Meet The SHEROES: The Team Behind Sahapedia

Sahapedia is an open online resource on the arts, cultures and heritage of India. We speak to the core team today to capture the essence of this new venture;

How did the idea of Sahapedia come about? Can you tell us about the inspiration behind this concept?

The concept ‘saha’ means ‘together with’ in Sanskrit. Many of us at Sahapedia have worked with government organizations in the past, and others have worked at universities and cultural centers of various kinds. In our experience, there is a lot of knowledge about India’s cultural expressions and practices that exists in archives and libraries that, let us say, are not the most accessible or hospitable spaces for general members of the public. However, we think that this access and even promotion of it is necessary. Without knowing our past, we’re unlikely to have a future that we like, and want to live in. So, as a society, we want to encourage everyone to engage with our cultural inheritance, and we want to do it collectively. There is no way that this project can succeed without people’s participation and so, the idea of Sahapedia – a resource that is online, and therefore minimizes problems of access related to mobility and time, and it is open, so everyone who is interested can collaborate with us and contribute to the shared pool of knowledge.

How can both users and readers benefit from this platform / concept?

For one, Sahapedia shares knowledge in many different formats – from articles and interviews to walkthroughs, timelines, video and image galleries. This encourages users / readers – the latter can be collapsed into the former category as we think all readers are users – to encounter new knowledge in the ways that they prefer. Some of us are visually stimulated, others of us want to read before we delve any further, and still others may prefer audio-visual content or infographics. And so Sahapedia tries to give as many ways of exploring the cultural wealth of India as possible, so that all these preferences are accommodated.

One of the highlights of sahapedia.org is also that it provides anyone who wants it a ‘Workspace’ where they can create drafts of their own works. They can use this to write articles, curate their own photographs, say of a monument they just visited, or share a video of an artist that they may have shot for a college course, with Sahapedia. Once vetted, these can be added to Sahapedia. So users are knowledge creators and recipients at the same time, and this is important because we all have many things to learn, but also much to share with others.

In the future, what overall plan / structure do you have for Sahapedia?

Looking ahead, in terms of content, we would like to focus on a few issues. The first is developing content in multiple languages, as without this Sahapedia will not be truly accessible. The other is heritage education - developing modules for children, which may be used by schools, teachers, parents and students themselves.

In terms of our website—sahapedia.org—we would like to see it become much more mobile-friendly, maximizing the potential of location-based services.

In terms of operations, we are looking to achieve some financial sustainability over the next few years. So far, we have been generously and kindly supported by a few corporations, in the future we would like to have a few revenue streams that support our basic functions. For instance, perhaps some interventions in heritage tourism, in conservation services, and other consultancy areas where our team members have expertise.

Can you tell us about some of the key women team members?

Sudha Gopalakrishna , Executive Director, Sahapedia is one of the founders of Sahapedia, as well as Vice President of Sahapedia's governing body. She has over thirty years of  experience in areas relating to policy, management, documentation and research pertaining to multiple aspects of Indian arts and heritage.  She received her PhD in Comparative Drama and Masters degree in English Language and Literature.

Suchetana Banerjee is a research coordinator and works on sourcing and generating content for Sahapedia. A student of Comparative Literature,  her doctoral thesis is on people’s theatre movement in India from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, She has many publications to her credit.

Yashaswini Chandra is a historian specialising in the arts and cultures of northern India. Currently, she is managing a key Sahapedia project -  Multi-volume Documentation of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Yashaswini has a PhD in art history from the School of Oriental and African Studies  (SOAS), University of London, as a Felix scholar.

Neerja Dasani handles multiple tasks of sourcing and creating multi-media content for the web portal as well as oversees Mumbai-based  collaborations and projects in her capacity as editor and project coordinator, West Zone. She is a writer and journalist by profession.

Shirley Khoirom is a research coordinator and works on sourcing and creating content for Sahapedia modules. She is an art historian by  training and holds a PhD in Buddhist iconography from the Department of Arts and Aesthetics in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Sindhu Nair works on editing and creating modules for Sahapedia as a consultant editor. She has a master’s degree in English  literature from University of Kerala and has taught in schools in Kerala, Bihar and Delhi.

Krittika Narula is a research coordinator with Sahapedia. Her past experiences have included a research project with Museum Rietberg,  Zurich, which also involved co-curating an exhibition at the National Museum, New Delhi, on Santal Musical Traditions. Prior to this, she  was a curator at the Crafts Museum, New Delhi.

Neha Paliwal (me) handles Sahapedia projects and collaborations with institutions. I have studied history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and  anthropology as well as museum studies at the University of Michigan.

