A first-of-its-kind Olympiad that will be held every quarter, hopes to sensitise students to India's tangible and intangible legacy. For the rest, there is a quiz with state and national level rankings.
Monks standing at the Great Stupa, in Sanchi, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The Heritage Olympiad will cover a variety of domains, including built spaces, which include museums, forts and architectural sites. Pic/Getty Images
Back in 2010, when Vaibhav Chauhan co-founded Sahapedia.org, an open encyclopedia on the arts, cultures and histories of India, he realised that parents were actively using the online resource to expose their children to heritage stories that school textbooks rarely did justice to. So, when Chauhan and architect Anjchita B Nair started Cultre, an enterprise that seeks to bridge the different, but dependent fields of culture and commerce, the duo decided to make "heritage education" a prime focus of their work. "Heritage and history are currently being taught in a very generic way at schools. It needs to be made exciting and immersive," says Chauhan, a heritage professional with 15 years of experience. The duo brainstormed on ideas ranging from heritage clubs and quizzes at schools. "But, we were looking for a hook to make children look for heritage information themselves," shares Nair. That's how The Heritage Olympiad was born.
Starting next month, the first-of-its-kind competitive exam in India, will be held every quarter for students and heritage lovers. The team started work on this project during the lockdown, reaching out to knowledge partners, volunteers and schools keen to be part of the initiative.
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The sample questions and answers available on The Heritage Olympiad website
The Olympiad will cover a variety of domains—from important people who played a role in shaping Indian history, to our built spaces (museums, architectural sites etc), literature and languages, natural environments, performing arts, and practices and rituals, among others. "We wanted to cover our tangible, intangible, and our natural heritage. The idea was to ensure that we don't treat heritage in silos, and make people aware of how different disciplines interact with each other," says Chauhan.
Including topics as vast as these also makes it doubly challenging to prepare for the exam. "While we have looked at the CBSE and ICSE curriculum, as well as international boards, and picked up things that are relevant, the attempt is mainly to expand the heritage knowledge of the participants. And hence, we will be providing online resources and guides that will direct them to information they will need, to prepare for the test. In the future, of course, we hope to come out with learning material of our own," says Nair, who has worked with multiple non-profit organisations in the areas of heritage documentation, digital platforms urban planning and sustainable low-cost architecture.
The exam, which will be conducted online, will be split into four different levels, depending on age and aptitude—Group 1 (Classes V, VI, VII); Group 2 (Classes VIII, IX and X); Group 3 (Classes XI and XII) and Group 4 (undergraduate, graduate students and heritage enthusiasts). For preparation, the team has also uploaded four sets of sample question papers, all choice-based. Group 1, for instance, has questions on the variety of dolphins found in the fresh waters of River Ganga and Brahmaputra, and the old city that was accidentally discovered by engineers when the railway lines were being laid down in Punjab. The questions get more challenging as the difficulty levels increase. To participate, one can register online, as soon as the schedule for the exams are announced, says Nair.
Several schools have already confirmed their participation. "Getting more schools is going to be an organic process. The idea is to start small, and work with institutions that share our values," says Chauhan. "When the pandemic settles, we hope to take the test physically to every school. In fact, we are hoping to have a combined [digital and physical] format," adds Nair.
Vaibhav Chauhan and Anjchita B Nair
Those who aren't keen on appearing for the Olympiad can attempt the heritage quiz, the first two levels of which will be available for free. To make it equally competitive, the scores will be reflected on the website's leaderboards, where one can check their international, national (India only) and regional ranks (Indian states). "In the future, we intend to open up the website to long-form content and other immersive and experimental experiences for students. We don't want to make this a simple, vanilla Olympiad," says Chauhan.
To register https://www.heritageolympiad.com/
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