Rana addresses tribal heritage mapping workshop at IIT Jammu

Jammu, Jan 13: Minister for Jal Shakti, Forest, Ecology & Environment and Tribal Affairs, Javed Ahmed Rana, on Tuesday said that tribal heritage constitutes a living, dynamic knowledge system embedded in language, belief structures, customary practices and social organisation.

He emphasised that its preservation requires a participatory, community-driven research framework that acknowledges indigenous epistemologies and lived traditions.

The Minister, as per an official statement, was addressing a workshop, as the chief guest, titled “Mapping Tribal Heritage”, organised by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jammu. The workshop focused on digital documentation, archival technologies and critical engagement with cultural expressions, oral narratives and socio-cultural formations of indigenous communities across India.

Rana asserted that safeguarding tribal heritage cannot be an external intervention alone but must be rooted in community stewardship and intergenerational transmission.

“Tribal heritage can survive only when communities become active custodians of their own traditions. Preservation must evolve organically from within those who live, practise and transmit this heritage every day,” he said.

Highlighting the intrinsic relationship between the language vitality and cultural continuity, the Minister stated that languages survive only through sustained community use and institutional support.

Referring to Gojri, he noted that it is not merely a contemporary mode of communication but a language with a deep historical and civilisational lineage, whose speakers are its authentic inheritors and protectors.

The minister lauded IIT Jammu’s pioneering engagement with tribal research, describing it as a socially responsive academic initiative. He remarked that the Institute has ventured into an area where few technical institutions have tread and congratulated IIT Jammu for integrating technology-driven methodologies with humanities-based inquiry to preserve cultural heritage for future generations.