University of Cincinnati

Date: 1/6/2010

I, Kingkini Roy , hereby submit this original work as part of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Architecture in Architecture.

It is entitled: A Case for Change in Indian Historic Preservation Planning: Re-Evaluating Attitudes toward the Past

Student's name: Kingkini Roy

This work and its defense approved by:

Committee chair: Patrick Snadon, PhD

Committee member: Aarati Kanekar, PhD

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Last Printed:2/15/2011 Document Of Defense Form

A Case for Change in Indian Historic Preservation Planning: Re-Evaluating Attitudes toward the Past

A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Science in Architecture

In the School of Architecture and Interior Design of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning

March 2011

by

Kingkini Roy

Bachelor of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, 2006

Committee Chair: Patrick Snadon, Ph. D. Abstract

This thesis critically surveys heritage management in present day India and the legislative apparatus that underpins it. Keeping within the Indian context, the research seeks to verify the suitability of the strategies that are upheld by the institutional and legislative setup of architectural conservation practices for present day India. This appraisal would be based on the premise that preservation, as it is currently understood in India, is a product of modernity and in

India’s case the direct import of the Western construct of these disciplines during the colonial period. This is made evident from the history and origins of the interest in Indian antiquity as well as the development of the formalized discipline of archaeology and antiquity management.

Despite the fact that India has been independent from colonial British rule for sixty one years, the legislation that continue to underpin the heritage management policies of India have remained unrevised for fifty of those years with the exception of a few minor amendments. The current active piece of legislation is in fact a slight variation on the one laid down by the British more than a century ago. Consequently, India’s prevalent heritage management policies are not only outdated, but also contextually unsuitable since it originates from a non-indigenous and particularly colonial mode of thinking.

The research primarily focuses on the practices of the Archaeological Survey of India

(ASI), the formal institution concerned with upholding the legislation concerning heritage. Using case studies the contextual suitability of the prevalent preservation policies have been analyzed through the successes and failures of the ASI in the cases under consideration. The argument is extended to the conceptual notions of time and the past as signified by the current preservation

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laws and studying them in contrast with alternative approaches to those notions. It is concluded

that present day heritage management practices in India have reinterpreted the past, removing it from active participation in the present and made it into the revered but uncomfortable ‘other’,

always to be negotiated as opposed to being incorporated or appropriated.

In response to these findings, an alternative for this current structure of heritage

management in India has been proposed as part of the conclusion. To supplement this proposal,

recommendations have been made for administrative and legislative modifications that would

take place through reorganization of the existing institutional infrastructure. Time lapse has been

built into the proposal to incorporate the short term and long term goals. The goal for this thesis

is that that it could be useful as a starting point for a more in-depth proposal that can be

implemented and is not confined to being an academic exploration alone.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Patrick Snadon for his unfailing guidance and support that made this thesis possible. It has been an honor working with him. I would also like to thank my committee member Dr. Aarati Kanekar for her encouragement and understanding without which it would not be possible to complete this thesis.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to Mr. Joze Kozan, who helped germinate the idea for the topic of this thesis and whose direction and guidance I could always count upon. I also thank Dr. David Saile who served as a member of my committee until his retirement and whose valuable observations helped refine this thesis. They are as much a part of my thesis committee as those officially listed and I would not be able to produce this document without them.

I am indebted to my family and friends who have been a constant support, especially my parents, Madhusri Roy and Kirity Roy, who along with providing critical dialogue, helped me collect valuable information used in this thesis and also photographed locations without which several sections of this thesis would not have been possible.

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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

01. Introduction 01

02. Time Constructs 06

03. Rise of Indian Antiquarianism 23 03.01. ‘Sense of History’ in Medieval India and Europe 23 03.02. Early Interest in Indian Antiquity 29 03.03. Institutionalizing Antiquarian Studies 32 04. Making a Case for Change 39

05. Monumental and Local Narratives: The Grand Trunk Road 65

06. Relics, Remains and Residues: Accretion through Social Selection 97

06.01. Relics 99

06.02. Remains 103

06.03. Residues 106

07. Conclusion and Recommendations 117

07.01. The American Model 119

07.02. The Quilting Metaphor 123

07.03. Conclusions 125

07.04. Recommendations 128

Bibliography 144

Appendix 149

1878 The Indian Treasure Trove Act 150

1904 The Ancient Monuments Preservation Act 155

1958 The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 168

2004 Charter for the Conservation of Unprotected Architectural Heritage and Sites in India 185 vi

List of Illustrations

02. Time Constructs

1. Sinusoidal curve Source: Author………………………………………………….……………………………………………………6

2. Conceptual representation of time in 3-D Source: Unknown...... …………………………………………………………………………………………....8

3. Screen shot from televized dramatization of the Indian epic Mahabharat Source: Television Series ‘Mahabharat’ directed by B.R. Chopra and Ravi Chopra, 1988………………………..14

