University of Minnesota Press

Constructing Cultural Significance: Looking at Bombay's Historic Fort Area Author(s): Rahul Mehrotra Source: Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Fall 2004), pp. 24-31 Published by: University of Minnesota Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25834944 Accessed: 21-10-2015 17:57 UTC

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 17:57:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions i. Branding the area with new signage was the firstmove in a series of strategies to shift perceptions about the emerging sig nificance of the area. (Photo by author)

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 17:57:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RahuiMehrotra Constructing Cultural Significance: Looking at Bombay's Historic FortArea

India, and particularly urban India, is emerging as a unique landscape of bewildering architectural pluralism. The urban Indian landscape is characterized by intense duality where modernity, tradition, prosperity and acute poverty, communali ty and communalism, medieval society and cutting edge infor mation technology coalesce to create incomprehensible cities. These emerging landscapes defy conventional notions of the city and are represented more accurately throughmotion and mutation of urban space, rather than conventional notions of the city as a largely static and stable entity. Today in our urban areas there exist two cities?the static and kinetic?two completely differentworlds that cohabit the same urban space. The static city is represented through its architecture and by monuments built in permanent materials. The kinetic city that occupies interstitialspace is the city of motion?the kuttcha city,built of temporarymaterial. In the kinetic city architecture is no longer the spectacle of the city; rather,processions and festivals form its spectacle and memo ry,and the very expression of the city is temporal in nature, in constant flux. In this dynamic and near schizophrenic situation how does one approach urban or architectural conservation? How do we reconcile the static and kinetic?What does conser vation of the built heritage mean when architecture is no longer the spectacle of the city?How do we conserve with a divided mind?

The Notion of Cultural Significance It is here that the notion of cultural significance gains impor tance?an idea where culture, place and perhaps aspirations intersect in interestingways, opening up several questions about conservation approaches, and where the act or thrust of conservation movements must necessarily go beyond the stat ic to also encompass the kinetic city. The notion of cultural significance as an all-encompassing idea emerged clearly in the conservation debate in the late 1970s (with the Burra Charter to be more precise). The Burra Charter initiallydefined cultural significance as the aesthetic, historic, scientific or social value forpast, present and future generations, later adding spiritual significance in the 1999 Future Anterior revision. in this definition is the belief that Volume 1, Number 2 Implicit signifi Fall 2004 cance is static. It is a definition that is object centric (devoid

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 17:57:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions of life)with its roots in the debate propagated by the anti quarians of the Renaissance. This situation calls into question the validity of such a notion in a highly pluralist society where cultural memory is often an enacted process, leaving one to question our cultural reading for the kinetic city,which now formsa greater part of our urban reality. In this dynamic context, ifthe act of conser vation has to be informedby our reading of cultural signifi cance, itwill necessarily have to include the notion of "con structing significance" both in the architectural as well as con servation debates. Unfortunately,most conservation debates discuss change in terms of the loss of something, as opposed to new possibil ities,mostly because people (especially the propagators and patrons of conservation effort),will easily react to any sort of new condition as worse than some "magic moment" in the past. Conservation professionals then easily develop a ration ale to describe that sense of loss. But, in the context of our contemporary urban state, the issue is how to simultaneously identifynew typologies and work with them rather than dwell in the "postcard city", a city that only flightsof nostalgia

momentarily recreates. In fact, conservation activists often take on an attitude that Italo Calvino describes in his seminal book, Invisible Cities where:

...the traveller is invited to visit the city and, at the same time, to examine some old postcards that show itas itused to be... ifthe traveller does not wish to disappoint the inhabitants, he must praise the Postcard City and prefer it to the present one, though he must be careful to contain his regretat the changes within definite limits.

How do we then embrace this change as integral to the conservation movement, especially when the creator of that environment and the present custodians represent completely differentcultural constructs?With contemporary aspirations inspiring the process of conservation, we are being forced to look forwardand backward in a simultaneous gesture. A great opportunity then lies in the identificationof the contemporary engines thatwill drive this process of urban conservation. This situation suggests a need to develop enhanced reading of cul tural significance, along with the validity or necessity to some times invent cultural significance to drive this process.

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 17:57:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2. An aerial view of the FortArea from 1930 looking fromsouth to North. In the foreground is theArt Districtwith the Prince ofWales museum complex as the centerpiece. (Sharada Dwivedi and Rahul Mehrotra, Bombay-the Cities Within.)

