Observer Research Foundation MumbaiIdeas and Action for a Better India

A Culture & Arts Policy

For MahaMumbai (Mumbai Metropolitan Region)(A region that is nearly ten times the size of the island city,

and is almost a state within a state with a population of 20 million)

Development of Culture.Culture for Development.

Say No to Marathi Mumbai versus Cosmopolitan Mumbai. Say Yes to Marathi Mumbai, Cosmopolitan Mumbai!

Mumbai for all. All for Mumbai.

IndexINTRODUCTION Why culture and arts matter in national development..................................................................................................... 1 Cultural and artistic wealth is superior to material wealth .............................................................................................2 Culture as a post-2015 goal in UNs sustainable development agenda: Why Mumbai must take the lead..............3 Religion: a source of culture and a powerful support to sustainable development......................................................4 Cosmopolitanism is the DNA of Mumbais culture and identity ....................................................................................5 Marathi Mumbai vs Cosmopolitan Mumbai: Need to bury this hurtful debate ...........................................................8 Mumbai: A city that is losing its sheen due to authorities indifference to art and culture..........................................8 Mumbai is fast emerging as MahaMumbai: Holistic planning needed for the MMR..................................................10GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THE CULTURE POLICY FOR MAHAMUMBAI....................................................11COMPONENTS OF THE CULTURE POLICY FOR MMR .......................................................................................13 Expansion/ modernisation of cultural infrastructure and facilities................................................................................14 Open and green spaces, streets, beaches, forts, precincts, etc...........................................................................................16 Projection of the cultural heritage of Maharashtra in Mumbai........................................................................................18 Promotion of languages ...............................................................................................................................................18 Culture for national integration ..................................................................................................................................19 Culture for global understanding ...............................................................................................................................19 Memory institutions: Museums, libraries and archives.....................................................................................................20 Festival culture.........................................................................................................................................................................23 Arts and culture in public spaces..........................................................................................................................................23 Arts and culture at work places.............................................................................................................................................24 Cultural sensitisation of law enforcement and municipal officials.................................................................................24 Technology for the promotion of arts and culture.............................................................................................................25 Housing for artists, cultural and literary personalities.....................................................................................................25 Culture for peace, social harmony and riot-free Mumbai-MMR.....................................................................................25 Women and Culture................................................................................................................................................................26 Children and Culture..............................................................................................................................................................26 Promotion of culture to boost the economy and employment generation.....................................................................27 Promotion of culture and arts in slums................................................................................................................................30 Funding/Taxation...................................................................................................................................................................31 Capacity and competency building......................................................................................................................................31 Education in arts and culture ......................................................................................................................................32 Promotion of Bollywood .............................................................................................................................................33 Arts, culture and religion for sustainable development ............................................................................................33ANNEXURE 1: CITIES THAT LEAD BY EXAMPLE .................................................................................................35ANNEXURE 2: MUMBAI AND ITS SISTER CITIES ................................................................................................51

A Vision and a Plan for the Central/State Governments and Municipal Corporations in MMR

To make MahaMumbai one of the most liveable cities in the world by improving the quality of life, especially housing and transportation, for all and by investing culture as capital for inclusive and sustainable development;

To fulfil the life-enriching cultural needs of every community and ev-ery citizen by increasing the cultural vibrancy, in all its diversity, in every part of MMR;

To retain the spirit of Mumbai as a cosmopolitan city, a proud contrib-utor to Indias national integration;

To harness the power of culture as a vital asset to promote peace, harmony and a shared sense of pride and belonging to the city;

To put MahaMumbai on the global map of culture and arts.

Why culture and arts matter in national development

The Indian Constitution mandates that the State shall endeavour to provide for its citizens a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure, social and cultural opportunities.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who was Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, recognised culture to be the main determinant of Indias fundamental unity, her national identity as well as her civilisational continuity. In 1941 he wrote:

Sane Guruji, a widely respected Marathi author, teacher and freedom fighter, has described the meaning of culture most perceptively.

The same noble thought has been expressed in a poem by Kusumagraj, a revered Marathi poet, playwright and novelist,

Sadly, culture, which has given India the power to weather all the storms in history and which is the ONLY hope for Indias future, has not received the prime place and priority it deserves in our countrys post-Independence development strategy. In the current discourse on Indias development, there is excessive and one-sided focus on economic growth to the near-total ex-clusion of attention to our peoples cultural and artistic needs. Neither political leaders nor the decision-makers in government seem to think that culture and the arts need a special policy; high-quality cultural infrastructure that is socially and geographically inclusive; substantially higher financial support for the protection of Indias priceless cultural and artistic heritage,

Introduction

India is a single geographic unity. Her unity is as ancient as Na-ture. Within this geographic unit, and covering the whole of it, there has been a cultural unity from time immemorial. This cultural unity has defied political and racial divisions.

(Indian culture means compassion. Indian culture means diversity and expansiveness. Indian culture means experiments with truth. Indian culture means taking stock of extant knowledge and march-ing forward. Indian culture blossoms by accepting all that is beau-tiful, divine and truthful from all over the world.)

(Love is the essence of human culture. It is the outcome of all human history. And it is the only hope for human renaissance in the future.)

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and also for the promotion of activities in arts and culture; willingness to partner with and empower peoples own diverse cultural organisations; encouragement to artists and cultural workers in multiple ways; mainstreaming arts and culture in the system of education at all levels; and recognising arts and culture as a unique and highly productive form of capital to be invested in all human development initiatives.

Indeed, the ministry of culture has come to be regarded as one of the unimportant and low priority areas of the government both at the centre and in almost all the states. Most municipal corporations in India do not have a separate department for arts and culture. Even when such departments do exist in some cities and towns, they are under-funded, under-staffed and gen-erally regarded as minor and marginal appendages in the structures of municipal governance.

This is highly disconcerting.

Cultural and artistic wealth is superior to material wealth

In the hierarchy of human needs, culture and arts are as basic as the essential requirements of material development. Indeed, they are in some sense more basic. They satisfy the higher evolutionary needs of human beings and human societies, insofar as they humanise all facets of personal and social life. They are the wellspring of creativity and innovation.

Ananda Coomaraswamy, the legendary art historian and philosopher, whose name is borne by a magnificent hall at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly Prince of Wales Museum) in Mumbai, has this to say about the seminal role of art and culture in human life.

This makes it clear that human development cannot be synonymous only with economic growth. A nations progress can never be measured solely by its material wealth, important though it is for meeting certain essential needs of its citizens. Rather, its true wealth, indeed its very national identity, resides in, and expresses itself through, its unique cultural, artistic and spiritual heritage. Which is why, thought leaders around the world have come to regard soft power the power of a nations cultural and artistic treasure as more important than hard power represented by GDP and military might. The respect, admiration and goodwill that ci-vilisational India has always enjoyed around the world is primarily on account of its cultural, artistic and spiritual wealth.

Culture encompasses both tangible and intangible cultures expressed in diverse forms such as: visual and performing arts, living traditions, poetry and literary pursuits, libraries, local history archives, festivals, built heritage, traditional, contemporary and folk arts and crafts, gaothans, forts, markets, khau gallis, museums and new media expressions. It is inclusive of all languages and all demographics of producers and consumers. Cultural richness makes for an improved quality of life. Culture is the most effective way of fostering peoples participa-tion for balanced and meaningful development indeed, for ensuring that development is for the people and by the people.

Therefore, governments at all levels national, state and city should have a special policy

Art contains in itself the deepest principles of life, the truest guide to the greatest art, the Art of Living. The true life, the ideal of Indian culture, is itself a unity and an art, because of its inspiration by one ruling passion, the desire to realise a spir-itual inheritance. All things in India have been valued in the light of this desireGreat art or science is the flower of a free national life pouring its abundant energy into ever new channels, giving some new intimation of a truth and harmony be-fore unknown or forgotten.

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to promote culture and arts as life-enriching resources, with high-quality infrastructure and substantially higher financial support.

In a rapidly urbanising India, cities are the engines of national development, attracting peo-ple from the hinterland with their myriad opportunities and promise. Each of Indias metros represents a microcosm of Indias diverse and composite culture. Provision for the cultural and artistic expression of citizens must therefore be an integral part of urban planning and management. Opportunities to express, and participate, in cultural, artistic and spiritual activ-ities considerably reduces the feeling of alienation that people of all classes, especially migrant workers, experience in impersonal, crowded and heartless urban conglomerates.

