Report on Heritage Management and Mass Media Dated 25-26/02/2020 (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Organizer: Departments of Journalism, History, Sociology, and Heritage Management Resource Centre
Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad.
Participants: All the post graduate and MPhil, PhD students and teachers of the above Departments.
Speakers: Makarand Mehta (an eminent historian),
Lina Mishra (Senior editor, Indian Express),
Punita Harne (Head of the department of Journalism and Mass Communication GVP)
Syam Parekh (Head of the department of communication, Oro University, Surat)
Paul Jon ( Senior Journalist, The Times of India)
Debashish Nayak (Director of Centre for Heritage Management, Ahmedabad University)
Pino Shah (Heritage photographer, USA)
Vinod Pandey ( Professor of department of Journalism and Mass Communication GVP)
Ashwin Chauhan (Professor of department of Journalism and Mass Communication GVP)
Malati Mehta (Director, film production management AMA)
Esther David (aestheticism, writer and researcher)
Manek Patel ( Dentist, researcher and writer)
Coordinators: Dr Moti Devu, assistant professor of History, Nandini Dwivedi a PhD student of Journalism
department, Pravin Sekh, a PhD student of History department, Pradip Kothari, a PhD student of
Sociology department, Sandhya Kar, PhD student of Journalism department Gujarat Vidyapith.
Chief Guests: Dr Anamik Shah, VC of Gujarat Vidyapith, Subhash Brahmbatt, a historian and retired
principal of HK college Ahmedabad, Dr Munjal Bhimdadkar, the head of Social Science departments of
Gujarat Vidyapith, Dr Giridhar Patel, head of the Sociology department Gujarat Vidyapith, Sirin Mehta,
an eminent historian, Praytkar Kanadiya, head of the department of Library Science Gujarat Vidyapith,
Dr Vikram Amaravat, assistant professor of History and Dr Binduvasini Joshi, professor of History
department Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad.
Objective: To bring heritage awareness of Ahmedabad City on occasion of it’s 609 birthday
Introduction: A two day inter disciplinary seminar on the subject of Heritage Management and Mass
Media was organized in Hirak Mahotsav Khand of Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad on 25th and 26th
February, 2020. The seminar consisted of speeches of various scholars of Media, History, Film, Culture,
communication, Photography and Literature. A Street play 'Pol etle molu dai ane upar katko gol' and old
Ahmedabad city heritage Walk were also the parts of the two day seminar. The seminar was divided into
four sessions, each day two. The sole objective of the seminar was to bring awareness in society by
making people more sensitive to their heritage.
The seminar began by lighting the lamp and offering universal prayer. The guests were acknowledged by
giving them cotton yarn skeins, handkerchiefs and Pothis (booklets). Dr. Punita Harne, Head of the
department of Journalism and Mass Communication Gujarat Vidyapith, welcomed everyone in the
seminar. She stated that it was the first interdisciplinary seminar on this subject in Gujarat Vidyapith.
She then called Debahish, director of Centre of Heritage Management, Ahmedabad University for the
introductory speech.
'Why do we need to discuss about heritage?’ was the first question of Mr. Debahish. He raised the
concern that there is wide lack of historical knowledge in today’s students. ‘It is my general observation
that we are unaware of our surroundings', he said.
Makarand Mehta, a deemed Historian was the chief speaker of the first day. Mehta deliberated on
Gandhi and Ahmedabad. He called the establishment of Gujarat Vidyapith a revolutionary heritage
movement. Mehta said that there were two types of heritage: tangible and intangible. He remembered
significant historical figures such as Gandhi, Tagore, Ambalal Sarabhai, Shantilal Zaveri and Edwerd
Terry, a traveler. Mehta reiterated that significant events carry ideas and values which become the
intangible heritage of our society. Talking on Ahmedabad he linked the city with Gandhi and questioned
why Gandhi chose Ahmedabad as his centre of activities. He explained the meaning of POET-
population, organization, ecology, technology- theory of urbanization- Ahmedabad City. He urged
students to prepare term papers on the Gandhian national movement in Ahmedabad between 1915 to
1920.
The second speaker was Manekbhai Patel, a dentist by profession and historian by interest. He talked
about his Gujarat Samachar column 'Amdavadionu Amdavad' with it’s interesting background history.
He advised the students to cultivate a hobby.
Anamik Shah, the vice Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith expressed his good wishes for all the students. He
also drew attention of the students towards some unexplored research work. He motivated the
students, saying that there are abundant job opportunities in the field of liberal arts in the coming days.
