International Seminar on Traditional and Folk Arts of India

In March-April 2010, Dr. Devendra Sharma participated and performed in a four-day international conference-workshop in New Delhi to create an international production featuring traditional performing arts, crafts, foods, and textiles. The symposium was sponsored by the Asian Heritage Foundation, a non-governmental organization working towards the development of creative and cultural industries. Dr. Sharma was one of over fifty eminent intellectual personalities from South Asia and all over the world, including Ariane Mnouchkine, the well-known French theater director, Shyam Benegal, the renowned Indian film-maker, Sonia Gandhi, the president of Indian National Congress, Kapil Sibbal, the Indian National Minister for Education and Human Resources, Professor Pushpesh Pant from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Ms. Ila Bhatt, the well-known social worker from India who started the first union for self-employed women in India. In the seminar, Dr. Sharma was invited to talk about the situation of folk art traditions and their place in the contemporary global community. This seminar was a first step towards a huge international project in which intellectuals from around the world are coming together to save traditional communities of artists and showcase their art and skills on a global platform. The project will culminate in several expositions of traditional community art forms across the world, such as in Washington, D.C. with the help of Smithsonian Foundation, all over Europe, and in South Asian countries.

News Article by Tehelka Magazine: Homespun Posh
Video on NDTV Profit: The Jiyo! Movement

INDAL HARAN - Nautanki Performance at the Jiyo! Conference in New Delhi