Invitation

Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage
Amritsar Chapter

The Amritsar chapter of Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage cordially invites you to the cultural events being organized to celebrate the World Heritage Day as per the programme given below:
Event Date Time Venue
Painting Competition 16.4.10 9- 11A.M. Khalsa College Grounds
Folk Song Competition 17.4.10 10- 12 A.M. S.L. Bhawan School
Shivala Bhaiyan
Heritage Walk 18.4.10 6.30- 7. 30 A.M. Jallian Wala Bagh
Note: The heritage walk will start from Jallian Wala Bagh at 6.30 A.M. and the participants will walk through the lanes of the walled city of Amritsar.
Route: Jallian bagh- Katra Ahluwalia- Qila Ahluwalia- Town Hall- Katra Jaimal Simgh- Guru Bazar- Lohgarh Gate- Hindu College- Gurudwara Churasati Attari- Taksal- Baba Bohar- Akhara Sangal Wala wala
Kindly e-mail at intach.p@gmail.com your suggestions and your e-mail id. as well as your mobile no. for better communication in future.

My City My History

Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage is organizing a nation wide competition in collaboration with FOX History Channel for its programme My City My History. The competition is open to the school students of the classes VI- IX. The students are required to write in 750 words (English or Hindi) an untold story about their city. The could be about a monument or a little known building, fort, natural feature, craft, festival, mela, custom, person, or a place of worship. For example, The foundation stone of Shri Harimandir Sahib(Golden Temple) was laid by a Muslim Saint Mian Mir at the request of the 5th Guru, Guru Arjun Dev ji. This is a very special place of one religion where a person from another faith was given the supreme privilege of laying the foundation stone.
The story in English or Hindi may be supported by a photograph, painting or drawing but this is optional. The last date of submission of entries is December 31st 2009.
The 5 winners of this all India Competition will get an opportunity to present their stories on FOX History and entertainment Television Channel. Every participant will receive a prize and a certificate of participation.
INTACH will be organizing heritage walks for school & college students and citizens. He appealed the schools to encourage their students to in the walks. He said that the schools and students should take pride in participating in the walks rather than doing it as a formality or a routine exercise.

Seminar on Preservation of Heritage

In collaboration with Adesh Institute of Engineering & Technology Faridkot, the INTACH chapter Faridkot organised a seminar on Preservation of Heritage on 28th August 2009. The one day seminar was inaugurated by Dr. Daljeet Singh, Director, Doordarshan Kendra Jallandhar and presided over by Dr. Sukhdev Singh, Punjab State Convener, Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage.

Mr. M. Farooqi (IPS), Director, Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur participated in the seminar as the guest of honour. Dr. Braham Jagdish Singh, a known Punjabi Critic & writer, Principal Gopal Singh spoke at length on the different aspects of heriatge & culture. Besides the dhadis & theatre artists & members of Nehru Yuvak Kendra, Principal, Students & Teachers of Adesh Institute of Engineering & Technology participated in the seminar. Mr. Amrit Lal Mannan coordinator INTACH heritage shool clubs Amritsar Chapter, Col. Balbir Singh, Kheva Ji Mehrawal Fort Trust & other dignitiaries of the city participated in the seminar.

The neem trees were also planted on this occasion

INTACH Heritage clubs Amritsar

A meeting of INTACH Heritage clubs in schools in Amritsar was held on 26TH August 2009.

