REACH (Rural Entrepreneurship for Art and Cultural Heritage) is a non-profit organization engaged in the task of generating awareness of India’s arts, traditions and cultural practices at the grass-roots level. It strives to preserve native wisdom and knowledge by striking a harmonious bond with modernity. By making people aware of their rich cultural traditions and practices and preserving their heritage, it endeavors to restore cultural pride to those who feel defenseless against the onslaught of alien values through the media and other agencies.

To achieve this and to start a movement for cultural regeneration and resurgence, REACH is setting up a Himalayan Heritage Centre (H.H.C.) at Dehradun with a view to preserve, document and provide the wherewithal for the conservation of the cultural practices, architectural and natural heritage, folklore, legends, festivals, songs, stories, dresses, food habits, rituals and the oral and philosophical traditions of the people of the Himalayas.

REACH also aims to set up a Gurukul, a community heritology museum, a library, a documentation centre and a center for performing arts. The H.H.C. will work as the central nodal point with several allied centers in the Indian countryside, for example one each at Lakhamandal and Hanol (in the tribal areas of Jaunsar – Bavar of the middle Himalayas), and Keos and Jai Mangla Garh in north Bihar, which are at various stages of implementation. A vast network of such rural cultural centers will preserve the angularity of the sub-cultures and involve the community in knowing and preserving their cultural roots.

A school for Navya Nyaya and Vedic Grammar is being started in the village of Belsandi Tara, Samastipur, Bihar to preserve the dwindling native scholarship in these fields. For more information, please log on to www.virasat.com.