Coming here on this occasion, I get a feeling of sublimity. It is the essence of human life; it is a heavenly feeling. I am grateful to the Honourable Culture Minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat for having made available such an opportunity to me to know about what has been transacted during the last six days. One assurance I can hold out, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is a game changer.
He gets into his job with passion, mission and he is good at execution. I have seen the positive impact of his ministry when I was in Meghalaya last week. He has not been in the saddle for long but this gives as an indication of the shape of things to come and from every perspective. Bharat home to one-sixth to humanity, this aspect is more important than anything else.
We have a global identity nurtured over centuries and the most inalienable facet, emotive facet, rich facet is our cultural identity.
The presence of a very distinguished parliamentarian, an actor of reckoning, but her identity globally is only by her great commitment to dance. I am referring to Hon'ble Member of Parliament Hema Malini Ji.
Her presence is electrifying because while she has been in various roles, in films and otherwise, her heart, soul and mind have always been in sync when it comes to dance. And dance, I can say, is her everlasting and first love.
Dr. Padma Subramaniam, people look for civilian awards and to be honoured with the second-highest civilian award of this nation and that too in this great field, your presence means a lot to us.
Dr. Sandhya Purecha, she is deep into it, you must have heard her. She is committed to it. This is the second time I am attending her function and I am sure things will always be on an incremental trajectory.
My greetings and salutations to those celebrities, dignitaries who are of the dais. They represent our cultural wealth. They are premium ambassadors of this nation within and outside.
Friends, nothing can be more delightful than to celebrate human expressions through art forms and the six days of deliberations. Mind-scratching, I am told by the Hon'ble Minister, have been extremely fruitful.
All awardees, civilian or otherwise, converged at one place to analyze and address issues so that our culture is nurtured, it is blossomed, and it makes our identity globally more important. I have no doubt the deliberations will go a long way in shaping further course of action. And it is also an occasion to look to those who are committed to dance music, but are in suffering of some kind. We need to handhold them. We need to create a new interest in them.
I know sometimes it is so vital to provide fiscal assistance because they are so deep into their art and culture, dance and music, they forget about it. I'm sure this will be looked into.
I am sure the Honourable Minister would generate a mechanism that all stakeholders for dance and music or culture as a whole come on the same page. They work in tandem and togetherness to generate an ecosystem where our artists in these domains feel comfortable financially and otherwise. And we manage to see an explosion of real talent that lies in villages Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
I am told that over 200 artists and scholars from 16 plus nations have performed various Indian dance forms and shared insights. The Utkarsh performance featuring 300 tribal performers was acclaimed by the President of India. I commend the organisers for this event. I must make by way of transgression, a brief reference, to an extremely talented chief minister, Mr. Sangma of Meghalaya. When I was there, at Raj Bhavan, all the tribes of Meghalaya performed, all of them. They performed one after the other. They performed in unison. They performed in harmony. And this reflected that house over maybe the divisiveness, the unity brought about by culture, by dance and music is impregnable. It is lasting. It is soothing. It is a seamless connection of the heart and soul of the people.
Dance and Music are natural connecting modes. They bring about a friendship beyond language or other barriers.
Bharat means a gold mine of fine arts. The world recognises it, we feel it. This festival testifies to dance's universal appeal, featuring global artists with unique perspectives. It underscores that Indian art educates, uplifts and inspires offering a model of inclusivity in a divided world.
The greatest challenge the planet faces today is lack of inclusivity. Lack of inclusivity in thought, in politics, in economic development. India has emerged as a global beacon of inclusive growth. A growth that is benefiting by good governance, Affirmative policies, the most vulnerable, the marginalized, the weakest, and that has given the nation a mood of hope and possibility, something that was lacking a few years back. In a world grappling with conflicts and transgressions, discord, there is ray of light. When the tunnel is of transgressions, conflagrations, we find light of dance and music that unites people across cultural barriers.
Culture, dance, and music are universal languages of mankind. They are understood all over.
as you mean without having to take recourse to the language or dialect that is specific to individuals.
Performing arts have the power to unite, power to heal, power to inspire, power to motivate. Dance artists are cultural and peace ambassadors. They promote dialogue. They promote discussion. They lay great ground for soothing diplomatic maneuvers.
Distinguish audience, our civilization has always valued various forms of expression. I am taking it in a wider connotation, our civilisation depth is always to lend your ears to the other point of view, never be dismissive about it. There will be occasions when you will find on introspection that the other point of view is the correct point of view.
Dance is considered divine as described in Bharat Muni's Natya Shastra and when you feel divinity, when you experience sublimity, when you rise about heart and mind, or in conversation with your soul, then you realise the existence of pure life. It gives a different meaning altogether, generating peace and harmony all around.
When we look into our historical perspectives, ancient Indian centres like Patliputra, Puri, and Ujjain fostered dance forms. India shared its message of peace and unity through Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, through scriptures and art forms globally.
Let me reflect, our culture was a feast during our G20 presidency. 200 hundred locations in this great country when we had G20 presence. every state of the Union, every Union territory and therein you found something very great. The state government, the Union territory administration and the central government were on the same page as never before and that was a grandiose success.