Sujatha Subramaniam is a research coordinator with Sahapedia and commissions research for developing content. She studied for a master’s degree in  Media and Cultural Studies and an M Phil in Women’s Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

What differentiates your platform from others in the industry?

Sahapedia is unique, first, because of the quality of our content – it is reliable, it is well-researched, and it is curated to present information in multiple formats, and to bring out interconnections between traditions, historic sites, literature, our natural environment, our cuisines, and our knowledge traditions – whether oral, written or visual. Other than in our ‘Community’ section, where people can create discussion groups, all our other content goes through the editorial process and fact-checks.

Second, we are not an online platform for just institutional collections as some websites may be. We rely on individual scholars, experts, artistes, researchers and enthusiasts to share their materials and experiences with us. Of course, we have institutional collaborations, and these are very important, but we rely heavily on the generosity of people to share their work because that gives us multiple interpretations and a diversity of approaches to the same subject.

What is a typical "day at work" like at Sahapedia?

Any given day, you’ll find our team doing a variety of things. One or more of us may be traveling and documenting a festival, a heritage site or a national park. Some of us will be busy curating and editing content – articles, videos, bibliographies, interviews that we receive from users and researchers. A couple of us will probably be in meetings – either exploring opportunities for collaboration with cultural organizations, or trying to draft proposals or Memoranda of Understanding with government institutions to share their archives on our digital platform. A few of our team will be looking at the technical end of things, making sure the website runs smoothly, and that our users don’t encounter any glitches. Lunches are full of talk about some new modules in the making or a new exhibition in town or the movies running at the local halls – regular office lunch!

When it comes to today's youth (students) and knowledge about cultural heritage: where do you think we as a community need to improve on more?

It seems each generation always feels that the next generation knows less about its heritage than they ought to and that the past is a foreign country for them. This accusation has gained particular traction now because of the pace of technological change and the resulting increased mobility of the young – that they migrate or immigrate and they lose touch with traditions that are no longer of use to them. However, this is not necessarily true, and we mustn’t give in to this belief without some basis.

At the same time, there are some critical thinking abilities that are very helpful and the earlier in our lives we inculcate these, the better it is. In this sense, then, it is important to think of the youth (of every generation) and their knowledge of cultural heritage. Our pasts, our traditional practices and our historical contexts are all natural subjects for our inherent curiosity and understanding these helps us to develop our analytical, ethical and philosophical attitudes to our lives. Our individual and collective attitudes then contribute to the kind of engagement we bring to our civic roles, our private lives and our social relationships. 

The lack of understanding our context, on the other hand, often makes us feel un-rooted, and makes us devalue others’ contexts, their traditions and practices even more.

So, to be a more generous and understanding society, we really must prioritize learning and engagement with cultural contexts among the youth. After all, they are the future, and they must be equipped to make it of the kind that they want to live in. 

Thoughts you would like to share with working professionals: what would you tell them about issues related to cultural heritage; how would you spread awareness? 

In our experience, India’s urban cities seem to be full of people who want to travel more, visit more monuments, attend more performances, and record all these activities in their own ways – through photographs, blogs, articles and videos.

However, to address your main question: there are a few issues that working professionals should perhaps reflect a little bit more on with regard to cultural heritage. One of these is that cultural heritage is our common heritage, and we should treat it as such. We are all responsible for sustaining it and cherishing it – not just organizations and government institutions. As citizens, we can take community actions, like looking after a neighbourhood site, or reviving our local natural flora, and we can also demand more from our civic bodies if we organize ourselves. As working people, we cannot relegate the responsibility for this on others and then despair when they do not do so.

We probably ought to talk with our children about how and why we cook the foods we do, celebrate the festivals we do, worship the gods we do, and tell the stories we tell. We must also record, and interpret, the knowledge we receive from our parents, grandparents and neighbors. Go for walks through your mohalla-s, picnic at your local heritage sites, exchange stories with your friends, and read books to your kids and partners. Most importantly, do all of this consciously, thoughtfully and deliberate upon the significance of these in your life. You may like some of your experiences, you may question some of your beliefs, but that’s fine – that’s part of the process.

If we do not question received wisdom, or challenge certain rituals, we are participating in the unthinking violence that prejudice and stereotypes inflict everyday on so many of our fellow citizens. But this doesn’t mean that we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Be critical, be selective, but first understand – and in this, Sahapedia can help!

So go ahead, the past is everywhere, especially in the future, so its critical that you engage with it. We can guarantee that it’ll be an enriching experience.