Guidelines on Social Science Project for Students Taking Care of Our heritage: Monuments and Architecture of our past

The project will involve following activities related to the monuments located in the vicinity / City/ State and Region.

• Collection of literature such as archival documents, design, photographs, history, Stories, Legends associated with the monuments from different sources such as National /State Archives, Archaeological Survey of India, INTACH etc and hold exhibitions for students of other classes.
   
• Making a CD on a Monument by taking viewers inside and around the monuments by showing its features, fine architectural designs, kinds of trees planted around the monument, kind of people visiting, condition at present, work undertaken to protect, and preserve it. Students can show interviews with visitors, actual caretakers and those in authority by asking pertinent questions.
   
• They can act as volunteer guides for visitors by taking them around the monument and explain its history, architectural features, connected stories, ethos etc. They can also distribute Post Cards, Greeting cards and posters to the visitors on these monuments designed and developed by them containing a message on the relevance of our heritage in our lives and the ways of preserving and protecting them.

‘Adopt a Heritage’ Scheme

Further in order to create awareness and a sense of belonging among youth and inculcate in young minds a feeling for heritage, the CBSE desires to implement the scheme of ‘Adopt a Heritage’ in schools affiliated to the Board. Each student studying in Classes up to X can be involved in any of the following activities as part of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation Scheme which has been suggested by the Board:

• Adopting monuments or historical buildings of their neighborhood for conservation as part of a project in Social Science. (Guidelines annexed).
• Creating Awareness regarding the need to protect and preserve the cultural heritage of India.
• Organising ‘Heritage Walks’ and ‘Talks’ on the cultural and historical significance of monuments.
• Organising seminars, quizzes, skits, exhibitions or street theatre on the importance and protection of the monuments located in their neighbourhood
• Taking up various community sensitization programmes to inculcate a sense of pride among the students, teachers and the community.

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About Indian Heritage

India is a land of diverse cultures. The variations in physical, climatic conditions and the extent of exposure to other cultures have greatly influenced the traditions and culture of the different regions.

"The history of India and its art has been so bound up with the geographic nature of this vast continent that something must be said of these physical characteristics. India has a kind of impregnable geographic isolation. It is in the shape of a great sealed funnel extending from the heartland of Asia. This peculiar shape of the peninsula made for an inevitable retention and absorption of all the racial and cultural elements that poured into it. The peninsula is bounded on the west by the Indian ocean; on the east by the Bay of Bengal. Along the northern frontier India is almost sealed off from the Asiatic mainland by the rocky curtain of the Himalayas from Baluchistan to Assam. The only openings in this formidable natural fortification are the various passes of the north-west, such as the famous Khyber and Bolan passes, which wind through the mountains seperating India from the Iranian plateau. Through these gaps came all the migrating tribes and conquerors that made themselves masters of the rich plain of India.

The cultural divisions of India proper have always been determined and dominated by the great river systems, the watersheds of the Indus and Ganges, the Deccan plateau and South India.

Climate, no less than geography has played its part in the development of the peculiarly indigenous traits of Indian history and art. All the races of martial character have grown up in the dry and hilly districts of north-west and centre, whereas the fertile plains of Bengal and South have been inhabited by peaceful and unwarlike cultivators.

The overpowering nature of India has in a way forced upon the inhabitants an inability to act, a situation responsible for the Indian races having become lost in religiosity.

The mystery of Indian myths and Indian art lies partly in the fact that it suggests rather than states. It could truly be said that Indian symbols of art voiced the same truth as Indian philosophy and myth.

In India, all art, like all life, is given over to religion. Indian art is life, as interpreted by religion and philosophy.

Indian art may, in a general way, be described as theological, hieratic, or, perhaps best of all as traditional. The purpose of Indian art, like all traditional art, is primarily to instruct men in the great first causes, which according to the seers, govern the material, spiritual and celestial worlds. Art is dedicated to communicating these great truths to mankind and, by the architectural, sculptural and pictorial reconstruction of the powers that maintain the stars in their courses."

  Book: The Art and Architecture of India
  By: Benjamin Rowland 

Courtesy: www.saigan.com