Asia

Cultural Diplomacy with Music and Colors

Colours of Raga concert at the Indian Embassy

October 02nd, 2019
Marta Faraoni and Marina Natsia, News from Berlin
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The Indian Embassy organized a concert with traditional religious music entitled “Colours of Raga”, on October 16th 2019. It was the first of a series of cultural events with musical and dancing performances, that will last until the end of November.

The event “Colours of Raga”, is the first of a series of cultural events organized and hosted by the Indian Embassy, in collaboration with the Tagore Centre in Berlin (the official Indian cultural center. It was a concert with traditional instruments and religious songs from India, which refer to subjects of the soul, faith and death. The music event took place in the big auditorium of the Indian Embassy and a lot of people from both India and Germany attended and enjoyed the magical sounds. This event will be followed by a series of six other similar cultural events. All the events will be at the Indian Embassy and their main purpose is to encourage cultural exchange between India and Germany, through the sharing of traditional Indian culture.

The Tagore Centre in Berlin, organizes many different cultural events in collaboration with the Embassy of India. This cultural center was infact inaugurated by Prime Minister of India, Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao, on February 5, 1994. The main aim of the Tagore Centre is to promote the Indian culture in Germany, as well as being in charge of fostering cultural relations between the two countries. Every year, this center hosts well-known artists, scholars and authors not only from India but from the whole of Europe. Furthermore, the Institute manages two important awards, the Gisela Bonn Prize and Saraswati Sanskrit Award. The former is named after Professor Gisela Bonn, an expert of Indian culture and society that supported the cultural and political dialogue between India and Germany throughout her life. This award has a large scope, as a wide range of achievements are recognized with this prestigious prize, however it has become a trend that young scientists and journalists win it. The latter is a biennial award instituted in 2008 by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), in connection with the University of Heidelberg, in Germany.

This prize is awarded to students that research topics linked to Sanskrit or Indian heritage. Besides organizing events and broadening knowledge of Indian heritage, the Tagore Centre of Berlin boasts a rich library, the Dr. Zakir Husain Library, where there is a rich collection of books by Indian writers, poets, philosophers, social scientists, historians and linguists. 

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News from Berlin