Workshop on Cultural Heritage & Media

The workshop was organized on 8.8.09 at the Seminar Hall, DAV Public School, Lawrence Road Amritsar. More than sixty persons which included the speakers, organizing committee, forty working journalists, twelve students of the dept. of Media & Mass Communication, BBK DAV College Amritsar, five teachers participated in the workshop.
The workshop opened with the welcome address & introduction to the workshop by Er. Hira Singh , Co-convener Amritsar Chapter. The first session was chaired by Mr. Jasbir Singh Patti, President, Chandigarh- Punjab Journalists’ Union, Mr. Kuldip Singh Maan, Senior Special Correspondent, Hindustan Times, & Ms. Rashmi Talwar, Correspondent, Pioneer. In this session, Dr. Sukhdev Singh Punjab State Convener, INTACH spoke about the concept & philosophy Cultural Heritage & Conservation . He used power point slides to illustrate the notions of tangible & intangible heritage, heritage zones, sites & products etc. The second presentation was by Mr. Dharminder Rataul, Senior Special Correspondent, Indian Express. He spoke at length about the role of Media in Promotion of Cultural Heritage. He gave examples how media could help the cause of cultural heritage.
Each of the three members of the presidium made pertinent comments on the presentations & spoke about problems and limitations of Media. They discussed the importance of the cultural heritage & the workshop.
The second session was chaired by Ms. Neera Sharma, Principal, DAV Public School, Lawrence Road Amritsar. Ar. P.S. Mahoora, Professor of Architecture & Member INTACH Amritsar Chapter spoke on evolution of the walled city of Amritsar. He also explained some measures to save the architectural heritage of the walled city. Dr. Sukhdev Singh, Punjab State Convener, INTACH described the origin, organizational structure, role and philosophy of INTACH. Ms. Neera Sharma, Principal, DAV Public School, Lawrence Road Amritsar praised INTACH as the only organization working so extensively for the grass root level to the top level.
In the third session a panel discussion was organized. The panelists were Mr. Deepak Sharma, Zee TV, Mr. Shiv Raj Dhrupad, Dainik Bhaskar and Mr. Surinder Kochhar, a Social Activist. Mr. Ravinder Singh Robin, ANI TV was the moderator. The panelists critically and forcefully discussed the role, limitations & problems of media in performing their duty toward cultural heritage. They pointed out that some times the journalists have no proper knowledge about the significance, methodology, and appropriate vocabulary to report the matters of cultural heritage. Sometimes the journalists are in hurry to prepare a story for the next day; sometimes there are problems of space; and sometime there are difference of opinion at the higher level whether a local issue is important enough to be reported and how much space can be given to such a matter.
However all of them praised INTACH Amritsar Chapter for organizing such an event where the working journalists at the local level were invited to listen to the other people and also invited to discuss the important issue of cultural heritage.

Hira Singh
Co- Convener
Amritsar Chapter
INTACH

Heritage Walk

A group of students from the Oxford University and UNITED SIKHS volunteers went on the Amritsar heritage walk with the members of INTACH Amritsar Chapter.

World Environment Day

O n the world Environment Day , 5th June 5, 2009, Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage Amritsar Chapter organized a seminar on Climatic Changes at the department of Foreign Languages, Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar. The seminar was presided over by Ms. Anvant Kaur, Dr. Bikram Singh Ghuman, fromer Dean of GNDU Amritsar, Dr. P.S. Sharma, Head Dept. of Foreign Languages, GNDU Amritsar.
The main speaker in the seminar, Mr. Manpreet Singh Bhatti of the Deaprtment of Botanical Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, described in detail about the threatening climatic changes. Elaborating the concept, he said, “Climatic fluctuations can be in the form of severe temperature, erratic precipitations, strong dry wind, and shrinkage in coastal areas or ice glaciers”. Major causes of climatic change, he said, “are industry, automobiles, agriculture, forestry and modern life style”. Supporting his argument with data, he suggested more efficient industrial technologies, efficient fuel burning and blending of biofuels, fuel efficient vehicles, reliance on cycle ways and walkways etc. as measures to check climatic change and environment pollution.
Speaking on this occasion, Dr. Sukhdev Singh Punjab State Convener INTACH said: “Clean environment is the part of our natural heritage. Although development is necessary and can not be and need not be stopped, we have to understand that the development policies are environment and man friendly. We should not follow the development blindly and greedily”.
In her presidential remarks, Ms. Anvant Kaur, renowned poet and editor of Punjabi literary magazine, Kanwal, emphasized the need of change in our lifestyle and day to day habits for preserving our planet from polluting. Lauding the efforts of INTACH, she said: “The scholars, academics, artists, and social activists should enhance their out reach to the common people to give their ideas and efforts a practical shape”. She emphasized the practice of traditional modes of living as a check on climatic change.
Participating in the discussion Er. Harkanwaljeet Singh, emphasized the need of changing crop pattern and check on depletion of water. Er. Hira Singh, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Dr. Neena, Er. & poet Kirat Singh actively participated in the discussion and raised many significant issues. Presenting vote of thanks, Dr. P.S. Sharma appreciated the lecture and follow up discussion. He also appealed all the participants to spread the ideas discussed in the seminar.