Editorial: 53 Years of Neglect – Himachal’s Academy Without Home
3 min read
Shimla Aug 17 Ritanjali Hastir
For 53 years, Himachal Pradesh’s State Academy of Art, Culture and Language has been a cultural orphan. The institution entrusted with protecting our heritage still has no permanent building. It has been shuffled from one rented space to another, surviving without dignity or stability.
This is more than administrative oversight. It is a betrayal of Himachal’s artists, writers, and scholars. Successive governments—irrespective of party—have turned their backs on the state’s cultural soul.
The neglect is especially shameful because the vision was once clear. Himachal’s first Chief Minister, Dr. Y.S. Parmar, and the state’s first Culture Minister, Lal Chand Prarthi, also known as “Mirza Ghalib of Himachal” laid the foundations of cultural policy with foresight. The Lalit Kala Art Gallery which is a central government wing is housed in the historic Gaiety Theatre and even alloted a Rest House in Chota Shimla, echoed with artistic discussions. Ironically, the state’s own Academy has been treated like a foster child in its homeland, shuffled from one temporary shelter to another. Writer homes in Shimla and Hamirpur—created as sanctuaries for creative voices—have met a similar fate. Instead of nurturing literature, they now stand closed.
The Academy itself has shrunk into irrelevance. No research posts in Hindi, Sanskrit, Fine Arts, or Performing Arts exist in the current time. Without researchers, there can be no authentic documentation, no serious scholarship, no meaningful publications. An Academy without scholars is a body without a heartbeat.
Even worse, the Academy has lost its autonomy. Once envisioned as an independent institution, it now functions as a wing of the Department of Language, Art & Culture. The Director of the Department handles it as an “additional charge,” leaving no space for vision, accountability, or leadership. Council meetings are reduced to mere formalities. The Academy drifts on, leaderless and voiceless.
The story of the Longwood Woodhall building in Shimla reflects this betrayal. The late Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh laid its foundation stone for the Academy’s permanent home. That promise sparked hope after decades of neglect. Yet, over a decade later, the building lies abandoned, the promise forgotten, the Academy still homeless.
This is not just neglect—it is a cultural crime. Fifty-three years of broken promises have reduced the Academy to a token body. Himachal’s heritage deserves better. Each one bears responsibility for this downfall—the bureaucracy that smothered vision with red tape, the governments that reduced culture to a token gesture, and even writers who allowed their own institution to be exploited and neglected. Together, they have shaped a fate where Himachal’s cultural soul is abandoned.
If the government continues to ignore this crisis, it sends a clear message: that culture is disposable, that art and literature are unworthy of investment, that our past can be abandoned for political convenience.
Culture is not decoration for Independence Day speeches. It is the identity of a people. To neglect it for over half a century is to deny Himachal its own soul.
* Video credit : hplacacademy dated Oct 11, 2021