We therefore believe that Mumbai must place arts and culture at the very centre of its own present and future plans for urban development and peoples welfare. Hence this document for an Arts and Culture Policy for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region for the consideration of the relevant au-thorities at the central, state and local levels, and also of other non-governmental stakeholders.

Culture as a critical Post-2015 goal in UNs Sustainable Development Agenda: Why Mumbai must take the lead

There is also a broader global context which has impelled us to prepare this policy document.

The United Nations, UNESCO in particular, has been consistently urging nations, provinces and cities to place culture at the heart of sustainable human development policies, be they related to education, health, environment, tourism or poverty alleviation. The UNESCO dec-larations underscore the enormous contribution that cultural heritage and creativity can make to conflict-resolution, social cohesion and building resilient cities and societies. They recognise culture, in all its diverse manifestations, as an essential investment in the worlds future and a pre-condition to make globalisation work for all.

Mumbai, like each of Indias metros represents a microcosm of the countrys diverse and composite culture. Provision for artistic expression of citizens of Mumbai must be an integral part of urban planning and management. Photo: Husain Ujjainwala/ Flickr

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Culture was completely absent from the United Nations document on Millennium Develop-ment Goals (MDGs), which were set in 2000 with a 15-year horizon. Currently there is a world-wide debate on the need to revise them. In the coming months the UN is likely set the new Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, a major point of consensus is that culture should be included as the fourth fundamental principle of the post-2015 UN development agenda, along with human rights, equality and sustainability.

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development (The Future We Want; Rio de Janeiro, June 2012), highlighted the importance of cultural diversity and the need for a more holistic and integrated approach to sustainable development. It reaffirmed that culture should be con-sidered to be a fundamental enabler of sustainability, a source of meaning and energy, a well-spring of creativity and innovation, and a resource to address challenges and find appropriate solutions. The extraordinary power of culture to foster and enable truly sustainable develop-ment is especially evident when a people-centred and place-based approach is integrated into development programmes and peace-building initiatives.

In 2010, United Cities and Local Governments approved the document Culture: Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development in its World Congress held in the City of Mexico. This document engages local governments to explicitly include culture in their policy and model of development.

In its Hangzou Declaration (2012), UNESCO appealed to the international community: We be-lieve that the time has come for the full integration of culture through clear goals, targets and indi-cators into agreed development strategies, programmes and practices at global, regional, national and local levels, to be defined in the post-2015 UN development agenda. Only such a concrete political and operational framework can ensure that all development initiatives lead to truly sus-tainable benefits for all, while securing the right of future generations to benefit from the wealth of cultural assets built up by previous generations. The cultural dimension should be systematically integrated in definitions of sustainable development and well-being, as well as in the conception, measurement and actual practice of development policies and programmes.

Of special significance to India and Mumbai is the 2005, UNESCO Convention on the Pro-tection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Some of its provisions are: celebrating the importance of cultural diversity for the full realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms; taking into account that culture takes diverse forms across time and space and that this diversity is embodied in the uniqueness and plurality of the identities and cultural expressions of the peoples and societies; recognising the importance of traditional knowledge as a source of intangible and material wealth, and in particular the knowledge systems of indigenous peoples, as well as the need for its adequate protection and promotion.

In short, the thought that is gathering momentum all over the world is captured in the slogan: The future we want includes culture.

Neither India nor Mumbai can be an exception to this. Indeed, our city should take the lead in formulating, and implementing, a comprehensive and forward-looking policy for arts and culture and thus show the way to the rest of India.

Religion: a source of culture and a powerful support to sustainable development

Unlike in the West, religion plays an extremely important role in the lives of our people. Much of the beliefs, values and distinctive features of the socio-cultural life of Indias various faith communities are strongly defined by religion. Similarly, the common and intersecting cultural

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currents, which are nourished by the universal human values contained in all religions, bring various faith-communities together in a shared geographical and social space.

Therefore, contrary to how the West defines and promotes culture, India simply cannot ignore the multi-religious yet uniting foundation of our national culture in the debate on development. Religion unites, and does not divide, multi-religious communities. If religion is properly under-stood, practiced and promoted, it provides unmatched inspiration and mobilisational energy to bring in people from all backgrounds for the welfare and development of all. Religious tol-erance and co-existence of different faiths and beliefs has been a cornerstone of MahaMumbai through its developmental history and should continue to be the hallmark of the city.

Therefore, India and Mumbai too must incorporate guidance from religion and multi-re-ligious culture in its various initiatives for development and peoples welfare. Here is an indicative, and by no means exhaustive, list of religion-inspired activities in Mumbai for the pursuit of various development goals. Many of the leading institutions of the city were found-ed by members of the Parsi community. Christian organisations run some of the best schools and colleges in the city. The best mid-day meal programme for school children in Mumbai is run by ISKCON. Every gurudwara runs a community kitchen for the poor and the hun-gry. Many Ganeshotsav mandals in the city use the festival for propagating socially useful messages. Brahmakumaris conduct a wide range of programmes for womens empowerment. Zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam, is the main source of support from rich Muslims to their poor brethren. The most effective campaign against drug abuse among youth is conducted by Maulana Hazrat Moin Miyan, a widely respected Muslim cleric. The plays of Mujeeb Khan, one of Mumbais most versatile and socially committed theatre personalities, address a wide range of social issues from communal harmony and national integration to womens safety and education of the girl child. The songs and street plays by Dalit cultural groups powerfully propagate the message of social equality and social justice.

This shows that the potential to harness the religious inspiration and the highly committed human resources of various religious institutions for development, peoples well-being and peoples creative self-expression is enormous and still largely untapped.

Cosmopolitanism is in the DNA of Mumbais culture and identity

Historical awareness is critically necessary for any city or nation to know its true identity and to chart the path of progress for its present and future. In the case of Mumbai, its true identity is its cosmopolitanism, of which its Marathi personality forms an inseparable part. Indeed, our citys cosmopolitanism is so large, entrenched and widely cherished that, for the longest

If religion is properly understood, practiced and promoted, it provides unmatched inspiration and mobilisational energy to bring in people of all backgrounds for the welfare of all. Photos (from left): Nilofar Haja/ Flickr, Tanya Nagar/ Flickr, Creative Commons

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period of its existence, it could not be captured in a single name of the city. Thus, even though Mumbai is the official name of the city since 1995, the nomenclatural pluralism of Mumbai, Bambayi and Bombay defines its identity harmoniously, both to its own inhabitants and to the outside world.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has a rich history dating back to the 3rd century BCE. Many dynasties the Mauryans, Rashtrakutas, Vakatakas, Chalukyas, Shilaharas, Siddis, Gujarat Sultanate, and in modern times the Portuguese and British established their suzer-ainty over this region. The historic caves in the region bear witness to its glorious Buddhist past. To this day, the eclectic cultural ethos of modern MMR shows the imprints of these his-torical events occurring through the centuries. The Kolis, the original inhabitants of Mumbai, are still a distinct community here. The many temples (including the temple of Mumba Devi, who has given the city its name), Zoroastrian fire temples, Jewish Synagogues, mosques and jamaatkhanas and churches in Bhuleshwar, Kalbadevi and Nagpada, which form one of the oldest precincts of Mumbai, show how different religious and linguistic communities lived together harmoniously.

Under British rule, Mumbai was opened to global economic and cultural influences like never before, all of which contributed to its growth as Urbs prima in Indis, a position it proudly re-tains today as the financial and commercial capital of India. The contribution of the Parsi com-munity to Mumbais industrialisation and also to the establishment of numerous philanthropic institutions is unparalleled. Although the British colonial rule was indeed oppressive, exploit-ative and unjust, we cannot forget that Mumbai owes a debt of gratitude to many dedicated British architects, town planners and Indologists, who have left behind a precious heritage that continues to define a large part of Mumbais identity.

