Writer, archivist, entrepreneur and educator Neville Tuli speaks with a certain passion that borders on intense romance. We recently caught up with him on his latest project, the Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (tuliresearchcentre.org), a jaw-dropping repository of Indian art, cinema, photography, architectural heritage and more. The alumnus of Cathedral and John Connon School, London School of Economics and Oxford, and the founder trustee of Tuli Research Centre for India Studies, spoke about his lifelong journey with knowledge.
“You know, this is a 30-year journey. It involves a lot of changes to our educational system that one has quietly or not so quietly sometimes tried to make. Fundamentally, it’s linked to the independence of the academia, intelligentsia, scholars, creative world from patronage. Patronage brings with it a value system. Especially today, it is very obvious. Even 30 years ago, when one started the journey, maybe it wasn’t so dire, because the nature of the dialogues was a bit more gentle…. It’s not specific to India… If you want to build a world in which creativity in all human beings is nurtured so that each person can be true to their individual journey, then the values of that creativity must be respected…. There’s a whole ecological value system which has to be embraced also. Changing that system has meant many battles over the last 30 years. Many of them have been failed battles at that point in time, but continuing the struggle was the key. The website is the result of this 30-year journey in which so many foundational pillars had to be built,” said Tuli.
Glimpses of www.tuliresearchcentre.org
The idea was to start off with something which is basic. “Imagine there are over 28,000 institutions in the world, and not one three-year undergraduate course for India Studies. Think about, therefore, who are the experts on India? Who is coming to us and telling us about the nature of who she is? And, as a result, when there’s that vacuum, any Tom, Dick and Harry can give you, this is India, this is your concept of nationhood, this is your identity…. This website is evolving because it’s the single largest knowledge base ever shared anywhere in the world on any subject, and this is India.”
On April 30, he launched the search engine and filter. “On June 30, the diversity and the depth of the knowledge base will get clarified, and, by September 30, the ability to customise your own university framework will begin for all individuals,” said Tuli.
There are 16 research categories like Cinema as a Critical Educational Resource; Modern and Contemporary Indian Fine Arts; Photography in India, The Printed Image; Popular Arts and Crafts; India’s Architectural Heritage as Inspiration; Economics of Art & Cultural Industry; Automobile, Transport and Travel Heritage; Uncertainty (Magic | Horror | Sci-Fi | Gambling); Social Responsibility of the Creative Mind; The Changing Smile of Childhood & Its Second Coming; The Sensual Discipline within Creativity; The History & Historiography of Scholarship in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Seeking Justice and Political Integrity; India and her Relationship with the World; The Religious-Spiritual-Poetic-Philosophical Framework; and The Animal-Human-Nature Continuum.
Glimpses of www.tuliresearchcentre.org
“We just allow you to grow systematically at your own pace in your own home on whatever subjects you want to focus on. I don’t want to impose an ideology on anyone. Each person must find for themselves what is important,” said Tuli.
Work on the website started towards the end of 2020. A “jugalbandi between the visual and the text” was imperative. “The second important thing is to make it available for free. Education is an absolute birthright. It should be given fair access and at the highest level,” said Tuli.
Not a fan of the online world, building the website involved “unlearning” and “relearning”. “I started learning programming myself, how to code. I had a very dedicated team who stood by me through thick and thin, about 10 people,” said Tuli.
There are also plans to collaborate with scholars and institutions from India and around the world on “certain key areas so as to create a truly brilliant framework for India Studies and its first formal undergraduate and postgraduate degrees”.
“We’ve tried our best. If it fails, it fails. If it doesn’t, God willing, it will help. Hopefully, tuliresearchcentre.org can help forward this process with rigour and joy, where the visual is respected with the text as sources of knowledge, where the audio begins to wish the formation of a new trinity,” he said.