Abstract
This article
examines a six-year-long experience of the on-going project to revive endangered Vyās music in north-east
India, through the dual lenses of intangible cultural heritage (ICH)
conservation and music rights frameworks. As an expert member of both the
International Music Council (IMC) and the International Council on Monuments
and Sites (ICOMOS) Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage, the author
reports on documentation, restoration, awareness-building and
market-orientation of a fragile musical tradition. The study situates the
experience within the IMC’s Five Music
Rights, the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage, and the newly adopted 2024 ICOMOS Charter on ICH. It
highlights key tensions: between living tradition and commercialization,
between community custodianship and external market forces, and between
recognition of artists and commoditization of heritage. The article offers
recommendations for ethically aligning market strategies with heritage
safeguarding and musician rights, particularly within the socio-cultural
context of Assam and the Brahmaputra region.
Keywords
Vyās
music, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Music Rights, IMC, ICOMOS, Assam,
Safeguarding Traditional Music, Market Dynamics.
I. Introduction:
In India’s north-eastern region, traditional musical forms such as Vyās music stand at a crossroads. On the one hand, they are repositories of local identity, memory and cultural practice. On the other, they face severe risks: generational discontinuity, loss of knowledge-bearers, lack of institutional infrastructure, and increasing pressure from market forces that priorities commoditization over authenticity. As a member of IMC and ICOMOS I have engaged over six years in a project aimed at restoring, documenting, preserving and raising awareness of Vyās music. This article presents key findings from that undertaking, contextualized within international normative instruments and heritage literature.
II. Frameworks: Music Rights and Intangible Cultural Heritage:
A. IMC’s Five Music Rights
The International Music Council affirms that “all children and adults have the right to express themselves musically in all freedom; to learn musical languages and skills; to have access to musical involvement through participation, listening, creation and information.” It further asserts that musical artists have the right “to develop their artistry and communicate through all media, with proper facilities at their disposal; and to obtain just recognition and fair remuneration for their work.”[i] In the context of Vyās music, rights four and five—recognition and remuneration—are particularly salient, since many practitioners lack institutional prestige, stable income, and adequate status.
B. The UNESCO ICH Convention and ICOMOS
Charter
The 2003 UNESCO Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage defines ICH as practices, expressions, knowledge and skills transmitted from generation to generation, including performing arts and knowledge concerning nature and the universe.[ii] The 2024 ICOMOS International Charter on Sites with Intangible Cultural Heritage emphasizes that intangible heritage is an integral part of heritage conservation practice, recognizing the authority of custodians and stressing community-driven transmission.[iii] These frameworks provide a normative basis for the work of heritage professionals, outlining responsibilities regarding identification, documentation, transmission, and sustainable change.
III. Field Project: Vyās Music in Assam—Experience & Observations:
A. Background and Starting Point
As a long‐term practitioner, I observed that existing three Vyās musicians were highly versatile—skilled in multiple forms and deeply rooted in tradition—but lacked formal recognition, infrastructural support, and stable livelihoods. The community’s deprived access to rights four and five of the IMC framework became a central concern for restoration and awareness work.
B. Documentation and Heritage
Restoration
Over the course of six years I employed methods of documentation, musician interviews, archiving of manuscripts, and transmission workshops aimed at younger generations. Key to this process was engaging the musician community in decision‐making about how their tradition should evolve, aligning with the ICOMOS emphasis on community authority and consent. The project revealed that without such collaborative processes, market‐orientation risks undermining living tradition and turning it into commodity.[iv]
C. Market Orientation: Opportunity and
Risk
When an artist or tradition gains popularity, the possibility of marketing the genre must be considered. This involves community consultations about how much adaptation, fusion or enrichment is acceptable, and how to protect authenticity while allowing growth. This aligns with ICH theory which stresses that evolution and adaptation are natural—provided they are led by the custodial community. In contrast, market systems dominated by merchant interests can reduce heritage to commodity, displacing the spirit of original form, and leading to artist exploitation when demand drops. The project in the Brahmaputra region revealed this danger: without conscious safeguards, musicians risk becoming transient products rather than empowered agents.
D. Cultural Identity, Sovereignty and
Policy Gaps
The region’s cultural traditions like folk songs, lullabies and traditional music played foundational roles in uniting Assamese society historically. Distortion of these forms, particularly through Westernized stimuli and absence of supportive cultural policy, threatens regional identity. India’s policy stance of Vasudevam Kutumbakam (“the world is one family”) requires first safeguarding the local before promoting it globally. The absence of independent cultural policy or intangible cultural heritage law in Assam compounds vulnerability.
IV. Recommendations:
a. Recognition and Remuneration Mechanisms: Align local musician programmes with IMC rights four and five. Ensure payment, status elevation and community recognition for traditional musicians.
b. Community-owned Market Strategy: If market orientation is chosen, base it on written agreements between musicians, custodial communities and marketers (preferably under local legal frameworks). Apply guidelines on acceptable change (fusion, enrichment) through community consultation.
c. Heritage-informed Documentation Protocols: Use ICOMOS and UNESCO ICH standards for documentation, ensuring community custodians have authority over transmission, evolution and presentation.
d. Policy Advocacy: Work with state government to establish intangible cultural heritage law, cultural policy frameworks and institutional support to safeguard traditions like Vyās music from commoditization and cultural invasion.
e. Youth Engagement and Transmission: Priorities intergenerational workshops, mentorship programmes and inclusion of young practitioners so that transmission remains living and dynamic, not archival.
V. Conclusion:
The
revival of Vyās music is not merely a cultural project but a rights-based and
heritage governance endeavour. It sits at the intersection of musician
empowerment (through IMC frameworks), heritage conservation (through
ICOMOS/UNESCO frameworks), and the realities of market forces. The delicate
balance between authenticity, adaptation and sustainability demands conscious
attention. When the artist is respected, their rights safeguarded, and the
community empowered in direction-setting, endangered music traditions may be
restored not as frozen museum artifacts, but as living, evolving practices
anchored in local identity yet capable of global presence.
[i] https://imc-cim.org/about-us/our-values/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Our Values – International Music Council"
[ii] : https://www.unesco.org/en/intangible-cultural-heritage?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Intangible Cultural Heritage | UNESCO"
[iii] : https://www.icomos.org/actualite/the-new-icomos-international-charter-and-guidance-on-sites-with-intangible-cultural-heritage-defines-standards-and-principles-for-intangible-cultural-heritage?utm_source=chatgpt.com "The new ICOMOS International Charter and Guidance on Sites with Intangible Cultural Heritage defines standards and principles for intangible cultural heritage - ICOMOS"
[iv] : https://openarchive.icomos.org/519/1/C3-2_-_Deacon.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Sub-theme C: Conserving and managing intangible heritage - methods"
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