Mumbai has made a glorious contribution to Indias Freedom Struggle, right from 1857 to

To this day, the eclectic cultural ethos of modern MMR shows the imprints of these historical events through the centuries. The Kolis, for example, the original inhabitants of Mumbai, are still a distinct community here.. Photos: Creative Commons

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1947. Mumbais working class participated valiantly in it, as attested by the martyrdom of Babu Genu. It is here that the transition of the leadership of the Swaraj Movement from Lo-kamanya Tilak to Mahatma Gandhi took place. Gandhiji stayed in Mumbai for the longest period of his adult life (outside his ashrams at Sabarmati and Sevagram). Mumbai was also the karmabhoomi for Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, whose Samadhi at Chaityabhoomi is now a major site of pilgrimage. Swatantrya Veer Savarkar made Mumbai his home. This was the birthplace of the Khilafat Movement, which promoted Hindu-Muslim solidarity. Mumbai was also home to Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who in the earlier phase of his political career was hailed as an Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity. The Partition of India, on the specious Two Na-tions theory that Jinnah later propounded, left deep scars on Mumbai, not all of which are still healed. However, it also caused an influx of a large population of Sindhis and Punjabis, who have enriched the economic and cultural life of the city.

In the late 19th and 20th centuries, Mumbai became the centre of cultural renaissance with a surge of literary and social activities kindling progressive thinking and reform. The establish-ment of the University of Bombay, Asiatic Library, institution of the Ganpati festival by Lok-manya Tilak were some of the important cultural milestones in the 19th century. The 20th cen-tury saw the emergence of organisations such as the Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh with its emphasis on Marathi literature and theatre; the Mumbai Marathi Granth Sangrahalaya which set up libraries for Marathi literature; Prarthana Samaj, a movement for religious and social reform; Gandharva Mahavidyalay, an institution for the promotion of classical music; Girni Kamgar Union for organising textile mill workers; Bombay Arts Society, Bombay Progressive Artists Group, for the promotion of art; Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA), etc.

For many decades before and after Independence, Mumbai has provided a fertile ground for the growth of literature and culture in Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Sindhi, Konkani, Kan-nada and other languages. Mumbai became home to numerous eminent writers, poets, play-wrights, singers and cultural personalities in these languages. It remains home to a large film industry that has contributed to the soft power of Indian cinema across the world.

A defining milestone in the citys history was the formation of Maharashtra as a separate state in the Union of India, with Mumbai as its capital, on May 1, 1960. The Samyukta Maharashtra Movement that resulted in this development was in conformity with the democratic aspira-tions of people all over India for the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines. This movement, which was led by the likes of Acharya Atre, Prabodhankar Thackeray and Senapati Bapat, and drew inspiration from folk poets like Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe and Amar Shaikh, had strong cultural and literary dimensions. In later decades, Mumbai became the base for the Dalit Pan-ther movement, which gave rise to a new social re-awakening.

Mumbai has thus made a rich, multi-faceted and proud contribution to the all-round develop-ment of modern India. Although Mumbais contribution to Indias economic development is rightly, and widely, recognised, our citys influence on the nations cultural and artistic prog-ress is no less marked. Bollywoods contribution, for example, to national integration and to spreading Indias cultural influence around the world has been phenomenal. This contribution received only marginal support from central, state or city governments. Much is owed to the spirited strivings of Mumbais creative and enterprising people, who came and settled here from different parts of India.

Mumbais prosperity, social life, cultural vibrancy and the citys special place in Indias nation-al life have been made possible by its cultural large-heartedness that has always welcomed the arrival of people of diverse linguistic, religious and professional backgrounds from all over In-dia, and indeed the world. Indias Constitution guarantees the right to such mobility, notwith-standing the reorganisation of states on linguistic basis. Nationalism and cosmopolitanism in

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Mumbai have always triumphed over chauvinism, communalism, casteism and narrow-mind-edness of all kinds; and so it must remain in the future.

Marathi Mumbai vs. Cosmopolitan Mumbai: Need to bury this hurtful debate

Any reflection on the past, present and future of Mumbai must take into account the harm done to the overall interests of the city and by extension, the interests of Maharashtra by the divisive debate that has pitted the Marathi character of Mumbai against its cosmopolitan character and vice versa. This divisive debate has debilitated the citys economic, social, cultur-al, intellectual and political life and made it vulnerable to identity politics at the regional level, when the focus could be moved more constructively to reclaiming Mumbais position at the national and international stage.

For the good of Mumbai and Maharashtra, the time has come to consign this debate to the past and affirm strongly that Marathi Mumbai and Cosmopolitan Mumbai are mutually com-plementary, and not contradictory. Marathi language and culture are not outside Mumbais cosmopolitanism; rather they are integral and proud components of it. Being the capital of Maharashtra, Mumbais Marathi character must be preserved and strengthened. All efforts must be made to promote the fabulously rich, and also internally diverse, Marathi culture, arts, literature and social life not only within Mumbai, but also beyond the boundaries of Ma-harashtra, nationally and internationally.

At the same time, Mumbai has been blessed with a proud national and international pro-file, in the evolution of which non-Marathi communities, along with the Marathi community, have made, and are continuing to make, enormous contributions. Therefore, Mumbai can deny or disown its multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural cosmopolitan character at its own grave peril. Since Mumbai in its new MMR avatar has the potential and the ambition to become one of the leading global cities, it is even more necessary to further strengthen and proudly project the citys linguistic, cultural and religious diversity.

What this means in policy terms is that the interests of Marathi Mumbai and Cosmopolitan Mumbai must be promoted simultaneously and synergistically.

Mumbai: A city that is losing its sheen due to authorities indifference to arts and culture

Sadly, the governments continued, and growing, neglect of culture and arts has begun to hurt Mumbai badly. In spite of being one of the most populous metropolitan regions of the world the combined population of MMR is 20 million the governing establishments at the centre, state and in the city have displayed little vision or understanding about the cultural needs of Mumbai and Mumbaikars. They have also displayed little interest in the citys huge potential to further increase its contribution to our national life and to Indias soft power abroad.

In Mumbai itself, the development debate is mostly about infrastructure and economic growth. This debate is indeed necessary, since the citys physical infrastructure is neglected and the state of civic amenities to common Mumbaikars, especially slumdwellers, is shocking. Howev-er, somewhere in all its rush of unbalanced economic activity, Mumbai seems to be losing its cultural richness, belittling the cultural needs of its people, and neglecting the development of cultural vibrancy, which is as necessary for it to become a global city as the modernisation of physical infrastructure.

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Further, little thought has been given to making the best use of Mumbais rich and diverse cultural resources for addressing the citys myriad development challenges. Its as if the authorities are deaf to the global debate on placing culture at the heart of sustainable development. Lets see just three examples. The most effective way of mobilising people for the success of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is by invoking their cultural and spiritual traditions, all of which underscore the importance of cleanliness. If the enormous corruption and wastage in the Mid-Day Meal programme is to be stopped, a reliable strategy would involve an appeal to the peoples culture-induced reverential attitude towards food. To stem the rising cases of crimes against women, nothing works better than societal initiatives rooted in the cultural and ethical dos and donts. In short, there is enormous wisdom contained in our cultural and spir-itual heritage, and it is still alive in the lives of common Indians. Our political and governance systems, however, have no use for this wisdom.

No wonder then, that neither the state government nor any of the eight municipal corporations in the MMR area, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has a culture policy for Mumbai. They need to be more proactive towards providing a better quality of life, and spaces and fora for cultural activities. They require an imaginative approach to using popular festivals and cultural events that attract lakhs of people for creating mass awareness on important social issues.

Worse still, the authorities in Mumbai have put in place a highly repressive permission regime for the use of public spaces such as parks, gardens, streets, promenades, etc., for shows of various kinds. There is a need to offer a hassle-free single window clearance to organisers of prestigious cultural events like the Kala Ghoda Festival by law enforcement and other govern-ment agencies. Even though the Kala Ghoda Festival has been going on for 16 years, the author-ities have still not standardised routine regulations, as a result of which the organisers of the festival have to seek separate permissions from various authorities each year, a process rife with harassment, delays and uncertainty.

The annexure to this document presents useful information on how culture and arts are promoted by global cities around the world. For example, London has a dedicated cultural officer for each of its boroughs. Here is another startling fact: creative industries (indus-tries that have their roots in cultural identity and draw sustenance from it) contribute GBP 19 billion to Londons economy. The BMC neither has a dedicated department, nor a single officer, to look after this vital sector. We need qualified specialists to be part of the civic and government departments who can be facilitators to create the link between citizens and the government.

