Tourism Is Educative and Not All About Enjoyment

The two day photo expo that was organized at the University of Madras on Monday focused on clearing the perception of tourism as being just a fun related activity where people visit newer places. The expo, based on the theme of ‘Indian tourism monuments and south Indian epigraphy’, was arranged as part of a larger two-day event that also included a national seminar on the role of Indian history and archeology in endorsing tourism in India. As many as 300 photographs of Indian historical monuments, sent in by 26 circle offices of the Archaeological Survey of India, were exhibited on this event. As many as 250 photographs of monuments from Tamil Nadu formed part of the expo. The collection included temples and other religious structures in the districts of Pudukkottai and Tiruchi to name a few. The photographs were accompanied by an illustrative index, detailing on its history and origin. Commenting on the real theme of the exhibition, J Soundarrajan, assistant professor, Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Madras, said, “Tourism as a concept has existed since time immemorial. People have traveled to far-off holy places. This has led to other forms of tourism in recent years such as education, wildlife and environment tourism. The event aims to focus on this view.” Another chief aspect of the the event is to highlight the Dravidian languages, mainly the four languages of South India, which are found on the scriptures of the structures. The professor adds that by doing so, it will help trace the evolution of the languages, from the ancient Grantha scripts to their present day forms. The Central government institution, Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) is supporting the evetn by funding it. The professor states that the funding is around Rs 1 lakh, which is being utilized for providing food and accommodation to the participants of the event, who have come rom all the corners of India to present papers on the topic. As many as 80 academicians will be presenting papers on the occasion. The entries have been selected from a pool of 160. The main theme of the event is to change the dogma that tourism is not just meant for enjoyment, but is an educative process. Ref: http://newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Tourism-is-more-educative-than-fun/2013/10/29/article1860836.ece