Looking at Mumbai Some of the work carried out by citizens' groups inMumbai's historic FortArea (Figure 2) addresses this issue of using con temporary engines to drive this process of conservation and, more importantly,animating interstitialspaces while creating thresholds between the many differentworlds that exist in the city. In short, thiswork has simultaneously created new urban typologies and invented significance in response to specific problems and emerging aspirations inMumbai. While Mumbai was fortunate in 1995 to have enacted a legislation to protect historic buildings and precincts, the first phase of its existence was dominated by the postcard city syn drome, focused on nostalgia and sentiment. Conservation standards came to be benchmarked by a purist approach per petuated by trained professionals, frequently intellectually detached from the largeremerging cultural landscape of the contemporary city.While thiswas a great strategy to establish a niche of specialization, it resulted in conservation activities being perceived by the citizens at large as an expensive, elitist

process and preoccupation. However, as a broader range of professionals and NGOs understood and engaged with the implications of the legisla tion, they began looking at and grappling with the transform ing nature of the city.These issues were related to urban con servation as well as the general degradation of the environ ment in historic precincts. The examination led many to ques tion the point in restoring individual buildings when the land scape theywere set inwas falling apart. These exercises, besides achieving improvement in the physical state of the environment, shifted the (oftenmyopic) debate fromarchitectural conservation exercises to urban con servation approaches. This was a critical shift, as it involved engaging with the largercultural landscapes and treating the built environment as an evolving entity. Furthermore,the con 27

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 17:57:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions servation effortsgrowing out of this shift inspired and set precedents forother such processes in the city,driving their relevance beyond the conservation debate and into the larger planning process. Itwould be useful to look at some cases fromMumbai's Historic Fort area. The firstsub-area in the Fort to engage in

such a process of conservation was a "Grade I" open recre ational space, the historic Oval Maidan, which until 1996 had been under the jurisdiction of the state government. As this is a city-level open space (chieflyused for cricket), therewas a general detachment of local residents from the upkeep of the Maidan. As a result, this open space had deteriorated physi cally and in terms of use to such an extent that itwas trans formed into a spot fordrug dealing, prostitution and gross misuse. A citizens' group, OCRA (Oval-Cooperage Residents Association) comprised mainly of local women, petitioned the Maharashtra government to maintain the Oval Maidan. The state government did not respond, resulting in the citizens' group taking it to court. The High Court ruled in their favor, directing the government to either maintain the space or hand itover to the citizens' group. As a result of this decision, the OCRA subsequently took over the Maidan in 1996. Plans were then drawn up for the area and money raised to fence the open space, put in signage and introduce a walk ing track?all within the guidelines stipulated by the Heritage Conservation Committee. In fact, the walking track became the crucial element by which itbecame possible to engage the residents of the area to use and care for the space. Besides effectivelyusing the legislative and judicial system for the conservation of this space, the introductionof a walking track connected the citizens, in the process creating a new con stituency of potential users in this area. Furthermore,by engaging the community in the conservation process, a new significance for the space was invented that gently extended the historic and cultural significance of thisMaidan to a public space of contemporary dimensions. Another important case inMumbai is Kala Ghoda inSouth Mumbai, an area that derives its name from the statue of King - Edward VII seated on his black horse an icon that no longer exists. However, the memory of the horse (without its rider) continues to persist and the Kala Ghoda area is an important landmark in the minds of the citizens of Mumbai. To under stand the contemporary significance of this historic district (that contains importantheritage buildings) a group of young architects, with the support of the Urban Design Research Institute,carried out detailed surveys of the area. They stud ied trafficpatterns, land uses, and so on, and discovered that 28

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 17:57:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions the sub-precinct contained the largest concentration of con temporary art galleries in the country. The study was followed by the formation of a public trust for the area, with the intention that itwould synergize local resources for conservation. The association petitioned the local government to officiallydesignate the area as an art dis trict,which itdid in 1999 (Figure 1). The public trust also plans an art festival every year (the firstone was held in February 1998) as a way of raisingmoney to physically improve the area as well as draw attention to the conservation of its intrin sic values (Figure 3). This process has been successful in rais ingmoney as well as initiatingthe conservation and restora tion of both the public spaces and buildings in the area. Promoting the area as an art districtwas a means of driv 3.The Art festival became the engine ing the process of its restoration, though historically Kala that drove the establishment of the Art Ghoda was never considered an art district. its inher District and a vehicle to raise funds for However, the restoration of buildings in the ent resources have now been channelled to drive the conser area. (Photo by author) vation process. As the area continues to successfully take on this new significance, its futurewill be increasingly linked to its identityas an art district. Equally, the process may evolve to a point where the area will dissipate into yet another trans formed identity. Inany case, the process has engendered this area with a new significance, which has not only driven the conservation process but also restored public space for use by multiple constituencies to express their aspirations. Similarly, an effortto bring together establishments in the Ballard Estate area has resulted in the formation of an associ ation that isworking towards addressing the issue of the physical degradation of the precinct. Hawkers and vendors had over the past decades colonized the streets, resulting in great inconvenience to pedestrians using the pavements. Recognizing that the hawkers and the services they provide are necessary, the association worked out a scheme to accom modate these functions in disused service courtyards at the rear of the buildings (Figure 4). To nestle the kinetic city in the voids and interstitial spaces within the static city is a way of creating spaces where many worlds coexist, even as the illusion of the unchanged architecture remains intact.This could well become a powerful image of the contemporary Indian citywhere the compression and coexistence of two worlds in the same space, ifmanaged successfully, becomes emblematic of tolerant pluralism, as well as a richhumane dimension thatmany cities in theWest sometimes lack. As a community,we have a better chance of ensuring the survival of some of our historic icons, buildings as well as her itage precincts through gently balancing these dual aspects, agendas or aspirations. Inany global city, it is the negotiation 29

