New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI) The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) will host a mega conference from October 14-16 in Delhi, themed on India’s cultural legacy and its wider civilisational heritage beyond borders, officials said on Monday.
The “Brihattar Bharat: International Conference on Bharat’s Cultural Connections Across the Globe” will bring delegates, ambassadors and scholars from 50 countries to deliberate on India’s historical and contemporary cultural connections with the wider world.
Participants from countries including China, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal and Iran, among others, will contribute to discussions on shared cultural heritage and civilisational exchanges, a statement said.
Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will inaugurate the conference at Vigyan Bhawan, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special video message will be played at the inaugural session.
The conference marks the centenary of the Greater India Society, also known as Brihattar Bharat Parishad, established in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on October 14, 1926, by a generation of Indian scholars, with Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore as its spiritual guide, the IGNCA said.
The IGNCA works under the ambit of the Ministry of Culture.
The Society laid the foundation for systematic scholarly engagement with India’s wider civilisational interactions. The conference seeks to renew this intellectual endeavour through fresh research, interdisciplinary perspectives and international collaboration, it said in a statement.
The concept of ‘Brihattar Bharat’ refers to the wider civilisational sphere shaped by the transmission, adaptation and interaction of Indian cultural, philosophical, artistic, linguistic and religious traditions across regions and continents, it added.
The conference is being organised as part of the Brihattar Bharat Scheme (2026-2031), administered by IGNCA under the Global Engagement Scheme of the ministry.
The initiative aims to advance research, documentation, publication, preservation, promotion and digitisation of shared cultural and civilisational heritage through collaborative research, archival projects, exhibitions, publications, outreach programmes and international academic partnerships, a senior official said.
An exhibition, ‘Common Cultural Heritage of Asia’, will be organised during the conference, highlighting the shared heritage and historical cultural connections between India and other Asian countries.
The conference will examine these linkages across Southeast Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Europe, South Asia and the global Indian diaspora, emphasising cultural dialogue, adaptation and mutual enrichment.
The academic deliberations will centre on ten themes, ranging from early linkages and religious traditions to philosophy and trade.
It will also encourage joint research and publications, identify new areas for documentation, explore joint nominations for UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme and multinational nominations for Intangible Cultural Heritage, and support the proposed Brihattar Bharat Portal for the sustained documentation, preservation and global dissemination of shared heritage, it said. PTI KND
AMJ
AMJ
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.