On November 8, 2021, Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, was recognised as a ‘creative city’ by UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network (UCCN). It is the sixth Indian city to get the distinction—after Chennai and Varanasi (UNESCO cities of music), Jaipur (UNESCO city of crafts and folk arts), Mumbai (UNESCO city of film), and Hyderabad (UNESCO city of gastronomy).
Srinagar is the second Indian city to be designated ‘a creative city of craft and folk arts’—after Jaipur.
The UCCN tag would give global recognition to the city and help in international funding tie-ups with craft universities.
Every year, UNESCO seeks applications for various cities across the globe for including them under its UCCN project. This time it picked 49 cities (including Srinagar) in recognition of “their commitment to placing culture and creativity at the heart of their development and to sharing knowledge and good practices”. The UCCN now has 295 cities from 90 countries in its list.
Cities joining the UCCN commit to sharing their best practices and developing partnerships involving the public and private sectors and civil society to strengthen the production, distribution and dissemination of cultural activities, goods and services. They pledge to develop hubs of creativity and innovation and broaden opportunities for creators and professionals.
Srinagar had applied in 2018 for the designation but its application was rejected at the time.
Srinagar’s craft and folk arts is an intrinsic part of its tourism. Kashmir is well-known for its traditional Kashmiri handicrafts like shawls (Pashmina shawls), carpets, hand-woven rugs, woollen items, embroidered jackets, coats (phirhan), scarves, silverware, brassware, wood carvings, papier-mache craft, and products like dried fruits. Its performing arts include the traditional Bhand Pather, a type of theatre where dance and drama are combined in satire form, and Chakri which is a popular traditional music played with instruments like sarangi, graha, rabab, and harmonium.
The applications from India, routed through the Ministry of Culture, featured four Indian cities this time: Kolkata, Gwalior, Indore, and Srinagar; those of Srinagar and Gwalior— cities recommended for the list by the Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INCCU) were forwarded to the UCCN while the applications of Kolkata and Indore could not be forwarded because of being incomplete.
Though the UCCN custom is to announce two cities from each country, only Srinagar city was designated from India for 2021.
The process of nomination of Srinagar was undertaken and funded as part of the World Bank-Funded Jhelum Tawi Flood Recovery Project.
UCCN The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) project was launched by UNESCO in 2004 for creative cities to work together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level. The objective is to develop innovative urban policies and solutions that place people and sustainability at the centre of the development process particularly for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
UNESCO classifies the creative cities under seven different categories: Craft and Folk Arts, Media Arts, Film, Design, Gastronomy, Literature, and Music.
INCCU The Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INCCU) was established under the Department of Secondary and Higher Education in the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 1949. A permanent Commission was set up in 1951.
The INCCU objective is to advise the government in matters relating to the UNESCO.
The UNESCO Constitution mandates each of its members to form a national commission to function as agency of liaison between the national government and UNESCO.
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