For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that investigates the Banarasi bandish as a rich site of lyrical, musical, and archival inquiry, unpacking its layered poetic and sonic textures through creative experimentation and critical reflection. Through writing, composition, collaboration, and performance, the project reimagines the bandish as both a living archive and a generative musical form. The outcomes of this project will include experimental audio tracks based on the Banarasi bandish, baithak-style concerts that blend traditional and reimagined performances, and a bilingual website serving as a living archive of compositions, narratives, and sonic responses. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will include: the audio tracks, concert documentation, and the website. Projects funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, and performance.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that seeks to translate the stories, traditions, and everyday lives of Mumbai’s East Indian community into a physical language. Through engagement with elders, archival research, and oral histories, movement and dance will serve as a medium for embodying and reinterpreting their evolving heritage amidst urbanisation. The outcome of this project will be a multimedia presentation comprising contemporary dance that foregrounds the cultural, historical, and social narratives of Mumbai’s East Indian community, interpreting and re-articulating community practices of oral histories, rituals, daily rhythms, and everyday gesture - positioning the body as a living, interpretive archive. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will be audio-visual documentation of the presentation, archival material, interviews, along with field documentation. Projects funds will pay for contract fees, documentation, hire of equipment, hire of venue and travel and living.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that documents, analyses, and translates the Kashmiri Marsi tradition by combining audio-visual recordings of live performance with translations and critical reflection. The recordings and translations will open the tradition to scholarly and public audiences while foregrounding the specific practices (wazan, kinesics, vocalics, and group dynamics) that make Marsi what it is. The outcome of this project includes a public audio-visual archive of five professional recordings of Marsi performances with English subtitles; an anthology of thirty Marsi poems in English translation; and a long, illustrated personal essay reflecting on Marsi as memory, performance, and language, accompanied by audio-visual documentation. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will be an audio-visual subtitled archive of five Marsi performances in Kashmiri, an essay reflecting on Marsi as memory and performance, and an anthology of 30 Marsi in English translation. Projects funds will pay for contract fees, documentation, publication and travel and living.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will facilitate research and creation of two volumes of graphic novel on the lesser-explored history of revolutionaries like Rashbehari Bose, Kanailal Dutta, Upendranath Bandyopadhyay and Motilal Roy along with other revolutionary figures in Chandannagar. It will also explore the tangible and intangible heritage and culture of the city that emerges out of the collection at the Chandernagore College Museum. The outcomes of the project will be a sample print of the two-volume graphic novel, digital copies of the graphic novels, a handout for the museum, and workshops around illustration and storytelling. The Project Coordinator’s final deliverables along with the final reports will be the printed copies of the graphic novels, digital copies of the graphic novels, a copy of the handout, and audio-visual documentation of the workshops and other public programming. This is a collaboration with the Chandernagore College Museum, West Bengal. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, publication, workshop, hire of equipment, and Archives and library fee.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that maps and analyses how Bengali language and cultural expression are changing in the platform era (2020–2025), focusing on how creators, technologies, and institutions reshape vernacular registers, translation practices, and audience strategies. The outcome of this project will be an inaugural online Digital Humanities (DH) workshop, a monthly lecture series, YouTube creator interviews, a five-day translation workshop, a one-day hybrid academic conference, and a bilingual digital repository website serving as a comprehensive digital archive. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will include audiovisual documentation of workshops/lectures/conference proceedings; transcripts of 10 YouTube creator interviews; the translation workshop report; and comprehensive project documentation uploaded on the bilingual website. Projects funds will pay for contract fees, conference, workshop, subscription to software, travel and living and domain and website fees.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that aims to explore the megaliths in Mizoram as archives that shape contemporary Mizo identity and aesthetics. Through a combination of ethnographic study and artistic collaboration, the project will examine how megaliths function as repositories of indigenous imagination and how they resonate within contemporary artistic practices, including painting, sculpture, and digital media. The outcome of this project will include a visual archive of photographs, a bilingual photo book, a critical essay examining the megaliths as indigenous archives and their contemporary reinterpretations, new artworks created in collaboration with contemporary artists, and participatory workshops and dialogues engaging youth and community members in Mizoram. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will include the photo book and the research essay, and fieldwork documentation. Project funds will pay for contract fees, workshop, printing, travel and living and communication.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that aims to generate new ethnographic art-historical knowledge on Husayn-centric devotion by exploring the relationship between piety, labour, and materiality by mapping a “Husayn-scape” from western Uttar Pradesh to Bengal, tracing how Shiʿi and Sufi devotion to Husayn is translated into built forms (imambaras, Karbalas, dargahs) and ritual objects (taziya, alam, zarih). The outcome of this project will be scholarly essays that will foreground new ethnographic art-historical knowledge on Husayn-centric devotion, an online interdisciplinary seminar, a public workshop organised as part of the project and a website. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables, along with the final reports, will include six peer-reviewed art history essays and three photo-essays, documentation of the seminar and the workshop, and a dedicated website hosting photographs, documents, and recorded voices, ensuring open-access digital preservation of research on Husayn-centric devotional spaces. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, purchase of equipment, publication, materials and stationery.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will investigate the legacy and visual practices of Kamat Foto Flash, a pioneering photo studio that shaped the visual culture of Bombay cinema from the 1940s to the 2000s. By treating the studio’s vast archive of production stills as a vital site of cinematic memory, the study explores how the technology of photography influenced film publicity, star-making, and aesthetic trends across decades. The outcome of this project will include recordings of key informant interviews and a curated exhibition of images from the Kamat archive, focusing on the study of film ephemera and photo stills. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will be the audiovisual documentation of the interviews and the exhibition. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees and exhibition.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that seeks to explore the landscape of Qawwali singing in India through the artistic lives of Muslim women performers, along with their journeys from art practice to performance, and how they navigate and negotiate between desire and devotion, career and honour, visibility and containment, and selective loving of a culture and tradition. The project employs a visual ethnographic approach, combining participant observation, interviews, documentation, and archival research. The outcome of this project will be a short documentary film that captures the stories and performance journeys of at least two qawwalan at different stages in their careers, along with songs contributed by them. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will include the documentary film and Sufi songs sung by the artists and contributors. Project funds will pay for contract fees and travel and living.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that aims to deepen the documentation and critical study of the Somana Kunita masked ritual-dance and its sobāne songs in Hassan district, Karnataka. The study will record and translate sobāne, map their histories and local variations, and stage practice-led re-enactments and community conversations that tease out the gendered stories hidden within this living oral tradition. The outcome of the project will be a collection of Somana Kunita and sobāne recordings, a reflective documentation of research findings that situates the practice historically and personally, and a final performance. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will include the audiovisual archive of the songs and the documentation of research findings. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, purchase of books, printing, exhibition, documentation, and purchase of equipment.
