Katragadda, Gopichand

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October 18, 2020Whose culture is it anyway?deccanherald.com/specials/sunday-spotlight/whose-culture-is-it-anyway-903489.htmlThe eastern end of MG Road in Bengaluru is identified by the Trinity Church landmarkand is called Trinity Circle. However, a vast majority of people would not even know ofthe existence of the imposing church at that location. It is very much visible, but non-existent for most people because they do not identify with it. Some older residents ofBengaluru might identify the same location with Lido Theatre from the British times,which has now given way to the Lido shopping centre. Yet others might identify thesame location with Taj Residency, the hotel that has been around for a few decades. Forothers, the landmark would be the Gurdwara round the corner. And few know of theancient Someshwara Temple, less than 600 meters from the Gurdwara, which dates tothe Chola period. The homes and streets around the temple have probably not changedin the past 200 years!Truth is, diversity exists in India in parallel planes of realities. The fact is also thatIndians never documented their history and culture well enough. So, it is welcome if ascholarly attempt is made to document India’s culture in a systematic and inclusivemanner. Such a study would include aspects of professions, languages, religions,philosophies, social organisation, traditions, literature, art, architecture, music, andscience. Such a study would look at India’s influence on the world and the world’sinfluence on India. It would be respectful of the rich cultural histories of the under-represented regions and classes. Such a study would leverage modern advances ingenetics and data sciences. It would further enhance the diversity of Indian culture.Importantly, such a study can start with a hypothesis, but not with a mandate. And itwould be performed over at least a decade, with regional and national teams, a qualityfunction, a programme office, and allocated programme funding. Museums around theworld have Indian cultural pieces and universities around the world have scholars onIndian culture. Hence, it would be appropriate to have collaborations globally toleverage knowledge from all sources.Union Minister Prahlad Patel recently announced a committee to study the origin andevolution of Indian culture over the past 12,000 years and its interface with othercultures of the world. A committee and round-table approach will find it difficult toachieve scholarly progress on the matter of Indian culture. Let me refer to the area ofIndian metal making traditions to explain what I mean.In January 2016, I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting the conservation areas ofthe Rijksmuseum, the National Museum of Amsterdam. I spent time with the metalsdepartment of the museum. Here, we were introduced to a team that had in-depthknowledge of metal making techniques used in ancient Indian bronzes.1/3They spoke at length about the perfection they observed in the Chola bronzes. TheNataraja on display at the Rijksmuseum, for example, had zero defects even under an X-ray examination! The researchers at the Rijksmuseum were unable to conclude whatmetal-working techniques result in a bronze with absolutely no internal defects. TheChola bronzes are a showcase of creativity and engineering skills and find place of pridein major museums around the world. The Cholas are recorded in history from about300 AD to 1279 AD. However, the bronze making tradition might date back to 2500 BC,the antiquity of the ‘dancing girl’ found in the Indus valley.In 2009, I had visited Swamimalai in Tamil Nadu, where it is quite amazing to see theartisans working in the same manner as maybe our ancestors did some 4,500 years ago!Another example, one must discuss in the context of Indian metal working traditionfrom the past is that of carbon steel. Carbon steel is the most used engineering materialtoday and accounts for 85-90% of steel produced worldwide. To tell this story, one musttalk about Sharada Srinivasan of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.I first met her when she visited us at GE Global Research in Bengaluru. Sharada has aPhD in archaeometallurgy and has worked on topics such as the Panchaloha and Wootzsteel. She concluded that high-grade ultra-high carbon steel was indeed produced bycrucible processes in South India. There is now a general agreement that the Damascussteel, which made its way into the Western world through the crusades, was producedin India rather than in Damascus and was known as Wootz steel, potentially derivedfrom the word “ukku” which means steel in Telugu. It is speculated that Wootz steel wasmade in India from 500 BC to about 1600 AD and the process of making it was passedon through oral tradition by the master smiths. If the Indian smiths had documentedthe science behind their craft, the craft might have survived to the present ages.A third example I would like to share from India’s metal working culture is nanosilver.Currently, nanosilver is being used in microcidal applications from washing machines towound healing. For the longest time, silver beaten into thin sheets has been used on oursweet-meats and on paan (betel leaf with various admixtures inside). I picked up a fewsheets of these silver foils to verify their nanostructure and purity. The results fromtransmission electron microscope analysis verify the purity of silver (very fewprecipitates high in carbon) and the existence of a nano-microstructure with severedeformation. Current research points to the anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, re-epithelialization, and anti-haemorrhagic properties of silver in its nano form. It isinteresting that the way silver gets its nanostructure in this case is by taking normalmetallic silver and pounding it to its nano form! The use of nano-silver is an age-oldtechnology in India. With these three examples, it is obvious that to document just onepart of our history – the metal working aspects of Indian culture -- we need qualifiedresources, field work, lab work, access to artifacts, and the scientific temper todocument and advance what is known and acknowledge what is not known, withoutresorting to wild speculation where data is unavailable. This will be true for all otheraspects of Indian culture as well.2/3An excellent attempt at documenting culture is the Don Bosco Centre for IndigenousCultures in Shillong. I would not hesitate suggesting using the Don Bosco Centre as atemplate for cultural studies. Traveling in India, I have been amazed by its diversity.From the creation myths of the seven tribes of the North-East to the Wazwan spread ofKashmir to the hospitality of Rajasthan to the Indus sites of Gujarat to the temples ofChhattisgarh to the Churches of Goa to the Buddhist structures of Maharashtra to thefolk songs of Andhra Pradesh to the six orthodox schools of Indian Philosophy, to theVedas and the Upanishads, to the practical teachings of Thirukkural, Indian culture isan ocean and needs to seen and treated as such. How does one trace the origin of anocean and its continuum?(The writer is founder of Myelin Foundry, an Artificial Intelligence start-up inBengaluru. He was previously Group CTO, Tata Sons, and MD, Jack F WelshTechnology Centre, Bengaluru)3/3

Whose culture is it anyway?

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Whose culture is it anyway?

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