Chennai joins UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. But what does this honour mean?

Chennai has become the third Indian city to be a part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, after Varanasi and Jaipur. But what does it mean? Find out here.

By: Anumeha Saxena |
November 9, 2017 5:45 pm

Chennai has become the third Indian city to be a part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, after Varanasi and Jaipur. Chennai got the tag for its contribution to music. Varanasi was added to the list as a city of music and Jaipur, as the city of crafts.

Congratulations to the people of Chennai on the city’s inclusion in the @UNESCO Creative Cities Network for its rich musical tradition. Chennai’s contribution to our rich culture is precious. This is a proud moment for India: PM @narendramodi

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) November 8, 2017

Congratulations Chennai-included in @UNESCO Creative Cities Network for your contribution to music. 3rd Indian city after Jaipur &Varanasi.

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) November 7, 2017

What does the Creative Cities tag mean?

According to the UNESCO website, ‘the Creative Cities Network was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.’

Chennai has given India Carnatic vocalists legends like M S Subbulakshmi, Bombay Jayashri, M Balamuralikrishnan, T M Krishna, Aruna Sairam among others. There’s no doubt about the fact that the city has preserved its cultural heritage quite well.

As reported by the Indian Express, Mumbai and Lucknow missed the bus earlier this year since the ministry failed to submit the required dossier on time. On one hand, where Mumbai is known for its film industry, the city of Nawabs, Lucknow is known for its popular gastronomical delight, tundey kebabs.

Does Chennai do justice to the tag?

The UNESCO website talks about ‘creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development’. These tags and jargon often result in commodification of the cities, which results in degradation of a place’s cultural, social as well as traditional ethos, with time . In this context, it is important to understand that the announcement of Chennai joining the Creative Cities Network emphasizes the need for its cultural community to engage even more with the other sections of the society. It calls for artists to bring forth city’s infrastructural as well as social problems to the front through art.

Chennai also organised the second edition of the counter-culture movement, Urur Olcott Kuppam Marghazi Vizha in February this year. A brainchild of T M Krishna, the festival brought together musicians, academicians, environmental and social activists and fishermen at one place to challenge the idea of a specific socio-cultural space that each community occupies otherwise and thus, breaking out of their comfort zones.

T M Krishna performing during the first edition of the Urur Olcott Kuppam Marghazi Vizha

In Chennai, people as young as V Reethesh, who studies in 11th standard captures stories from the slums of Kallukuttai in Taramani, on his mobile phone, as per a report in The Hindu, that highlights the zeal of the younger

For now, Chennai has proved that it totally deserves the UNESCO listing under the Creative Cities Network.