Avenues for cultural activities have shrunk over the decades, given the acute shortage of spac-es that offer a platform for such activities in the city. Cultural provision in Mumbai, both in terms of financial support and provision of spaces and infrastructure, has been left either to neglect or to private initiatives with highly inadequate government support. This has had an exclusionary impact on a majority of Mumbaikars.

It is high time the governments recognised that culture is a fundamental enricher of life. The poorest of poor should also have opportunities to access it, experience it, express it and enrich it. It is also a great tool to enhance the brand value of Mumbai. As such, a vibrant cultural life can attract investments of various natures, generate much-needed employment opportu-nities in large numbers, and enhance the citys global visibility. This will have a great spin-off effect on domestic and foreign tourism in Mumbai, which is abysmally low at present. In this day and age when the entire world looks at India as a nation on the rise, our policy makers at the national, state and city levels must look at culture and arts as key drivers of Mumbais all-round transformation.

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Mumbai is fast emerging as MahaMumbai Holistic planning needed for the Mumbai Meropolitan Region

Not many people know there are eight municipal corporations (Greater Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizamapur, Vasai-Virar and Mi-ra-Bhayandar) and nine municipal councils (Ambarnath, Kulgaon-Badalapur, Matheran, Kar-jat, Panvel, Khopoli, Pen, Uran, and Alibaug) in MMR. In addition, there are more than 1,000 villages in Thane and Raigad districts in this region.

Further, few people are aware that the area of MMR is 10 times that of the area under MCGM.

This means that nearly half the population of MMR lives in nine-tenths of its area, and the other half lives in one-tenths of its area. This fact itself shows the immense possibilities and opportunities to re-imagine MahaMumbai, develop it in a balanced manner, and make it one of the most prosperous and culturally vibrant urban conglomerates in the world.

The establishment of MMRDA in 1975 was a visionary decision that anticipated the future development of Mumbai in the larger geography of the metropolitan region. However, MMRDA has so far focused mainly on the development of physical infrastructure within the region. In the past few decades, the region has become far more well-connected than before. It is bound to become even more integrated in the years to come. Therefore, the time has come to envision a policy for the much-neglected area of culture and arts that can enrich the lives of the 20 million people living in MahaMumbai and give it an energetic new personality.

Area of Greater Mumbai

437.71 sq kmArea of MMR: 4,354.50 sq km

Population of MMR:

20 million

Population of Greater Mumbai 12 million

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The vision that will guide the Culture Policy will have the following components.

The Culture Policy for MahaMumbai will adhere to the principles of justice and human dignity for all, serving the ends of socio-geographic and linguistic equity, inclusiveness and integration. It will respect India, and Mumbais, rich diversity and cultural traditions of the various communities that have made it their home. It will promote national pride, pride in Maharashtra and city-pride among its inhabitants by making them feel Mumbai for All. All for Mumbai.

The Policy, based on the principle Development of Culture, Culture for Development, will seek to fulfil the life-enriching cultural needs of every community, every citizen, and invest in culture as a vital asset and capital for ethical, inclusive and sustainable development. It will especially seek to broaden the opportunities and capacities of mar-ginalised and migrant groups, strengthen their resilience and rootedness, and encour-age citizen participation among all sections of society.

The Policy will harness the power of culture to foster intercultural and inter-community dialogue for conflict resolution and cooperation, and to promote peace and harmony among diverse sections of society.

The Policy will prioritise environment protection and the protection of open spaces because natural, social and cultural diversity are inextricably linked. It will raise citizens awareness of their own ecological responsibility, while urging government bodies to de-pollute Mumbais air, sea, rivers and other water bodies, keep its beaches and sea fronts clean, and protect its forests, mangroves and green cover.

The Policy will aim to increase the cultural vibrancy, in all its diversity, in every part of MMR by supporting a 100% increase in the number of culture, arts and creativity programmes, and also a 100% increase in the number of citizens who are actively involved in cultural practices, within the next five years. It will aim to have both a neighbourhood focus and a city-wide focus, so that it strengthens community bonding, promotes civic responsibility and deepens a sense of belonging to the city. Towards this end, it will aim to substantially expand the footprint of culture and arts in the city by increasing the number of performance spaces, events, festivals, institutions, modernising their infrastructure, increasing peoples awareness, and mainstreaming culture and arts in the system of education at all levels.

The Policy will insist on culture-led urban revitalisation, heritage conservation and development of Mumbai and MMR. Towards this end, it will give priority to expansion and modernisation of cultural infrastructure and facilities in a time-bound manner. It will mandate improving the cultural quality of all kinds of public spaces through meaningful use of public art, distinctive architecture, design, and landscapes, etc. Towards this end, it will popularise the art and science of placemaking, which is a series of imaginative, inclusive and participatory design interventions for the transformation of public places into more democratically useful, socially and culturally vibrant, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sustainable destinations.

Guiding principles of the Culture Policy for MahaMumbai

A

B

C

D

F

E

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The Policy will aim to create improved frameworks and action points to identify, pro-tect, promote and sustainably use tangible and intangible heritage in all its forms and diversity in Mumbai and MMR. Tangible and intangible heritage manifests itself in built heritage, monuments, historic neighbourhoods and heritage precincts, landscapes, knowledge systems, language and literature, arts and crafts, food culture, among other things. The policy will also underscore the importance of raising peoples awareness about the importance of heritage.

The Policy will aim to support the growth of sustainable tourism, to make Mumbai a major centre for domestic and foreign tourism. It will also seek to boost creative industries that can serve as strategic tools for revenue, income and employment generation. The aim should be to enable thousands of talented artists and cultural workers, including people of all genders, socio-economic groups and ethnicities to have a secure and attractive livelihood.

The Policy will aim to, besides maximising the use of the traditional media, encourage full integration of new technologies and the social media into the promotion of culture and arts in Mumbai.

The Policy will aim to put Mumbai on the global map of culture and arts. It will aim to encourage adoption of best practices elsewhere in India and abroad. It will preserve and further enhance Mumbais attractiveness for creative talent, especially young talent, from all over India and abroad. It will also encourage eminent personalities in Mumbai to become influential thought leaders and policy makers at the national and internation-al levels. Mumbai should be seen as an important participant in cultural diplomacy to promote world peace, and peace and cooperation within the SAARC region.

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A Culture Policy for Mumbai will raise citizens awareness of their own ecological responsibility, while urging government bodies to de-pollute the citys air, sea, rivers and other water bodies. Photo: Scrolleditorial/Flickr

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The Chief Minister of Maharashtra should constitute an empowered committee to oversee the implementation of the Culture Policy for Mumbai and MMR. There is already an empowered committee, under the Chief Ministers Office, that is exclusively focused on the economic and infrastructure development of Mumbai and MMR. Its members include eminent businessmen. In addition to appointing good officers on this committee, it is high time the Government gave equal importance to matters of culture by including specialists, experts, practitioners, institu-tions, NGOs from the field of culture and education.

The proposed Empowered Committee should bring together all stakeholder organisations government entities, reputed private/philanthropic bodies, cultural institutions and promi-nent cultural personalities, thus maximising opportunities for strategic planning and decision making. It should look into, and resolve, problems and challenges faced by private cultural organisations and civil society/philanthropic/corporate bodies supporting them, and also problems and challenges faced by artists and cultural personalities.

Opportunities for public-private partnership in the promotion of arts and culture should be maximised. Best PPP models should be recognised and widely publicised.

Every municipal corporation in MMR should have a separate department for the promotion of culture and arts with adequate staffing of professional and qualified people who can actively facilitate and promote culture fora and cultural spaces. These should be headed by eminent cultural personalities with strong non-governmental participation.

There should also be a full-fledged Culture Office in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region De-velopment Authority (MMRDA). This office should closely coordinate with all the municipal corporations in the region for the promotion of culture and arts.

The Culture Policy should result in de-bureaucratisation and freeing from the bane of red tapism, all government-owned and government-run cultural institutions, by ensuring empow-ered participation of cultural organisations and personalities.