4. Carved stone wheel at Konark temple, Orissa, India Source: Author……………………………………………………………………………………………………....14

04. Making a Case for Change

1. India was a major competition to America in the cotton production industry Source: Sven Beckert, "Emancipation and Empire: Reconstructing the Worldwide Web of Cotton Production in the Age of the American Civil War," The American Historical Review December 2004 http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/109.5/beckert.html. Accessed 29 June 2009………...... ………..41

2. Cotton Green, Bombay, 1900 c. Source: Sven Beckert, "Emancipation and Empire: Reconstructing the Worldwide Web of Cotton Production in the Age of the American Civil War," The American Historical Review December 2004 http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/109.5/beckert.html. Accessed 29 June 2009……………....…...... 42

3. United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 Source: Author…………………………………………………………………………………………………….…45 . 4. Architectural detail, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 Source: Author…………………………………………………………………………………………………….…45

5. Architectural detail, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 Source: Author…………………………………………………………………………………………………….…45

6. Paving in driveway, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 Source: Author…………………………………………………………………………………………………….…45

7. Chimney, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 Source: Author………………………………………………………………………………………………….……45

8. Bracket detail, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 Source: Author………………………………………………………………………………………………….……45

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9. Interiors, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 Source: Author………………………………………………………………………………………………….……46

10. “Cathedral of Cotton”, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 Source: Author……………………………………………………………………………………………………….46

11. Rush hour at Chhatrapati Shivaji Railway station Source: Sam Leith. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/samleith/3680791/A_sage_nod_will_see_you_through/..50

12. Figure ground showing land occupied by Mumbai Mills in Mumbai Source: Darryl D’Monte, Ripping the fabric: The Decline of Mumbai and its Mills (New Delhi: Oxford, 2002) p.127………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….50

13. Feasibility of the 100 mts. prohibited area in an urban setting like Mumbai. Source: Author……………………………………………………………………………………………………….51

14. Painting of the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque between 1808-1820 by an unknown artist Source: British library viewed from http://goasia.about.com/od/indiaphotography/ig/Qutub-Minar--Delhi/Quwwat- ul-Islam-Mosque.htm on 10/03/2008…………………………………………………………………………….….54

15. Illustration of similarities and differences between the 1904 and 1958 Acts Source: Author……………………………………………………………………………………………………….55

16. A small theatre within the United Mill No. 1 complex for the workers, with billboard advertising local theatre Source: Author……………………………………………………………………………………………………….56

17. Mumbai: Juxtaposition of economic extremes Source: ABC News http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/28/1964077.htm ...... 57

18. The United Mill No. 1 and its surrounding hinterland Source: Author……………………………………………………………………………………………………….57

19. Monumentalization: Smooth to striated space Source: Author……………………………………………………………………………………………………….58

05. Monumental and Local Narratives: The Grand Trunk Road

1. Serampore Dolmoncho Source: Madhusri Roy……………………………………………………………………………………………….65

2. Grand Trunk Road (present course) Source: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p.8 …..74

3. The milestone or Kos Minar (behind the marker) Source: Flickr Creative Commons Photo, http//:flickr.com/photos/63783963@N00/2124324935. Accessed November 23, 2008. ………………………………………………………………………………………………...76

4. The traditional highway rest stop or Serai Source: www.agraindia.org.uk/fatehpur-sikri/caravan-serai.html. Accessed June 23, 2009. ………………………76

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5. The evolution of major road axes (Fig. B, C, D) along the prominent trade paths (Fig A) Source: Jean Deloche. Transport and Communications in India prior to steam locomotion (New Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). p. 91…….………………………………………………………………………….78

6. Roadways as they existed in the Mughal, post Mughal (British) and post colonial periods Source: Jean Deloche. Transport and Communications in India prior to steam locomotion (New Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). p. 91………….…………………………………………………………………….78

7. Major phases in time that contributed to the growth of the Grand Trunk Road Source: Author………………………………………………………………………………………………………..80

8. Location of Serampore with respect to the Grand Trunk Road Source: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p.8 …....90

9. The wrought iron gates to Serampore College was a gift from the Queen of Netherlands Source: Madhusri Roy………………………………………………………………………………………………..91