Dr. Punita Harne and Paul Jon were the chief speakers of the first session. Mrs Harne talked about the
Cultural Heritage Management and the role of Mass Media. She minutely dissected different types of
heritage news and their importance for travel, preservation. She also differentiated between the raw
heritage news which mostly deal with the sentiment of people and the solid heritage news which help
spread the awareness of heritage in people. Pol Jon, the senior Journalist presented his power point
presentation. He discussed different ideas of story telling. Pol also emphasized that without the
community attachment there can be no scope either for media or heritage preservation.
Another speaker Syam Parekh, a senior Journalist started his speech by saying that history speaks
through the monuments. He interestingly connected the importance of local heritage to the global
Culture. Parekh showed concern about the increasing apathy to the heritage monuments. His speech
was one of the most interactive; he called 300 years old Sabarmati river as a living heritage of the City.
That there are trees older than 300 years in the city astonished many in the seminar. On the question of
first tea stall in Ahmedabad, many interesting facts about tea were revealed by Makarand Meht,. Such
as 1833 Asam tea company and Veerji Veera's first tea profession in 1642 in Surat. Parekh also talked on
food by reminding of Vishi Culture of old Ahmedabad.
Debashish Nayak, director of the center for heritage Management, Ahmedabad University, the third
speaker of the session spoke on his ambitious project 'Getting the city back to the people'. He
emphasized on the synchronization of the role of Media, both print and electronic and, the project of
renovation and restoration for the preservation of the heritage Culture. Sirin Mehta, meanwhile
commented on the need of including the minority's heritage monuments such as Synagogue of the city.
The street play 'pol etle molu dai ane upar katko gol’ summed up the day with the message of
preserving Pol culture where panch still matters and people are actively part of their neighbours. The
Chabutaro was the symbolic of community bondage of Pol Culture.
Next day, the early morning old City heritage Walk started the seminar on a different zone. The students
and the teachers were led to and explained the importance of various important heritage sites including
the poet Dalpatram Chok, Kalupur Swaminarayan temple, Jama Mosque, Hajapatel ni Pol and Jain Pol,
Manek Chok, Bhadra Fort and Manek Buraj.
Pino Shah, a USA based heritage photographer began the third session of February 26. He spoke on the
power of visual media for invoking heritage affinity in people. Pino said that the physical monuments
might not stay longer but their documentation could be a valuable resource for the coming generation.
Pino gave lessons of heritage photography by explaining the photography law of 70:30 (photos and
text), six questions of photography and the target audience.
The next speaker Vinod Pandey, a professor at Journalism department, Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad
talked on the subject 'Culture, heritage and Media'. Dr Pandey succinctly discussed the role of UNESCO,
current government initiative like Ganga Project, Hindu culture, tourism, traditional vocation and the
role of English and Vernacular languages newspapers for the preservation of heritage, both tangible and
intangible.
Ashwin Chauhan, a professor at the Journalism department Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad presented a
case study of Chirodeep Chaudhary on Mumbai Clock Towers. Dr Ashwin in his natural style of humour
spoke on the connection between human values with clock towers. He also provided technical aspects
of clock tower photography like the choice of colour, angles and need of extensive reading for good
Photography.
Mahesh Shah, a senior Journalist read out his Pol letter in which he minutely dealt with the real culture
of Pol. He included physical, nonphysical, ritual, and humane aspects of the Pol in his letter. The session
ended with the Thanksgiving speech of Praytkar Kanadiya, a professor at the department of Library
Science, Gujarat Vidyapith Ahmedabad.
Malati Mehta, a director of film production Management at AMA and Esther David, a writer and
aesthetician were the main speakers of the fourth and last session of the seminar. 'There is a magical
feeling in some heritage monuments', Mrs David said in the most literary way. She discussed about her
experience with the old City, new city, the walled City, and all the people who are associated in some
way with this heritage. She talked about her experience of writing her novel 'Ahmedabad City With a
Past'. There ware mentions of trees of Tad, Hasti Bibino Ghokhlo, auto rickshaw drivers, donation for
beggars and many myths of the city in her speech.
Malati Mehta called film production as one the most intangible heritage of our culture. She presented
some lovely documentaries on Ahmedabad city. Last but not the least, Ms Prathi, a student of Debashish
Nayak urged the audience to grow a tree per person by explaining the role of organic heritage in today’s
time.
Conclusion: The seminar was concluded with the acknowledgement of everyone's work for the seminar
by Dr Punita Harne.
