The East Zone Cultural Centre has its headquarters in Sector III, IB 201, IB Block,

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, which is also known as the ''Cultural Capital of India'' and most commonly City of Joy is situated in the Indian state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

.It is one of the seven Zones established in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

.The Indian states which are under the Eastern Cultural Zone are

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the ea ...

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Silig ...

Andaman & Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

. This zone is home to three classical dance

Odissi Odissi (), also referred to as Orissi in old literature, is a major ancient Indian classical dance that originated in the temples of Odisha – an eastern coastal state of India.Sattriya ''Sattriya'' ( as, সত্ৰীয়া), or ''Sattriya Nritya'', is a major Indian classical dance. This dance was initially created as part of Bhaona which are performances of '' Ankiya Nat'', one-act plays, originally created by Sankar ...

and

Manipuri dance , image = , alt = , caption = An illustration of the ''Manipuri Raas Leela'' dance, being depicted in a stamp from Armenia; transliterations of "Jagoi Raas" and "Manipuri Raas Leela", the terms in Meitei language (offi ...

. Classical music

Odissi music music () is a genre of classical music in India, originated from the eastern state of Odisha. The traditional ritual music for the service of Lord Jagannatha, Odissi music has a history spanning over two thousand years, authentic ''sangita-shas ...

and semi-classical music

Rabindra Sangeet ''Rabindra Sangeet'' ( bn, রবীন্দ্র সঙ্গীত; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in ...

. Odia is one of Classical language in India and only living classical language from Eastern India. Odissi Performance DS

History

The EZCC has been functioning from 1985 and playing a significant role promote the numerous ethnic cultural centres and groups of excellence of the eastern parts of the India. And the objective of EZCC is projection and dissemination of eastern part of India's traditional culture.

Composition

The members of the EZCC are 1. Cultural Affairs Deptt. Govt. of Assam, 2. Director, Arts, Culture & Youth Affairs Deptt. Government of Bihar, 3. Director, Department of Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs, Govt. of Jharkhand, 4. Commissioner (Art & Culture), Govt. Manipur, 5. Director Culture, Govt. of Odisha, 6. OSD, Cultural Affairs & Heritage Deptt. Govt. Sikkim, 6. Secretary & Director, ICAT, Govt. of Tripura, 7. Joint Secretary & Ex-Officio, Director of Culture, Govt. West Bengal and Director and 8. Department of Art and Culture, ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS Administration.

Schemes

There are various schemes sponsored by The Ministry of Culture, Government of India gives grants to the Zonal Cultural Centers. These schemes are National Cultural Exchange Programme, Theatre rejuvenation scheme, North East Programme, Guru Shishya Parampara and young talent search. To promote the culture in youth there are many competition organise by EZCC in following fields : * Folk Music * Folk Dance * Classical Music * Classical Dance To preserve this Indian tradition, the EZCC organises various Guru Shishya Parampara schemes, which include: *

Gotipua Gotipua is a traditional dance form in the state of Odisha, India, and the precursor of Odissi classical dance. It has been performed in Orissa for centuries by young boys, who dress as women to praise Jagannath and Krishna. The dance is execu ...

Dance (Odisha) * Purulia Chhau Dance (West Bengal) * Paika / Paika akhada a War Dancs from (Odisha) * Nauta (West Bengal) * Bordoishilka (Assam) *

Thang-Ta Huyen langlon is an Indian martial art from Manipur. In the Meitei language, means war while or can mean net, knowledge or art. consists of two main components: thang-ta (armed combat) and sarit sarak (unarmed fighting). The primary weapons ...

Dance (Manipur) *

Bhatiali Bhatiali or ''bhatiyali'' ( bn, ভাটিয়ালি) is a form of folk music in both Bangladesh and West Bengal. Bhatiali is a river song mostly sung by boatmen while going down streams of the river. The word ''bhatiyali'' comes from ''bh ...

Folk Songs (West Bengal) * Kushan Dance (Assam) * Pung cholom (Manipur) *

Maruni ''Maruni'' is a Nepalese folk dance of the Magar community. Alongside Nepal, it is popular in Nepalese diasporic communities of India (Darjeeling, Assam, Sikkim), Bhutan and Myanmar. It is one of the oldest and most famous dance of the Nepalese c ...

(Sikkim) West Bengal's capital

is the largest city of this region. The states of

and

share a lot cultural and linguistic characteristics with

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

and with the state of

. Together with Bangladesh,

forms the ethno-linguistic region of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, which was also a unified administrative region until 1947.

Odissi Odissi (), also referred to as Orissi in old literature, is a major ancient Indian classical dance that originated in the temples of Odisha – an eastern coastal state of India.Pattachitra Patachitra or Pattachitra is a general term for traditional, cloth-based scroll painting, based in the eastern Indian States and territories of India, states of Odisha, West Bengal and parts of Bangladesh. Patachitra artform is known for its int ...

the most influential ancient classical painting, classical Odishian unique ancient architecture

Kalinga architecture The Kaḷinga architectural style is a style of Hindu architecture which flourished in the ancient Kalinga previously known as Utkal and in present eastern Indian state of Odisha. The style consists of three distinct types of temples: Rekha D ...

like Konark, Lingraja, lalitgiri etc. Odia is the only modern Indo-Aryan language accorded the status of a

Classical Language in India Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...

, and

is claimed to be the classical Music among Karnatik and Hindustani Music.

Other Regional Cultural Centres of India

North Zone Cultural Centre North Zone Cultural Centre or ''NZCC'' in Patiala in Punjab state was first amongst several regional cultural centres established by Government of India to preserve and promote arts, crafts, traditions and cultural heritage of India. Establish ...

Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, India, Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak, Patiala, Qila Mubarak ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

West Zone Cultural Centre The West Zone Culture Centre in Udaipur, Rajasthan is one of seven Cultural Zones established by the Government of India to preserve and promote India's traditional cultural heritage. The centre works to retain and develop regional cultural res ...

Udaipur Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic capit ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

North East Zone Cultural Centre North East Zone Culture Centre in Chümoukedima in Nagaland state is one of many regional cultural centres established by the Indian Government to preserve and promote traditional cultural heritage of India. The North East Cultural Zone is on ...

Chümoukedima Chümoukedima (), formerly spelled Chumukedima, is a municipality in the Chümoukedima District of the Indian state of Nagaland. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Nagaland after Dimapur and Kohima. Chümoukedima was designated as th ...

Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...

South Zone Cultural Centre South Zone Culture Centre (SZCC). an autonomous organisation by Ministry of Culture (India) Ministry of culture at Tamil Nadu state is one of many regional cultural centres established by Indian Government to preserve and promote traditional cul ...

The

Cultural Zones of India The Cultural Zones of India are seven overlapping zones defined by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India to promote and preserve the cultural heritage of various regions of India. Each of these zones has been provided with a zonal cent ...

are seven overlapping zones defined by the

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: *Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) *Ministry of Culture (Algeria) *Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) *Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan) * Ministry of ...

of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

to promote and preserve the

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

of various regions of

References

{{Cultural Zones of India Culture of Kolkata 1986 establishments in West Bengal Cultural centres in India Cultural organisations based in India Arts organizations established in 1986