Indian dances have been performed worldwide for millennia, including Chinese and Greek courts. The Ramayana spread to Southeast Asia is visible at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. On my first maiden visit outside this country, as Vice President, I went to Cambodia to attend an ASEAN meeting. When I went to Angkor Wat, unbelievable! You look at what has been carved out in stone. As if everything was speaking. Amazing and believable! One has to see to believe. I saw it myself. This can turn out to be a great facet of cultural diplomacy and art does not define dominance. Art defines integration. Culture, music, art, they unite. They never dominate.
Bharat is a living civilization with geniuses like Tansen, Tagore, Purandar Drasa and Swami Haridas. But there was a time in our history, 400, 500 years back, where music was discarded by the then rulers. Our most precious treasure was antithetical to their values.
We suffered that kind of repression. But our belief throughout has been that in every part of this great land, those who nurtured, blossomed furthered because of dance music were held in high esteem. And I'm so happy and delighted that in the last 10 years, the recognition extended to eminent, deserving personalities from this domain is very commendable and soothing.
This will help come over challenges of day to day life. They will help us to nurture our indomitable spirit.
Post-Independence, our founding fathers mandated the preservation of cultural heritage in the Constitution. It is reflected in the directive principles of state policy.
India is rising. The rise is exponential. The economic upsurge is stunning. The world organizations are echoing in us. We are moving towards a destination which people of my generation never dreamt of. What we have today was not thought of even a decade ago. In that situation, it is our bounden duty. It is ordainment of our civilization that our art and heritage are made to shine as symbols of identity and influence. There must be our cutting edge when we deal with people to people contact. UNESCO recognizes eight Indian dance forms as intangible cultural heritage, including Kalbeliya, Garba and Chow. I don't subscribe to this. We have many more. They are calibrating from their perspective. We must go much beyond that.
Yoga's global recognition, marked by International Yoga Day, reflects India's role in promoting wellbeing. A thought occurred to the Prime Minister. The thought was put on the global platform. In the shortest time, the largest number of nations converged, and what we see now, yoga is doting every part of the globe that gets sunshine.
Indian wisdom is coming to the rescue of billions.
Our cultural revival integrates ancient wisdom with contemporary practices cementing India's image as a cultural powerhouse.
I congratulate the Ministry of Culture, ICCR and Sangeet Natya Academy for their efforts. However, And this is a time to be extremely proactive, time not to be complacent. We need to discover, nurture and find that it does not go into extinction. Lesser known dance forms, they need to create retention.
Go to any part of the state and you will find every district having its own identity.
Like one district, one product, you will find one district, one cultural event relating to culture, dance, music. I am amazed sometimes when I see the instruments, how hard they have worked to preserve those instruments, how skillfully they play, how they mesmerize you, how they release your stress and tension for a time. When you attend to them you find you are in a different world altogether. We have to focus on that. Let us give them a new lease of life.
We have to also be in overdrive in a group to ensure that our youth get involved with Indian dance, music and the kind. This will also cut into the menacing habits our youth get into. Drugs to name one. A person who is involved in these finer arts either as a performer or as onlooker is surcharged with positivity, welfare of humanity, and I am sure this too will be attended.
As I said, which is more important, your ministry does not stand alone. You have to get all the stakeholders be it the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Civil Aviation any ministry must have the role of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat because we need to spread our culture, disseminate the knowledge of it and wider the knowledge, wider the dissemination greater will be the impact.
Additionally, I urged the honorable minister and I requested particular manuscript experts and dance scholars to work together in rediscovering lost dance manuscripts. I was happy to note what the honorable minister conveyed to me. The giants, the Padmavadis, the great exponents over the last six days have brainstormed to address the challenges and to find out. what can be done.
I would particularly emphasise that we are in the grip of another industrial revolution and that revolution is technology.
Technology, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, machine learning, blockchain and the kind. They help refine our artistic talent. and the effort should be made in a structured scientific manner, employment for generating opportunities in the field of culture, art, dance, music.
These endeavours, particularly promoting rural folk dance forms and rediscovering ancient heritage will serve a large interest of the nation. While institutional efforts are invaluable, collective action is crucial for cultural revival involving individual efforts, community engagement and international collaboration.
I am sometimes amazed when people hold great functions, they think of a different mode of music, different mode of dance. Ignoring the wealth we have with us, once it catches up, they will know what gain they have got. Let us recognize this as the beginning of a commitment to nurture our artistic heritage.
Let us pledge to ensure it blossoms to new heights, the heights that are due to it. Art and culture are vital to our existence, shaping our identity and relationships. Dance is both a window to our past and a pathway to our future. Together let's celebrate the enduring relevance of Indian dance and arts, ensuring they continue to enrich our lives and the world.
I will conclude by making one observation, India's rise is phenomenal, Infrastructure development is unbelievable. From the time I faced a situation as a minister and a member of parliament in 1990, where foreign exchange reserve was one billion US dollars, now it has crossed 700 billion.
I saw Jammu and Kashmir as a minister in 1990, we didn't see even two dozen people on the road, two crore people went there last year as tourists. In this big change we must have proportionate development of our culture.
Thank you so much.
