The distinctiveness of Indian Culture over the millennia has lain in the unique fact that its matrix has been its village from where its cities have drawn their cultural nourishment. However, in the last fifty years our villages have suffered a cultural drain, especially because they have ceased to function as the spring-wells of our national culture, and during all this time, ideas, values, norms and forms of living have tended to flow in one direction, which is from the city to the village. This development coupled with the growth of modernism has aggravated the negative fall-out of the modernistic development, which can be counter-balanced and negated by ensuring the cultural vitality of village life and its multifaceted life forms.
Come the festival of lights, Dehradun, the capital city of Uttarakhand, India bestowed with the nature’s beauty also comes alive. Virāsat, the folklife & heritage festival brings along with it the vibrant, ethnic kaleidoscope of India’s art and culture. World renowned exponents of various art forms showcase their genius over a period of two weeks at the festival. Virāsat encompasses the spirit of heritage in the Himalayas.
Evolved on the lines of the Theban Celebrations of Ancient Greece, the international festival aims at creating a perfect ambience for the flow of knowledge and the application of the ennobling effect of true art. The effort is to develop a genuine concern in the inquisitive minds of the precarious materialism our society finds itself in the midst of. It encapsulates the vital arts & crafts of India with their attendant legends, rituals, myths and philosophy. Virāsat attracts participation from more than eight Lac people who come to enjoy the rhythm of folk life. 50,000 impressionable students get acquainted with their roots over 15 days.