SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2007 Edition

 

 

 

 

 

Preservation is fundamentally a sense of meeting, of bringing people, activities and periods of time into proximity. - Louis Kahn

In India we pride ourselves at being an ancient culture, we are delighted when Delhi, on account of its rich built heritage, is referred to as the ‘Rome of the East' yet our monuments are rarely visited, historic buildings periodically knocked down, conservation areas receive no incentives and public participation is limited to supporting meaningless endeavours such as the Taj's inclusion on a private website of ‘seven wonders of the world'!

We seem to be treating our heritage resource as a burden rather than as an irreplaceable asset; the World Bank, in a preliminary study in 1997 observed, ‘ The Cultural Heritage of India is among humanity's priceless assets, it is as varied as rich… is an asset which is seriously threatened today and although there are ongoing efforts to protect and preserve this heritage, these are fragmented, lack institutional and legal frameworks, or the holistic and multi-sectoral linkages to make them effective '. In the UK over 6,00,000 buildings are protected, there are over 10,000 Conservation Areas, similarly American Towns such as Washington DC have over 40,000 protected buildings within several dozen conservation areas, while in India we offer legal protection to under 30,000 buildings (173 in Delhi) and there are only a few recognized Conservation Areas and even for these no special plans have either been prepared or being implemented. If Britain 's historic buildings are a ‘ major economic resource, contributing significantly through tourism to earnings of foreign exchange, to local employment and prosperity …' then why is India not replicating those lessons to provide for the poor and under-privileged who inhabit her historic neighbourhoods?

In USA the preservation movement commenced in the 1930's, much later that the Archaeological Survey of India was established in 1864, yet in America conservation efforts were led by the public and aimed at preserving the historic character of residential areas, ‘ all historic neighbourhoods of a special architectural character which is desirable to preserve or enhance', rather than individual buildings and has achieved phenomenal public participation and success. Designation of conservation areas entails an extensive public curatorial commitment. This commitment will only come about it public awareness levels to potential benefit are increased, possible only once pilot projects have been successfully implemented.

Support to historic communities can demonstrate how conservation of cultural heritage – in many cases the only asset at the disposal of the community – can provide a springboard for social and economic development. The proposed Aga Khan Trust for Culture sponsored urban conservation project for the Humayun's Tomb - Nizamuddin district, in partnership with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Archaeological Survey of India, Central Public Works Department and the Aga Khan Foundation, following the Trust's completed work on Humayun's Tomb Gardens can have, as has been seen in the Trust's other projects, a positive impact well beyond conservation - promoting good governance, employment generation, growth of civil society, a rise in incomes and economic opportunities, greater respect for human rights and better stewardship of the environment.

Amongst the principal reasons for the poor presentation of our historic wealth and the inability to leverage public assets for public good have been that conservation is largely seen as the governments responsibility with no public awareness or interaction required and that urban building regulations and bye-laws are rarely implemented or respected thus allowing hap hazard development that disfigures historic character for private benefit and public discomfort. NGO's such as INTACH have done stellar work in the conservation arena yet even this has been mostly limited to ‘buildings'. In India, where we should be more ‘… concerned with improving the quality of life than preserving authenticity ' to make conservation shed its ‘elitist' image and make conservation efforts meaningful to society, expeditious action is required in areas like generating public awareness, pilot conservation projects, urban renewal schemes, traffic management, infrastructure improvements, environmental development and waste management around key heritage locations. To be effective, the conservation efforts need to be co-ordinated with a comprehensive planning policy through the preparation of ‘local area plans' with participation of the resident community and urban design programme aimed at the upliftment of poverty and improving access and living standards in historic settlements.

There is a general lack of public awareness of the potential of heritage assets in India 's historic cities to be leveraged, in a manner European and American cities have shown to be possible, for economic gain through tourism or re-use. Conservation efforts are labour intensive (thus provide employment), use local materials (sustainable and environmentally friendly), are educational resource (can be related to teaching primary school history, architecture, religion- communal harmony, geology, among other subjects) and historic buildings in dense settlements such as Zafar Mahal in Mehrauli or Khirkee Masjid in Khirkee village of Delhi can be re-used for community functions such as primary schools/adult education centres or women's vocational centres thus fulfilling various government objectives.

Lack of public policy integrating conservation efforts with other government objectives results in lack of committed finances for urban conservation leading such efforts to focus exclusively on authenticity or corporate gain and resulting in façade restoration in rich urban areas such as the Fort in Mumbai or conversion of private palaces into heritage hotels – both are essential but we now need to take urgent steps to widen the effort. In a recent effort by INTACH Delhi Chapter conservation of a 16 th century tomb in the Lado Serai village was opposed by the local population until the surrounding space was landscaped by the DDA – providing the village a much needed green space. Similarly, in the Humayun's Tomb garden restoration – morning walkers from the neighbouring Nizamuddin area took a keen interest and have ensured that the site is well maintained even four years after the completion of the project.

To ensure conservation efforts are successful and capable of exciting the public, ‘experts' need to begin to understand aspirations of the Indian public. Heritage sites such as the Taj, Humayun's Tomb, Qutub Minar, if properly managed and integrated into the city planning and development process have the capability of improving living conditions of the thousands who inhabit their neighbourhoods yet mindlessly relocating homes to enhance the setting are inappropriate measures that only result in unfortunate slogans such as ‘ Taj hatao, Agra bachao '. Our craftsmen still take great pride in replicating the works of their ancestors yet remain nameless and poor, only with better understanding of crafts skills, their utilisation in modern buildings and government incentives such as guaranteed employment should include conservation efforts will we be able to ensure that a stone carver's skills are no longer wasted in breaking stones for road construction.

Our popular culture does not seem to accept ‘fenced off' sites and we need to ensure conservation efforts have components for local employment generation, education/awareness programmes, improving access to urban facilities such as micro-finance, health, education and vocational training, providing street furniture, provision of drinking water, electricity and enhanced maintenance of open spaces through public participation. Until, benefits of heritage conservation are visible, government policy needs to give incentives for private owners and neighbourhoods with change in land use, transferable development rights, tax incentives, larger investments in maintenance of streets, parks, garbage disposal, coupled with severe penalties for damage to heritage components public or privately held.

Conservation is a multi-disciplinary activity and just as environmental concerns are today shared by millions as a result of appropriate awareness campaigns we need to focus on creating a public mindset that would allow us to capitalise on a resource even while passing on to future generations what we have inherited in a far better condition.

Ratish Nanda, conservation architect, works as a consultant to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Awards received by him include the Eisenhower Fellowship, Sanskriti Award for Social and Cultural Achievement .

 

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