Opening Remarks at the MeCCSA 2025 held at Edinburgh Napier University

 Good afternoon, 

 

Distinguished guests, scholars, artists, and friends, 

 

It is a privilege to be here in Edinburgh at MeCCSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association) 2025, with its inspiring theme of Identity and Belonging. I congratulate Edinburgh Napier University and MeCCSA for creating a unique platform where art, culture, and academic thought converge, and thank them for providing me with this special opportunity. 

 

A special thank you to the chair  Professor  Dr Bashabi Fraser, OBE and Professor Dr Garrabost D Jayalakshmi, who invited me to the conference. 

 

The Prabha Khaitan Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in Kolkata, India, is dedicated to promoting performing arts, culture, education, literature, gender equality and women's empowerment. We at the Foundation have always believed that arts and heritage are not just about preserving the past; they are also about driving change. They challenge injustice, inspire empathy, and help us imagine a more equitable future.  

 

Dr Mallika Sarabhai’s keynote, “Says Who?”, will show us how powerful this change can be. By weaving India’s myths, philosophies, and performance traditions, she will force us to confront uncomfortable truths — how a culture that worships goddesses can still permit (and sometimes even celebrate) gender violence, how reverence for feminine energy can exist alongside denial of women’s agency. 

 

Dr Sarabhai’s work shows us that arts and heritage are never neutral. They carry the voices of those who create, preserve, and share them. Myths can liberate or oppress, depending on whose stories are told and whose are silenced. When she asks, “Who wrote these stories? Who was left out? Who set the boundaries of belonging?”, she transforms heritage into a living, evolving conversation.

 

The true power of art lies in its ability to move us. Facts inform, but art touches hearts and spurs action. In Dr. Sarabhai’s hands, the ancient language of Indian classical dance, deeply symbolic and structured, becomes a form of resistance, using tradition itself to question injustice. This is the magic of heritage; it can anchor us in our identity while giving us the courage to question the status quo.   

At the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, we have seen how literature, storytelling, theatre, and crafts can give a voice to those who are often unheard. We bring women authors from small towns to global stages, help traditional artisans find new markets, and create spaces where artists can speak freely on social issues. Arts are not a luxury; they are essential for a healthy and inclusive society. 

 

And for lasting change, cultural and literary NGOs like the Prabha Khaitan Foundation must work closely with policymakers, educators, and the media. This is why I make a special appeal: more such NGOs must be present at conferences like MeCCSA. 

 

Why? Because true transformation happens when academic insight meets lived realities of communities. Scholars bring theories and frameworks; NGOs bring the stories, traditions and local experiences that make those frameworks real. Together, they can turn vision into action. 

 

How? By sharing cultural and literary insights through case studies, oral histories, and narratives that bring authenticity to academic debate and forging cross-sector partnerships with scholars, artists, and policymakers that outlast the events.

 

By learning from global research and diverse cultural practices to strengthen their own programmes and amplifying community voices so that the concerns of local people and marginalised storytellers are heard where policies and narratives are shaped. 

 

All this ties into the growing eminence of the Creative Economy, which builds on the interplay between human creativity and ideas and intellectual property, knowledge and technology. Performance art, cinema, art, media, publishing, cottage industry, etc. many others are the lifeblood of the creative economy and a vital source of commercial and cultural value.

 

West Bengal, where I come from, is a major creative and cultural hub which has contributed immensely towards the growth of the domestic creative economy. Kolkata has long been considered the cultural capital of India. The city’s week-long Durga Puja festival has the world’s largest display of public arts, while the annual Kolkata Book Fair hosts the largest consumer book festival. A British Council report commissioned by the tourism department of the West Bengal government pegged the total economic worth of the creative industries around the Durga Puja alone, before the pandemic, at an estimated INR 32,377 crore annually.

 

The Kolkata-headquartered Prabha Khaitan Foundation supports many such creative engagements. We believe in building bridges between performance and policy, literature and activism, heritage and innovation. This link between the academy and the street ensures culture remains central to social transformation. 

 

Today, as the world struggles with issues like gender inequality, climate change, migration, and rapid digital change, arts and heritage are not bystanders; they are at the heart of the solution. They encourage us to ask deeper questions, imagine more inclusive futures, and create spaces where every voice counts. 

 

In the spirit of “Says Who?”, let us keep asking: “Who makes the decisions? Who benefits from it? Whose voices are left out?” If we bring this curiosity and empathy into our work, whether as artists, scholars, activists, or leaders, arts and heritage can become powerful forces for positive change.  

  

In conclusion, as India's first Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, a truly global citizen, had once said, “Let all human races keep their own personalities, and yet come together, not in a uniformity that is dead, but in a unity that is living". 

 

Thank you again for this opportunity. I look forward to seeing how the conversations we start here will shape our institutions, our communities, and the futures we dare to dream about.