustainable Livelihoods for Conflict Affected in Nepal’ was conducted in Kathmandu. Bangladesh’s Ministry of Culture has earmarked 24-26 November 2016 for the Dhaka discourse on the Sasian Journey. The Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s Office is contemplating a similar scheduling in early 2017. AHF is in the process of formalizing 101 Beacons – a three day conference intended to showcase selected pedagogical practices integrating the subcontinent’s tangible and intangible heritage within evolving knowledge systems and formal contemporary educational practices. March 2017 will also see the conception of Adivasi Jatra – the first ever festival of tribals of South Asia. SADAK (South Asian Arts, Design and Technology Kendra) is being conceived as the first centre of excellence of its kind servicing the legacy industries of South Asia. Senior faculty from the London School of Economics are studying the feasibility of establishing a Sasian Heritage Fund as an international organization on the lines of The World Bank or the International Monetary Fund with the aim facilitating the use of common cultural currency of the South Asian region.

These specific opportunities rooted within the inherited cultures of the Sasian people are some milestones that will mark the progress of this seminal journey. This issue of Seminar defines the contours of the Sasian journey and its various tentative agendas and envisioned destinations for its manifestation around the world as yet another initiative to help the dialogue process and further the vision of subcontinental cooperation.

ASIAN HERITAGE FOUNDATION COLLECTIVE

* This issue of Seminar is extracted from a larger work on the Sasian Journey to be published by Academic Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge the help of Asian Heritage Foundation and Rajeev Sethi in permitting us to extract some essays from their forthcoming book.