There should be an autonomous Mumbai Culture & Arts Commission with a mandate that is larger than that of the Delhi Urban Art Commission. It should focus on comprehensive cultural planning, advocacy, global and national brand-building, drawing up of major annual cultural programmes for the city, promoting professional development of artists and the arts, iden-tifying funding opportunities, bringing together different government departments to serve specific cultural goals, broad-based debate on cultural issues, etc. The Mumbai Culture & Arts Commission should be patterned after the UK Arts Council, which stands for championing, developing, investing in the arts and culture in England, and supports a wide range of activi-ties across the arts, museums, libraries -- from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature and crafts to collections.

Inter-departmental linkages in the Government of Maharashtra should be identified and es-tablished for synergistic functioning. For example, Home department, Education department, Revenue department, Urban Development department, Environment department, etc. will

Components of the Culture Policy for MMR

1. Governance

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have to work together to achieve convergence on issues of culture.

The existing plethora of rules applicable for a wide array of cultural activities needs to be re-viewed and drastically pruned, resulting in a single-window clearance for permissions.

Zoning laws and rules need to be revisited and there cannot be a one- size-fits-all approach.

The Heritage Committees in BMC and other municipal corporations should function better, with greater transparency, for the conservation of built and other forms of urban heritage in MMR.

Through a consultative process, the problems faced by culture-promoting bodies and indi-viduals need to be heard, understood and resolved. Similarly, constructive and creative ideas from them need to be heard and acted upon.

The government, along with municipal corporations in MMR, should commit itself to substantial expansion and modernisation of the cultural infrastructure in the region with a vision to create multiple centres of excellence.

It should seek to enlarge the footprint of culture and arts by increasing, at least by 100% over the next five years, the number of performance spaces (both auditoria and open spaces), museums, events, festivals, institutions, increasing peoples awareness, and mainstreaming culture and arts in the system of education at all levels.

There should be a comprehensive mapping and audit of the existing cultural infrastruc-ture in the MMR, their current utilisation and issues faced, if any. If certain existing fa-cilities are underutilised or closed down, reasons for the same should be identified and addressed expeditiously. The audit should be an ongoing, transparent process, where the findings are placed in public view.

The planning and funding for cultural infrastructure should be comprehensive and art-ists and technical experts alike should be consulted while such infrastructure is being designed.

As Mumbais Development Plan (DP) for 20 years (2014-34) is getting finalised, the time for making adequate provisioning for infrastructure for various cultural purpos-es, amenities, etc., is NOW. Similarly, the planning process for Mumbai Metropolitan Region should take into account the long-term spatial needs for the development of culture and arts in the entire region.

Government should establish at least three world-class and global-scale cultural com-plexes in MMR one in the island city, one in Thane and one in Navi Mumbai. These should be designed by the best architects in the world.

The ideal place for the world-class cultural complex in the island city as well as the cinema centre is the 400-acre open space at Juhu Aerodrome. Since a new greenfield airport is being established at Navi Mumbai, the city should reclaim this prime open space near the sea (which is anyway not being used for any critical aviation activities) and use it as a park along with some major transformative cultural projects. It may be

2. Expansion / modernisation of cultural infrastructure and facilities

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called Bollywood Park.

Since plans are afoot to redevelop the large tract of port trust land along the eastern coast of Mumbai, ample provision must be made for cultural infrastructure in that area. The redevelopment plan itself must incorporate best design principles, so as to avoid the mediocrity that marks Nariman Point, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Juhu Vile Parle De-velopment (JVPD) scheme and other such places.

Every municipal ward area in MMR should have a new multi-use cultural complex, built primarily with public funds.

Every cooperative housing society in MMR must have provision for a community cen-tre for holding cultural events to strengthen community-bonding.

All multiplex cinema halls and malls should be encouraged to create performance plac-es for cultural and arts promotion activities.

If any of the existing cultural institutions (such as NCPA, Shanmukhananda Hall, Gad-kari Rangayatan, Prithvi Theatre, Tejpal Hall, etc.) wish to expand their performance areas and facilities, they should be permitted to do so by relaxing FSI norms.

Cultural institutions should be supported to improve and upgrade their facilities to world-class levels more spaces, improved infrastructure, open spaces, comfortable seating, acoustics, lighting, on-stage requirements, back stage and green-room facili-ties, rehearsal halls, storage space for costumes and props, space for utilities, parking for vehicles and space for interaction amongst people from various fields of arts.

A major problem faced by theatre and music groups is the lack of space for rehearsals. Corporations in MMR should make available their school (or other) buildings in the evenings and on Sundays/holidays.

(From left) NCPA, Prithvi Theatre, Gadkari Rangayatan: If existing cultural institu-tions wish to expand their performance areas and facilities, they should be permitted to do so by relaxing FSI norms. Photos/Flickr: Holger, Manish Sampat , Dinesh Valke

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Open and green spaces are the drawing rooms of ordinary city-dwellers, especially in a city like Mumbai where nearly half the population lives in slums. The number of open and green spaces should be substantially increased, while zealously protecting the existing ones. These should be made available for cultural and artistic activities in a hassle-free manner. The management of these places should be entrusted, with strict accountability norms, to civil society organisations that have a track record of service to society. Mumbai already has several successful models of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in this field Priyadarshini Park at Napean Sea Road, Oval and Cross Maidans at Churchgate, Horniman Circle Garden near Hutatma Chowk, and Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla, to name a few.

In the case of government-owned open and green spaces where old leases to private bodies have expired, these must cease to be used exclusively by elite minorities and given back for cultural and recreational activities of common Mumbaikars.

A mega-sized open space in the island city is the Mahalaxmi Race Course occupying 225 lush green acres. Since the lease to the Royal Western India Turf Club Limited (RWITC) has expired, this space should be preserved as a public asset and developed on the pattern of the Central Park in New York. And like the Central Park, it should be used for a variety of arts and cultural events.

The 250-acre Central Park of Kharghar, built by CIDCO, is a welcome addition to the open and green spaces in MMR. It is one of the largest gardens in Asia. However, it needs to be promoted bet-

3. Open and green spaces, streets, beaches, forts, precincts, etc.

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ter. Also, like the Central Park in New York, it should be maintained by a non-governmental body.

In a space-constrained city like Mumbai, the central, state and local governments should have a coordinated and innovative approach to make available spaces for cultural activities. For this, the Archaeological Survey of India, Department of Archaeology & Museums Govt of Maharashtra, the Bombay Port Trust (MbPT), the Railways, Airports Authority of India, Defence establishments and other agencies need to work cooperatively with MMRDA and the municipal corporations of MMR.

All the railway stations in MMR should be upgraded, restored or redeveloped with attractive de-signs, as multi-functional complexes with ample spaces, facilities and opportunities for cultural and artistic activities as is indeed the case in many great cities around the world.

All the forts in Mumbai should be conserved, safeguarded, freed of illegal encroachment and developed as tourist destinations and spaces for cultural activities. Priority should be given to the development of Bandra, Mahim and Worli forts overlooking the sea. These provide excel-lent backdrops to cultural performances, food festivals, exploratory walks and so on. Devel-opment of these places should be done in such a way as to bring maximum benefit to the local communities.

Ballard Estate is one of the most enchanting heritage precincts in Mumbai. Sadly, it becomes lifeless after office hours. It should be holistically developed as a hub for street food, cultural activities and recreation and the heritage buildings appropriately conserved as a premier heritage precinct.

Oval Maidan is an example of successful public-private partnerships in tthe management of open spaces in the space-starved city. Photo: David Brossard/ Flickr

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4. Projection of the cultural heritage of Maharashtra in Mumbai

5. Promotion of languages

The Government should establish a magnificent Maharashtra Darshan Museum in Mumbai to showcase the rich diversity of the cultural heritage of Maharashtra and also the achieve-ments of the state in various fields. An ideal place to locate this would could be the magnif-icent Elphinstone Technical Institute building near the BMC headquarters, which is poorly maintained. Rang Bhavan, situated behind this building, can be revived by turning it into an open-air or enclosed concert hall. Since this place is close to both CST and Churchgate railway stations, it is sure to attract large number of tourists.

Financial support to reputed institutions that have been serving the cause of Marathi literature, drama, cinema, music, arts, folk arts and other aspects of culture should be considerably enhanced.

Suitable facilities should be created in Mumbai/MMR for the projection of region-specific cul-tural heritage of Vidarbha, Marathwada, Khandesh, Konkan and Western Maharashtra.

