The Hooghly Chapter of INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage) is a part of the nationwide INTACH chapter network consisting of 200+ chapters spread across every corner of the country.

The newly-formed Hooghly chapter of INTACH actually started functioning in January 2020, during the CoViD-19 pandemic.

This chapter was set up by the key researchers working for an AHRC-UK funded project Hugli River of Cultures as a project output with the objectives of carrying forward the work of the project and expanding the scope of the project when the project is formally over. The project started in 2018 and ended in 2020. This chapter informally started working from 2020 under the guidance and supervision of WB State Chapter.

A teacher’s training workshop was organized at Chandernagore College on 11th January, 2020. The workshop was attended by 41 teachers from various schools and colleges of Hooghly district. Convenor, WB State Chapter, who was invited as the Chief Guest, in his speech mentioned that protecting our heritage is our duty and through this workshop and said that he hopes to extend heritage activities through the Hooghly Chapter of INTACH. After the event, the teachers were taken to the Chandernagore Strand for a short heritage walk conducted by members of Hugli River of Cultures Pilot Project.

An International Webinar on “Domestic Heritages: Memories & Micro-narratives” was organised in collaboration with Indian Museum, Kolkata, on Aug 8 & 9, 2020. This webinar had the objective of critically engaging with domestic space which is a site where domestic past is an unconscious chequered representation of domestic present. Individuals and families, voluntarily or involuntarily, act as agents of transmission of heritage through possession of material artefacts of the family, rituals, beliefs and the traces of memory. This webinar aimed to graph ‘domestic heritage’ by focusing on the micro-narratives of individual and their shared collective memories within the parameter of private domestic spaces. Purnima Datt, Director, INTACH Heritage Education & Communication Services Division, delivered the keynote speech in this webinar. Other distinguished speakers were Dr Jyoti Mohan from Baltimore, US; Dr Ian Magedera from Liverpool, UK; Jawhar Sircar, Former CEO, Prasar Bharati; Dr Neeru Mishra, Former Director, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India; Dr Edward Hollis, Professor, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland; Dr Romita Ray, Syracuse University, New York, USA.

On 20 September 2020 the first lecture of the online open lecture series ‘The Uncharted Hooghly: History, Heritage & Humanity‘ was delivered.

INTACH Heritage Quiz 2020 was held on Sunday 04 October 2020. 74 participants from Classes VII to X, comprising 37 participating teams, represented 13 schools in Hooghly. 1 team among them went upto the final national round.

On Monday 19 October 2020, through a virtual inauguration ceremony, Hooghly Chapter of INTACH was formally recognised. Convenor of INTACH WB State Chapter inaugurated the chapter. Gp. Capt. Arvind Shukla (Retd), Director of INTACH Chapters Division, also accompanied State Convenor in inaugurating the chapter. Dr Ian Magedera, Overseas Founder Life-Member of the chapter, spoke on the objectives of the chapter.

Though this chapter sprouted from the Hugli River of Cultures Pilot Project which focussed primarily on the urban Gangetic riverine towns in Hooghly district that grew under several direct European cultural influences, the INTACH Hooghly Chapter’s objectives also include looking beyond the Hugli into the Hooghly heartland that contains plenty of indigenous architectural, art, craft and other intangible heritages that remains largely uncharted.