The Centre for Heritage Studies at Tripunithura is embarking on a novel effort to document the state’s heritage.
The research and training institute is planning a heritage survey that will stretch across the state and involve the work of students, senior historians, local body officials and the common man.
“We will train students and they will go to the panchayat and ward levels to conduct the heritage survey. The students will speak to local body officials, people across the social strata, elders in the community, and anyone else who can contribute to the study of the region’s heritage,” said N.M. Nampoothiri, dean of academic affairs of CHS. According to Dr. Nampoothiri, the students will go door-to-door and collect information about historical documents, artefacts, architecture and the oral history of each region. The interdisciplinary survey would provide a detailed picture of the social, economic, and political structures of each region.
“Kerala has an identity very different from that of other states in India. Every village is unique and you will find stories of heritage in each backyard. As a first step towards understanding this heritage, we have to document the information and create a knowledge registry. Historical studies should not focus only on the succession of kings, but about the life of the people, too. The study would be a kind of social movement,” said Dr. Nampoothiri.
The proposed method of study was tried out several years ago at Vaniyamkulam in Palakkad with some success. The CHS will try out the proposal through a pilot heritage survey of the Kuttanad region that is expected to begin in a few months. A report prepared by the centre lists six colleges in the Kuttanad region that could help conduct the survey.
Students interested in research in these colleges could get first-hand experience of a detailed historical survey with plenty of guidance from their professors and the experts at and outside the institute. The report suggests that while the method of the survey would improve the education of college students, it could also create jobs for researchers and historians at local bodies.
According to the report, the data collected by the students could be digitised and stored at the Centre’s library at Tripunithura, creating an enviable archive of Kerala’s heritage.
