Massacring History

FORGET THE PAST. Erase history. Demolish heritage. This, unfortunately, seems to be the overwhelming mood in India. Often, this stems from a grossly mistaken belief that progress and development necessarily imply dismantling and destruction. Nothing can be a more evocative illustration of this fallacy than the story of the police headquarters on Chennai's seafront. Months of intense campaign helped the authorities to understand the value of preserving a splendid building like that. Look, how wonderful it appears today. But, often, very few even care to pause and ponder over the immense architectural wealth that India has. If the temple at Gaya where Siddhartha attained enlightenment is decaying, if the Jaisalmer fort is in ruins and if hundreds of other monuments all over the country are struggling to live on, there are any number of magnificent relics crumbling because of unimaginative and faulty conservation efforts. Bricks and cement have been crudely used to patch up, for instance, the Lingaraja Temple in Bhubaneswar and Fatehpur Sikri, near Delhi. Where this does not happen, man lights up a historic structure and celebrates; he does not care if the illumination and sound cause damage.

A recent example of sheer irresponsibility has been Hampi in Karnataka. A prestigious World Heritage Site in the UNESCO list, it now faces the danger of losing this honour, in addition to utter neglect. The United Nations' Organisation, which included Hampi - the capital of the great medieval Vijayanagar kingdom - in its schedule sometime in 1986, is disgusted that bridges are being built, against rules, close to the splendid ruins. Hampi is one of the 22 in India that comes under the UNESCO umbrella, which protects almost 600 historic locations round the globe. Why just 22, when our nation has hundreds of invaluable edifices, when even a much smaller France has 26, Spain 28 and Italy 29? Sheer neglect and indifference, one should think. When the international body published its updated list last December, the 11 sites that New Delhi had nominated did not figure! The reason was even more shocking: the paper work was reportedly not satisfactory.

An embarrassing situation for India. A great loss as well, for, UNESCO helps maintain the World Heritage Sites by extending expertise and resource, as well as by drawing global attention to them. There have been attempts, though rather feeble, by the private sector to contribute to the upkeep of monuments. In 1996, the Department of Culture floated a national fund, which was to be kept alive by collections from companies. New Delhi's Humayun Tomb benefited enormously; today it literally sparkles. A few lesser known properties have also been restored. But the task is gigantic, given India's vastness and its set of unique and complex problems. Encroachments have always been a major hassle, a point of never-ending conflict between people and the administration. A larger issue has been lack of education: very few men and women have been taught the significance of preservation for posterity. It is hardly uncommon to find people littering the lawns of the Taj Mahal or the courtyards of sacred temples. Do children, even in elite, urban schools ever learn the consequence of such reprehensible disrespect? In France, one has seen 70-year-olds taking great pains to look after their ancestral buildings. In England, behind ancient facades lie the most modern gadgets, suggesting that ``yesterday'' need not be trampled upon for a better morrow. India's heritage is most certainly its pride. Let us nurture it with love and care.

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