Marathi theatre is one of the most vibrant components of theatre in India. The Government should fulfil all its requirements for growth.

The Culture Policy should promote language and literary pursuits in a big way and in a multi-lingual format by developing language learning facilities and translation capabilities for both national and international languages.

Marathi should be promoted and encouraged through greater support to Marathi literature, theatre as well as cultural activities.

Government bodies such as the Hindi Academy, Urdu Academy, Gujarati Academy and Sind-hi Academy, which are meant for the promotion of language and literature of these respective communities living in the state, should be adequately supported. At present they are being badly neglected. For example, the State Governments contribution to the Maharashtra Sindhi Academy is merely Rs. 65,000 annually, which is not enough to fund even an office peons salary for one year!

Sanskrit is the mother of most Indian languages. It is also the repository of Indias precious

Constraints of space also necessitate innovative thinking and flexibility in the use of existing facil-ities. For example, the Equal Streets experiment in Bandra making available the nearly 6 km of road for pedestrian-only use on Sunday mornings has been a roaring success. The road-space has been used by a large number of local socio-cultural organisations. It needs to be replicated in other parts of the city. Similarly, some major railway stations like CST, Bandra, Andheri, Thane and Vashi may be made available at night for theatre rehearsals or even for musical concerts.

Street music, street plays, street gymnastics, street art, street food festivals, etc, should be strongly promoted on Marine Drive, Worli Sea Face, Bandra Sea Face, Bandra Lake, Thane Lake, and all such promenades, precincts, plazas, parks, railway stations, etc. Organisations such as the National Streets for Performing Arts, which are promoting such activities, should be fully supported.

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6. Culture for national integrationThe Government of Maharashtra should make space available for every other state in India to locate their Bhavans in MMR, to promote arts and culture of their respective states. Existing non-governmental institutions such as Karnataka Bhavan, Tamil Sangham, Andhra Mahasabha, Bengali Association, Punjab Association, Uttar Bharatiya Sangh, etc. in Mumbai should be supported to expand their cultural activities. The Government of Maharashtra should invite other state governments to increase their culture promotion programmes in Mumbai.

Gujarati community has made an immense contribution to the historical evolution of the city. Indeed, the Bombay Presidency and later Bombay State included large parts pres-ent-day Gujarat before 1960. Even today the large Gujarati community in Mumbai and MMR is playing a major role in the citys economic, educational and cultural life. There-fore, there should be a grand multi-functional Gujarati Cultural Centre in Mumbai built under a public-private partnership format.

Similarly, Hindi language and the culture of Hindi-speaking people have been a cherished and inseparable part of Mumbais identity. Indeed, MMR has more Hindi-speaking people than any city in north India, barring Delhi. The main centre of Hindi cinema (and enter-

heritage in culture, arts, spirituality and scientific-technological knowledge. The Govern-ment should therefore establish a Sanskrit Academy to support language learning and research.

tainment TV) is not in Hindi states, but in Mumbai. Therefore, there should be a grand multi-functional Hindi Cultural Centre in Mumbai built under a PPP format.

The Government of Maharashtra should support the consulates of all those countries that wish to open their cultural centres, or expand their cultural activities, in MMR. Foreign missions should be encouraged to regularly organise festivals to showcase tourism, cuisine, contempo-rary arts, culture etc.

Mumbais sister-city relationships with major cities around the world should be strengthened.

The regional office of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in Mumbai should fur-ther expand its activities by organising cultural performances by visiting foreign delegations and facilitating outgoing cultural delegations from Mumbai to foreign countries. It should also support, in collaboration with local groups, cultural activities of international students in Mumbai.

All those cultural and educational institutions in Mumbai that are working for strengthening Indias friendship with countries around the world, especially countries in the SAARC region, should be supported.

The Government of India decided in 2004 to develop Jinnah House at Malabar Hill as a SAARC Cul-tural Centre. This decision should be implemented soon. Government should take proactive mea-

7. Culture for global understanding

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The government should increase its support to all the existing museums (such as CSMVS, BNHS, Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Nehru Centre, Port Museum, BEST Museum, Railway Mu-seum, Discovery of India Hall, etc) and also take steps to further popularise them among the local people and tourists. In addition, it should also establish, in partnership with civil society organisations, several new museums. Here is only an indicative list of the new museums the city needs

Swaraj Museum to honour Mumbais glorious contribution to Indias Freedom Movement. On a parallel track, all the places associated with the Freedom Movement (Raj Griha, Sardar Griha, Khilafat House, Babu Genu Memorial, etc.) should be spruced up and popularised. A beginning must be made by undertaking a comprehensive spatial transformation of Azad Maidan and August Kranti Maidan, which preserve the hallowed memory of Mumbais con-tribution to the historic struggles in 1857 and 1942. (A plan for the spatial transformation of these two iconic maidans has been prepared by ORF Mumbai and submitted to the govern-ment in its India@70 report.)

Cricket Museum to celebrate Mumbai as the birthplace of the most popular sport in India and to honour all the great cricketers the city has produced. This should ideally be located on or near Azad Maidan, where the Indian team played the first Test match on Indian soil in 1933. There should be a spectacular statue of Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar on the maidan as a major attraction for tourists. (The statue of Don Bradman at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Australia, draws cricket lovers from all over the world.)

Textile Museum to bring alive the seminal contribution of the textile industry and textile workers to the historical evolution of Mumbai.

Civil Aviation Museum to show the birth and evolution of Indias civil aviation industry in Mumbai.

Bollywood Museum (Mumbai International Cinema and Cultural Centre) to showcase Mum-bai as the cradle of Indian Cinema. This should ideally be located in Bollywood Park, proposed at the large open space where Juhu Aerodrome exists at present.

Theatre and Literary Museum to demonstrate the vibrancy of the multi-lingual theatre tradi-tions in Mumbai and to honour the great literary personalities who made Mumbai their home.

Mumbai Business and Trade Union Museum to record the enormous contribution the city has made to Indias progress in trade, commerce, industry, banking, financial services and workers rights.

Mumbai Social History Museum to present the fascinating contributions that diverse linguis-tic, religious, professional and other sections of society have made, through their mutual inter-actions, to the citys progress.

8. Memory institutions: Museums, libraries and archives8.1 MUSEUMS

sures to get the legal dispute over this property resolved. Among other things, this centre should contribute to the revival of the close ties that Mumbai had with Karachi in pre-Partition days.

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All government-run libraries and reading rooms in Mumbai and MMR should be restored and refurbished, and equipped with digital tools. Non-government libraries and reading rooms should be incentivised to do the same.

There should be a Mumbai Public Library Network, with common membership that enables members to access the facilities in different parts of the city.

There should be special facilities for children in all libraries.

Institutions organising book exhibitions, including mobile exhibitions, should be incentivised to do so in different parts of the city.

8.2 LIBRARIES

Mumbai Media Centre and Museum to visually chronicle Mumbais multi-lingual contribu-tion to the growth of journalism in India. This should ideally be located at Azad Maidan, by re-locating the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh and the Press Club of Mumbai into a new, world-class, substantially bigger and aesthetically designed structure as proposed by ORF Mumbai in its India@70 report.

A cricket museum will ensure the celebration of Mumbai as the birthplace of the most popular sport in India and to honour all the great cricketers the city has produced.

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Parks and open spaces should be encouraged to hold regular literary events.

A Read Mumbai Movement should be launched as a Public-Private Partnership initiative to promote reading habit among people of all ages.

The Town Hall Building (built in 1830) in which the Asiatic Society library is located is one of the grandest structures in the city. Photo: Vikram Walia/Flickr

HELP ASIATIC SOCIETY REGAIN ITS OLD GRANDEURThe Asiatic Society of Mumbai (established in 1804) occupies a proud place in the intellectual and cul-tural history of the city. The Town Hall Building (built in 1830) in which its library is located is one of the grandest structures in the city. Its library has a precious collection of books. The Government must move all its offices out of the precincts of the Town Hall Building, restore the place to its original glory, and use it for major civic receptions and other appropriate purposes.

The Government must take immediate steps to improve the condition of the State Archives, currently located at Elphinstone College, Kalaghoda. The plan to relocate it in a larger building somewhere in MMR should be executed soon.

