With World Heritage Day just gone by, here is a crowdfunded project to disseminate information amongst children of Bengaluru about their city’s contribution to World War I
If something has to be for the community, it has to be with the community or better still, from the community. This is the concept ReReeti, an outfit that works with museums. This is the centenary year of World War I, with events being mounted across the world. ReReeti, too, is prepping for an interesting project. With White Pepper – Black Pepper: India in WW1, ReReeti wants to raise awareness amongst children in the city about Bengaluru’s contribution to the global war fought over 30 nations between 1914 and 1918. To raise funds, ReReeti is looking for contributions from corporates through CSR but it also experimented with crowd funding.
It kept a target of IRs. 1 lakh and on the website www.smallchange.ngo, asked people to donate anywhere between IRs. 201 to IRs. 3001. The target was achieved in 10 days. “Of course, the entire budget is IRs. 30 lakh but we wanted to get the community involved. We wanted to see if the people felt a need for such a discourse and with their response, it seems they do,” says Tejshvi Jain, Founder-Director of ReReeti.
Bengaluru can certainly do with some more light on its connection with the First World War because there is very little known about it. Through the project, interesting facts such as around 1.5 million Indian soldiers fought in the First World War, Bangalore Torpedo, a path-clearing device invented by the Madras Sappers being in use even today and many more will be brought out.
“The State of Mysore didn’t just send troops but also money and animals but so little is known about it. There are WWI monuments inside St. John’s complex like a cenotaph and statues of unknown soldiers inside the National Military Memorial in Vasanth Nagar. This project will be all about people, places, events, science and warfare and popular culture,” explains Jain.
The project has three components — travelling exhibition, online archival source and lesson plans on WWI. From August 2018 onwards, the exhibition co-curated with students, will travel to around 12 schools across the city. The exhibition will be experiential and at the same time have loads of information to share. The online archival source is being envisaged as a one-stop shop for all the content related to the World War.
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- According to Jain: ‘The Grey Mule’ was enlisted in 1891 and saw 31 years of service. He served in Egypt and Palestine between 1915 – 1918. While returning in 1921, many mules were sold in Egypt but Colonel Bassett interceded and obtained special permission to bring him back. On returning he was pensioned and allowed to roam free in the lines as an honoured war veteran. During the 150th anniversary reunion, he headed the march past of pensioners accompanied by the same sapper who had worked with him 33 years back. He wore his colours and got a standing ovation. It was his last parade. He passed away in 1933. He was buried in the unit lines at the Regimental Centre (Bangalore). His hooves were used to make ink stands – 2 in Bangalore (Regimental mess and Monkey House) and 2 in UK.
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Very little is out there about India’s contribution to WWI and whatever little is there is scattered. The aim is to bring all the links under one roof to make the information accessible. The lesson plans are about storage for anyone across the world to access the information.”
Jain was inspired during her Art Think South Asia Fellowship in the UK where she saw communities getting involved to engage with local histories.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Art / by Shailaja Tripathi / April 19th, 2018