Around 160 artistes will take part at the BRICS Symphony during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gala dinner at Bharat Mandapam on Saturday.
Indian dancers and musicians will form the core of the ensemble, coordinated by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). The Indian contingent will include performers representing four major classical dance traditions of Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi and Kathak.
The musical component will feature traditional Indian instruments alongside musicians from other BRICS countries. There will also be vocal renditions during the performance. The show is expected to last 25 minutes.
No Bollywood stars
No Bollywood celebrity names have been announced for the cultural presentation so far. Instead, the programme is centred on India’s classical dance and musical traditions.
Separately, artists from BRICS countries have come together in India for the BRICS Friendship Mural, based on the theme ‘Sangam’ — the confluence of rivers.
“The project is intended to symbolise the coming together of different cultures and traditions. The participating artists also visited Agra, including the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, and experienced Indian handicrafts and classical music,” the ICCR said in a statement.
Reports have also claimed that an artist from Amritsar has created a 5×8-foot artwork as part of the BRICS Friendship Mural project.
Sans the Bollywood charisma, India appears to be deliberately using classical and traditional performing arts rather than celebrity entertainment to project its cultural diversity.
At the gala dinner, the Indian contingent is expected to showcase the country’s rich performing-arts traditions, with classical dance and music forming a major component of the presentation.
Rather than a conventional diplomatic event, the programme is designed to offer visiting heads of state and their delegations a glimpse of India’s cultural plurality.
The cultural showcase assumes significance as India hosts the BRICS summit on September 12 and 13 at Bharat Mandapam.
The summit brings together the expanded BRICS grouping at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions and is expected to focus on cooperation in areas including global governance, trade, technology, food and energy security, health and disaster resilience.
The cultural diplomacy component is also in line with India’s wider BRICS Culture Track.
The XI BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting held in Bhopal last month adopted the Bhopal Declaration, which seeks to strengthen cultural cooperation among BRICS members and partner countries. Fourteen countries participated in the culture ministers’ meeting, including 10 BRICS members and four partner countries.
The gala performance will therefore serve a dual purpose — entertaining visiting leaders while projecting India’s soft power and cultural diversity.
Alongside the performances, the summit venue has also been given a strong cultural character.
A crafts bazaar at Bharat Mandapam is among the attractions planned for spouses of BRICS leaders, while visiting dignitaries are being offered exposure to Indian heritage, handicrafts and traditional arts.
With the world’s attention focused on the diplomatic proceedings in Delhi, the BRICS Symphony is set to provide a different soundtrack to the summit — using music and dance to underline the cultural links between the countries of the expanded grouping.