BMC and all other corporations in MMR should set up their own archives.

All the corporate houses, trade unions, educational institutions and cultural institutions should be encouraged to set up their own archives. (Tatas and Godrej have pioneered this in a com-mendable manner.)

8.3 ARCHIVES

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9. Festival culture

10. Art and culture in public places

India is a land of festivals. In addition to imparting a cosmic dimension to human existence, connecting human life with the mysteries of after-life, ensuring civilisational continuity, and serving as carriers of the spiritual messages of their respective faith traditions, festivals also have unmatched power of strengthening intra-religious and inter-religious community bond-ing. This is evident from Mumbais cherished tradition of celebrating Ganesh Utsav, Krish-na Janmashtmi, Christmas, Chhath Puja Festival, Eid, Urs of Makhdoom Shah Baba Mahimi, Mount Mary Bandra Fair, Zoroastrian New Year (Navroz), Buddha Purnima, Mahavir Jayan-ti, Guru Nanak Jayanti, and other festivals. Government should, in consultation with com-munity organisations, provide greater support to these festivals, raising their national and international profile.

Mumbai also has a rich tradition of non-religious festivals such as Konkan Festival, Malvan Festival and other region-specific festivals. There is a lot of scope for enhancing the cultural and tourism promoting potential of these events.

All necessary support should be given to inter-college and inter-school festivals.

All necessary support should be given to area-specific festivals such as the Kala Ghoda Festival, Worli Festival, Bandra Festival, Thane Upavan Festival, etc. Indeed, every area in the city should be encouraged to organise their own annual festivals. Extra support should be given to festivals in slum areas.

Art installations of great aesthetic value and diverse forms should adorn public places through-out the city. The notion that works of art should either be in museums and art galleries, or in the homes of the rich, must be discarded. Mumbai should say No to privatisation of beauty and make it the common and shared property of society.

Roads, road-dividers, road-junctions, bridges, foot-paths, sky walks, foot-over bridges, bus shelters, municipal and government buildings, police stations, public hospitals, market places,

Art installations of great aesthetic value and of diverse forms should adorn public places throughout the city.

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11. Art and culture at work places

12. Cultural sensitisation of law-enforcement and municipal officials

Art and culture should be integrated into all work places in MahaMumbai, especially those belonging to government, municipal corporations, corporates and other major businesses.

The exterior and interior of industrial estates should be refurbished with art installations, wall paintings, murals, landscapes, etc., so that workers have a pleasant environment to work in.

A big stumbling block in the promotion of culture and arts in the Mumbai and MMR is the cultural illiteracy, insensitivity, arbitrariness and high-handedness of law enforcement and municipal officials. This is best illustrated by the fact that, in a highly space-constrained city like Mumbai/MMR, most open spaces and parks are just not permitted to be used for cultural, arts and literary activities. When permissions are granted, they come after long, exhausting, humiliating and de-motivating efforts by cultural organisations, who, in most cases, also have to meet demands for bribery. All this must end.

Arbitrary, rigid and unnecessary regulations serve as serious disincentives to people who or-ganise cultural events in the city. Rules for permission and licenses need to be rationalised. May archaic laws from the 19th and 20th centuries are still in force and need to be re-assessed and modified. If a single-window concept is deemed necessary for economic development, it is equally necessary and useful for cultural development.

The Culture Policy should be liberal and progressive in its support to artists. The bureaucra-cy and law enforcement machinery need to be sensitised to ensure that artists freedom of expression is protected. At the same time, as required by law, there should be clearly defined parameters of cultural expression to avoid objectionable content hurting public sentiment and vitiating peace in society.

Sometimes courts also give rulings in cultural matters without taking into account the need to develop Mumbai/MMR as a major hub of culture and arts.

Therefore, a suitable mechanism should be evolved to sensitise law-enforcement and munic-

etc., indeed, all such places that have high footfalls and high interface with common people must be aesthetically designed.

All dirty and poorly maintained public toilets and community toilets in slums should be recon-structed or retrofitted aesthetically with attractive art installations, so that they become desti-nation places for common people. This is one way of combining the Swachh Bharat mission with the Sundar Bharat imperative.

No new government buildings, including buildings to house employees and officers, should be allowed to be constructed unless they adhere to high architectural standards.

Public authorities who fail to comply with this rule and continue to promote mediocrity and ugliness in the city should be punished. Government personnel who take decision in these matters should be required to undergo orientation courses in art and culture.

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ipal officials, and also the judiciary, on Mumbais vision and goals for the development of culture and arts.

13. Technology for the promotion of arts and culture

14. Housing for artists, cultural and literary personalities

15. Culture for peace, social harmony and a riot-free Mumbai/MMR

The advent of the social media and digital technologies has opened up immense new opportu-nities for the promotion of arts and culture in innovative and impactful ways. They are espe-cially a boon to improve the work of memory institutions museums, libraries and archives.

For example, there are mobile apps that send users a piece of art every day. The best museums and art galleries around the world are promoting interactive experiences to museum-going by using flash-based multimedia presentations, animation and 3-D technologies. There are powerful online management tools designed to strengthen arts and cultural organisations, which allow the users to benchmark themselves against comparable organisations around the world. There are open source publishing platforms for the display of library, museum, archives and scholarly collections and exhibitions. There are software tools for digital preservation that help organisations build their open digital repositories and to share digital resources. Culturally vibrant cities like Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Barcelona Beijing, etc., are supporting their creative industries through collaborations between arts/cultural organisations and digital technology providers.

Cultural institutions in Mumbai and MMR should be modernised along these lines. Towards this end, the Government should constitute a Task Force for the integration of technology into the promotion of culture and arts.

On the lines of Kala Nagar and Sahitya Sahavas housing colonies in Bandra (where eminent artists and cultural and literary personalities such as P.K. Atre, Jnanapith Award winner poet Vinda Karandikar, K.K. Hebbar and Ramesh Tendulkar, father of Sachin Tendulkar, lived), the government should create new colonies in different parts of MMR providing affordable apartments to artists, cultural workers and literary personalities, especially those belonging to poorer backgrounds.

Government should encourage establishment of hostels and paying guest accommodation for upcoming artists, cultural workers and students pursuing careers in creative fields.

Mumbai has a long and proud tradition of peace, tolerance and cooperative living among vari-ous caste, religious and linguistic communities. However, sadly, incidents of violence and ten-sion have also marred this tradition and harmed the citys image globally. Therefore, Mumbai must aim at becoming a city without riots and terrorist violence.

Towards this end, among other societal and administrative initiatives, the power of culture and arts should be fully mobilised to spread mutual goodwill, understanding and cooperation. Inter-community and inter-cultural dialogue, cultural programmes and educational activities

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16. Women and Culture

17. Children and Culture

Social prejudices and hurdles that prevent talented women from pursuing careers in culture and arts should be removed.

Meritorious women should have full opportunities to occupy decision-making positions in culture and arts establishments.

Cultural and arts resources should be mobilised for building a strong societal force to counter sexual crimes and prejudices against women. Mumbai and MMR must be made safe for wom-en and girls everywhere, 24X7.

In addition to promoting womens participation in cultural and arts activities, there should also be encouragement for women-only activities in traditional and modern formats, such as haldi-kumkum and other community-specific ceremonies.

March 8, International Womens Day, should be observed in more expansive and celebratory ways with mass participation.

There should be creches for working women in all government and institution offices

Opportunities to develop the creative faculties of children should be regarded as their funda-mental need and right. Therefore, no child should be without access to cultural and arts ac-tivities and resources in schools, communities and public spaces. This need can be met only through the collective effort of families, schools, communities, governments and non-govern-ment organisations.

All municipal corporations and councils in MMR should have a separate and adequate budget for this task. These resources should be augmented by CSR and other contributions from soci-ety to support reputed NGOs and CBOs that are working for childrens welfare and all-round development.

Gifted children who show extraordinary talent in arts and culture should be identified, sup-ported and trained in a fast-track mode so that they achieve their full potential as they grow up.

both at neighbourhood and suburb/city levels should be actively promoted to create respect for diversity and build more inclusive, stable and resilient society.

Mohalla Committees linked to every police station should actively involve cultural and arts organisations in their areas. In addition, influential cultural, spiritual and social personalities in each police station area should be designated as Peace and Goodwill Ambassadors.

