A new festival celebrating the cultural ties between India and the UK will launch in 2017 marking the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence. The move, which is backed by Prime Minister David Cameron, follows a highly publicised state visit to the UK last week by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Nehru Centre in London and the British Council are among the organisers of the new initiative.
A major exhibition at the CSMVS museum in Mumbai (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya) including a number of key loans from the British Museum will be a centrepiece event of the 2017 festival. “[The exhibition] will tell the story of Indian history and civilisation in the wider context of simultaneous events in world history,” says a press statement from the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Two cornerstone British texts drawn from the British Library will tour India as part of the programme: Shakespeare’s First Folio, the first collected edition of the Bard’s plays, and the 1225 edition of the Magna Carta. More than seven million pages from Asian-language books will also be digitised as part of the project. Meanwhile, an India-themed exhibition will open at the Manchester Museum ahead of its new India gallery launch, the date of which is unconfirmed.
“The UK is already a big hit with Indian tourists. Last year saw a record breaking 400,000 visits to the UK from India, and in the first half of 2015 Indian tourists spent £199m during their stays,” says the DCMS statement.