Vijay Goel sets up foundation to preserve India's cultural heritage

New Delhi, Dec 9 (UNI) Blaming the prevalent 'Bubble gum culture' and 'Bollywood films' for a lack of interest in Indian traditions, music, dance and other forms of cultural expression, former Union Minister Vijay Goel today embarked on an initiative for preservation of the cultural heritage of the country.

Mr Goel launched the Heritage India Foundation for the preservation of India's heritage, including its culture, monuments and environment.

Talking to reporters here, Mr Goel said,''the prevailing Bubble gum culture and the onslaught from Bollywood have resulted in a lack of interest and knowledge in true Indian tradition, music, dance and other forms of cultural expression. The Heritage India foundation will not only attempt to preserve this culture but actively seek out lesser froms of artistic expression and save them from disappearing.'' Stressing to the need to preserve ancient monuments, Mr Goel said,''though we are perhaps the richest country in the world in terms of our architectural heritage, we have yet to learn how to preserve our monuments. We are either overprotective or completely neglect them. We need to keep our monuments clean and to keep them relevant and alive.'' He said the Foundation aimed to disseminate information to people about heritage, conservation of the environment of a city like Delhi and, above all, will work to bring about a desirable change in people's approach towards buildings of great antiquity and aesthetic value.

As part of its endeavour, the foundation will organise symposiums for involving 'experts' in the field of heritage management, hold cultural programmes to promote traditions, establish heritage parks and museums to preserve and promote scattered archaeological relics and frangmented pieces of heritage structures and public relevant materials on heritage of Delhi and India for benefit of researchers, scholars, tourism professionals and school children.

He said that the foundation had already established a Toy Bank in Delhi with a philanthropic mission to preserve donated toys and their distribution among children of downtrodden sections of society. Besides, work was under progress on establishing a school heritage in Adharshila School at Pitampura in North Delhi.

On this occasion, Mr Goel made a public demand to have Indian heritage and culture as a subject in schools and colleges.

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