Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Organization background

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR is an academic institute of global repute. It offers programs of undergraduate and graduate study in technical and other areas. The IIT's are the top-rated engineering educational institutions in India. Acceptance into their programs are based on a very competitive entrance exam with an acceptance rate of less than 1%. There are many IIT's all over India today, but IIT Kharagpur represents the first IIT that was established back in 1950's. Though the institutes started out primarily with a focus on various aspects of engineering, these days, they are also branching out into other areas. More information is available here and here.

Project background

India is uniquely bestowed with its rich heritage in classical arts, spanning the domains of music, dance, fine arts, theater, and other performing arts. Due to various socio-economic reasons, the traditional guru-shishya parampara through which these art forms have been passed on from one generation to the next is unlikely to survive in future. It is therefore important to discover a modern pedagogy for building awareness, teaching and learning the traditional Indian art forms, so that these may be appreciated, practiced, researched and improvised upon by future generations. IIT Kharagpur believes that this can be made possible through appropriate technological interventions that can make the teaching-learning experience interesting and innovative, while carefully preserving the core fundamentals of the traditional art forms.

IIT Kharagpur has set up a Science and Heritage Initiative with the acronym SandHI, under which it has created various research groups to explore various dimensions of Indian heritage through the eyes of science and technology. One of the main contributions of the SandHI initiative has been to bring the spotlight of research into traditional creative, performing, and socio-economic practices in India. The onset of this initiative has also successfully enthused a significant cross section of the young researchers in the institute inspiring them to take increasing interest in their Indian heritage.

GKF contribution to IIT KGP