The housing policy in Mumbai/MMR should promote mixed housing and habitat, without discrimination towards any community.

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Creative industries in culture and arts represent one of the most rapidly expanding sectors in the global economy, growing at an annual increase of between 5 and 20 percent. They also bolster the soft power of nations. Countries like Japan, China, South Korea and Turkey are consciously promoting the national and global footprint of their cultural industries. India pos-sesses a priceless heritage in diverse creative pursuits. Yet neither India as a whole, nor Mum-bai (the original home of many creative enterprises) is doing enough to develop its creative industries to match the fabulous wealth of this heritage. Therefore, Mumbai should once again take the lead in this regard.

The policy should fully support the ambitious growth of various creative industries tourism, cinema, music, performing arts, gems and jewellery, food, fashion, animation, handicrafts and handloom, conservation, exhibitions, etc., thus enhancing their potential to generate incomes and create attractive livelihood opportunities on a large scale. The growth of creative indus-tries will also have a cascading effect on the overall socio-economic development of Mumbai as a global city.

The policy should aim at further increasing Mumbais capacity to attract promising cultural and artistic talent from other parts of India indeed, from all over the world.

The policy should encourage cultural entrepreneurship among all sections of society. It will especially support those entrepreneurs who bring new technologies and innovative manage-ment practices to boost creativity and visibility of traditional arts and cultural activities.

A specific and important objective of the policy to promote creative industries should be to create opportunities for jobs and income-enhancement for youth, women, senior citizens, and disabled persons by promoting small and medium-sized enterprises that are based on materi-als and resources that are affordable, renewable and environmentally sustainable.

In order to monitor the contribution of creative industries to the citys development and its employment potential, extensive data should be gathered and collated. Through research and study, the income-generating role of creative industries in the citys economy needs to be as-sessed. Such a study will help dispel notions of culture being a cost centre for the government.

Mumbai and MMR have immense potential for tourism development, but the success in tap-ping it has been very low so far. The Government should establish a Mumbai Tourism Pro-motion Council as an empowered body, separate from the Maharashtra Tourism Develop-ment Corporation (MTDC). It should be a non-bureaucratic body with strong and broad-based stakeholder representation.

The Mumbai Tourism Promotion Council should be tasked with preparing, and implement-ing, a comprehensive plan for development of Mumbai as a world-class destination for domes-tic and foreign tourists.

The plan should aim at increasing the number of foreign and domestic tourists by 500% over the next five years. Towards this end, a creative brand-promotion campaign along the lines of

18. Promotion of culture to boost the economy and employment generation

18.2 TOURISM

18.1 CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

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The caves of Mumbai (Elephanta, Kanheri) should be adequately conserved and provided with better visitor infrastructure to transform them into more attractive places of tourism.

Incredible India should be launched both in India and abroad.

The tourism promotion plan should have a strong component of arts and culture.

Realising the full potential of tourism development in Mumbai and MMR depends much on the success of the Swachh Bharat mission. Therefore, it must be implemented vigorously with a strong focus on sanitation for all and scientific solid waste management based on the 3-R principle Reduce, Recycle, Reuse.

Given that Mumbai is blessed with the sea on three sides, water-based transport and tourism should be developed by creating marinas and facilities for water sports, harbour cruises, float-ing restaurants, etc. These should be accessible not only to the rich but also to the common people.

Mithi River, which flows through the heart of the island city, should be cleaned up and re-stored. The project should also involve development of a beautiful waterfront on its banks all along the course of the river, plus development of a 400-acre mangrove park near Mahim Bay where the river meets the sea. A wonderful model to learn from is the restoration of Cheong-gyecheon River in Seoul, which has become a world-class destination for waterfront tourism, and a hub of numerous cultural and arts activities.

The Maharashtra Nature Park in Mahim should be improved and made into a major destina-tion for environment tourism. Similar parks should be created elsewhere in MMR.

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The caves of Mumbai (Elephanta, Kanheri) should be adequately conserved and provided with better visitor infrastructure to transform them into more attractive places of tourism.

The 104-sq km Sanjay Gandhi National Park near Borivli, which is the worlds largest nation-al park within citys limits, should be renamed as Dr. Salim Ali National Park, after Mum-bai-born Dr Salim Ali, a world-renowned naturalist and ornithologist and the key figure behind the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), who rendered immense service to the cause of environment protection. To begin with, all illegal encroachments into the park must be imme-diately removed. Also, best global practices in park management should be adopted.

Preserving and further increasing the green cover, as well as bio-diversity, in Mumbai and MMR is critical to sustainable urbanisation as well as sustainable tourism. Therefore, activities of organisations like the World Wide Fund for Nature, National Society of the Friends of Trees, Soonabai Pirojsha Godrej Marine Ecology Centre (SPGMEC) should be fully supported.

A new and innovative feature of this plan can encourage intra-MMR tourism promotion for people living in the region. There are numerous tourism destinations in MMR which people living in the region either do not know about or have not visited. Also, these destinations have not been developed with a view to maximising recreation, eating and entertainment facilities. There are very few places in MMR where families and friends can go for an outing for a full day, half day or after office-hours, even though people of all income categories crave for such outlets. Developing such destinations as happening places will not only give a big boost to local economies and to local cultural talent, but also attract out-of-Mumbai domestic tourists and foreign tourists.

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19. Promotion of culture and arts in slumsMore than half of the population of Mumbai and MMR lives in slums of different kinds. Rec-ognising the right of slumdwellers to have good housing in healthy environments, and to live a life of dignity and justice, is the bedrock of inclusive development. While efforts to achieve this goal must be accelerated, immediate steps should also be taken to improve the quality of life of slumdwellers. Peoples own cultural and arts traditions provide rich resources to empower them, enabling them to discover and augment their own intrinsic wealth.

A principal aim of the Culture Policy should be to substantially expand/modernise the infra-structure and increase the opportunities and facilities in slums for peoples cultural and artistic expression.

Towards this end, all the cultural and community organisations, religious organisations, youth groups, womens groups, community centres, etc., in every slum in Mumbai/MMR should be mapped and suitably supported.

The cultural life of slumdwellers shows amazing vibrancy. They also have rich artistic and cultural talent. Government bodies, NGOs and CBOs (community based organisations) should jointly organise imaginative cultural events in each and every slum in Mumbai/MMR, linking them to themes and goals of sustainable development. For example, SNEHA (Society for Nu-trition, Education & Health Action), a reputed NGO, has been organising the Dharavi Biennale under the four themes of art, health, recycling, and vitality. It uses art to make people think about urban health in fresh and exciting ways. Each of the Biennale-commissioned projects is developed by people from Dharavi collaborating with a mentor artist. One such collaboration called Dharavi Food Project uses art to focus on food, womens labour, and the hunger for art.

Every slum community should be supported to organise their own cultural and arts festivals in multi-faith and multi-lingual formats.

The promising talent discovered in such local festivals should have opportunities to grow and perform in bigger events in the city and elsewhere. TV channels, both local and national, can make a major contribution to this endeavour.

A specific aim of promoting culture and arts in slums should be to benefit migrant workers and those living without their families.

Recognising the right of slumdwellers to have good housing in healthy environments, and to live a life of dignity and justice, is the bedrock of inclusive development.

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20. Funding/Taxation

21. Capacity and competency building

All the corporations in MMR should earmark 2 per cent of their annual budgets to the promo-tion of culture and arts. In the case of BMC, whose 2014-15 budget was of Rs 31,178 crore, this works out to approximately Rs. 600 crore. The State Government should make an additional investment of equal amount from its own resources.

Funding mechanisms for cultural institutions and activities need to be broadened. Philanthrop-ic activities need to be further incentivised by the government via liberalised laws/rules. The ambit of activities under CSR, and also under the funds available to MPs, MLAs and municipal corporators, needs to be broadened to include spending on arts and cultural activities.

The existing Entertainment Tax and Service Tax rules need to be reviewed in the interests of equity and clarity.

Effort should be made to develop and rationalise taxation mechanisms to support cultural activities which include physical infrastructure, capacity and competency building measures, and pension policy for artists.

Institutions that promote culture need to be run by people with competence and passion. A strong impetus needs to be given for capacity and competency building of those running these organisations.

Culture-promoting instit