Stage set for music college in Bihar

The government has set the ball rolling to upgrade the Bharatiya Nritya-Sangit Kala Mandir (BNKM) into a full fledged college of music.

The government has set the ball rolling to upgrade the Bharatiya Nritya-Sangit Kala Mandir (BNKM) into a full fledged college of music.

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The institution, which was set up more than half a century ago, has been imparting training in different subjects of the performing arts, but the examination in these subjects are conducted by the universities based in Allahabad (UP) and Chandigarh (Punjab).

While students of visual arts are privileged to have a fullfledged art college, running under Patna university in the city, performing art students have been dependant on universities outside the state for certificates of proficiency.

Keeping these problems in mind, the department for arts and culture has decided to review and revise the decade old bylaws of the Kala Mandir to make it more comprehensive and to develop infrastructure and faculty required for a music college. It’s also considering, to bring the proposed college under the purview of the Aryabhatta Knowledge University, which was established by the government for the development and management of educational infrastructure related to technical, medical, management and allied professional education in the state under the Bihar State University Act 2008.

A culture department official, who did not want to be quoted, said that chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced to develop BNKM as a music college soon after he came into power.

“The govenrment also released Rs 10 lakh to develop infrastructure for a music college. However, the project failed to take off as the grant received was meagre,” said the official.

The Bharatiya Nritya-Sangit Kala Mandir was launched by Padmashree Hari Uppal to impart training in various classical arts of the country, particularly dance forms. For years, it remained a premier insittuion with the faculties in classical dances from the north, the south and the north east. Later, the govenrment developed facilties for classical vocal amd instrumental music in view of a huge market demand.

“A cultural multiplex was also developed on its premises and it was planned to develop Kala Mandir’s premises on the lines of Delhi’s Mandi House, which keeps throbbing with artistes from Kathak Kendra and National School of Drama (NSD). Seiminars and symposiums on performing arts were to be held at the cultural multiplex,” he said.