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 17:57:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 4. Map of the FortArea showing the differentDistricts that emerged and are now inthe process of being established through the creation of associations thatwould engage in the conservation of these areas. (Photo by author)

that occurs between differentconstituencies, vested interests and points of view that hopefully results in a healthy equilibri um. Essentially, conservation effortsaround the world, howev er theymight be disguised, are about making our transition into the futuremore gentle, for change is inevitable, and cul tural significance always evolving.

Learning fromMumbai These cases (all in the FortArea) inMumbai have significantly highlighted the fact that unless the community is sufficiently engaged in the conservation process no degree of success can be achieved, despite legislation. Also, the idea of identifyinga contemporary purpose or use as the engine to drive this process has been successful in not only facilitating this process of conservation but also simultaneously addressing the contemporary realities and issues in these areas. Breaking Mumbai's Fort precinct into smaller units has allowed profes sionals and committed citizens to organize constituencies to lobby for improvements, thus increasing the chances of articu lating common aspirations given the manageable size of each unit (Figure 4). This process also brings fortha fundamental issue when dealing with conservation in post-colonial situations where the urban conservation movement does not necessarily repre sent a cultural desire to preserve historic icons. In fact, foran entire generation of citizens, the Victorian core of the city in Mumbai represents repression and exclusion, with the build ings clearly representing icons of our colonial past. To others, the historic centre is a segment where cohesiveness of urban formand the integration of architecture and urban design cre ate a pleasant (or at least potentially beautiful) environment in sheer contrast to the laissez-faire growth that has come to characterize the contemporary Indian urban landscape.

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Wed, 21 Oct 2015 17:57:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Therefore, in this context, conservation approaches can find success in treating their object purely in terms of a resource devoid of its iconographic or symbolic content. Currently,many worlds inhabit the same space in the city, relating to and using it in differentways. Inorder to facilitate this process of conservation, it is critical that conservation processes encourage the recyclingof buildings as well as

urban spaces as a conservation strategy. The interplayof this discipline in keeping the external illu sion intactwhile adapting the inside to evolving social needs and contemporary aspirations isworth serious consideration. It is through this process that therewill be a draining of the symbolic importof the edifice and a deepening of the ties of architecturewith contemporary realities and experiences. In thisway, particular urban typologies can be transformed through general architectural interventionsand placed in the service of contemporary lifeand realities. Similarly, to deal with this highly complex entity of urban India, notions of cultural significance, which limitefforts to object-centric projects, should be broadened to respond to our highly pluralistic society where cultural memory is often an enacted process. This is specially relevant given the fact that the kinetic city now formsa greater part of our urban reality! In this context, itwill be necessary to acknowledge this dynamic relationship between meaning and use, and fully embrace the multi-dimensional interpretationof cultural signif icance beyond that put forthby directives such as the Burra Charter. Through this process, the notion of "constructing sig nificance" becomes a new tool inongoing conservation activi ties. In fact, an understanding that significance evolves will trulyclarify the role of the conservationist as an advocate of change, and an agent giving expression to contemporary aspi rations.

Editor's note This article was delivered as a paper at theWorld Monuments Fund Conference on Heritage Conservation in South and Southeat Asia, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 28-30 July 2004.

Author biography Rahul Mehrotra is an Indian architect and urban designer trained at the School of Architecture,Ahmedabad and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Professor Mehrotra is Executive Director of the Urban Design Research Institute, which promotes awareness and research on the city of Bombay. He has also writ ten several books on Bombay, includingBombay?the Cities Within, and has lec tured extensively on urban design, conservation and architecture in India. He also serves on several government committees that are responsible forhistoric preser vation and the conservation as well as creation of public spaces in Bombay. Rahul Mehrotra teaches at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,where he is an associ ate professor.

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