10. Serampore College Source: Madhusri Roy………………………………………………………………………………………………..91

06. Relics, Remains and Residues: Accretion through Social Selection

1. Relics Source image: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 78, Modifications made by author……………………………………………………………………………………98

2. Remains Source image: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 25, Modifications made by author .………………………………………………………………………………98

3. Residues Source image: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 91, Modifications made by author ...………………………………………...……………………………………98

4. Marker with date and event ascribing a specific meaning to the site Source: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 66....99

5. Milestone or Kos Minar Source: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 78....100

6. Signage on a present day freeway Source: http://tti.tamu.edu/groups/cpd/resources/images/safety.htm. Accessed November 24, 2008……………100

7. Reststop or Serai Source: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 104..100

8. Present day motel Source: http://www.mccullagh.org/image/d30-17/cheap-motel.html. Accessed November 24, 2008……………..100

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9. Monumentalization: a relic appropriated and transformed into a monument Source image: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 78 Modifications made by author ...……………………………………………………………………………...101

10. Serai at Karnal; it is situated amidst mustard fields Source: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 117..102

11. An old well, worn with use. Age is implied through the imperfections like the wearing of the stone Source: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 44....103

12, 13. Gateway pillars found tucked away with its counterparts and auxiliary structures missing Source: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 17, 25……………………………………………………………………………………………………………,,,104

14. Sedimentation Source image: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 58, Modifications made by author ………………………………………………………………………………….106

15. Fleeting and ephemeral, involuntary memory triggers are difficult to identify, pinpoint and isolate Source: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p.91.....107

16. Often these residues are signifiers of local culture and rituals and not an artifact in the conventional sense Source image: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 106, Modifications made by author .………………………………………………………………………………..108

17. Symbol representing a once dominating political party and signifying a bygone political era fading amidst layers of flyers, each partially peeled away after having served its purpose Source image: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) p. 30, Modifications made by author ...……………………………………………………………………………..109

18. Towards a dynamic memory: From museumification to including change Source image: Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995), p. 89, Modifications made by author …………………………………..……………………………………….…..110

19. Accretion Source: Collage made by author from images taken from Raghubir Singh. The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage through India (New York: Aperture, 1995) ………………………………………...………………………………111

07. Conclusions and Recommendations

1. Diagram showing proposed administrative structure for preservation management in India Source: Author……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….132

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01. Introduction

As independent India comes of age, Indian heritage management policies have reached the end of their shelf life. This is evident in the conflicts seen around the country between conventionally understood practices of heritage management and the contextual needs of the time and place. This thesis critically surveys heritage management in present day India and the legislative apparatus that underpins it in order to make a case for change. In doing so, it argues that while the historic tradition in the Indian subcontinent is ancient, the construction of its

‘history’ began in its colonial period through a western lens.

The study examines the paradigm shifts in how the past was understood and addressed, as they took place in Europe and were simultaneously reflected in India through its colonial occupants and through the institutionalized investigations and legislations formulated by them to understand and interpret the ‘antiquity’ they encountered in India. Based on this, and using case studies, this research then argues the suitability of the strategies that remain upheld by the institutional and legislative setup of architectural conservation practices for present day India.

Despite the fact that India has been independent from colonial British rule for sixty one years, the legislations that continue to underpin the heritage management policies of India have remained unrevised for fifty of those years with the exception of a few minor amendments. The current active piece of legislation is in fact merely a slight variation on the earlier one laid down by the British more than a century ago and consequently India’s prevalent heritage management

1

policies are not only outdated, but also unsuitable for its context since it originates from a non- indigenous and particularly colonial mode of thinking.

The research primarily focuses on the practices of the Archaeological Survey of India

(ASI), the formal institution concerned with upholding the legislation concerning heritage. Using case studies the contextual suitability of the prevalent preservation policies have been analyzed through the successes and failures of the ASI in the cases under consideration. The argument is also extended to the time constructs signified by the current preservation laws by asserting that present day heritage management practices in India have reinterpreted the past, removing it from active participation in the present and made it into the revered but uncomfortable ‘other’, always to be negotiated as opposed to being incorporated or appropriated.

There has been a rising awareness of the drawbacks of the current heritage management setup in India. The Charter for the Conservation of Unprotected Architectural Heritage and Sites in India (see appendix) was formulated in 2004 by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural

Heritage (INTACH) and other collaborators keeping these drawbacks in mind. However the

Charter, in spite of being a tremendous contribution in the rethinking of Indian cultural management strategies, falls short on several accounts.

Firstly, the existing institutional framework for heritage management has not been incorporated or addressed in the Charter. By excluding the Archaeological Survey of India and the affiliated preservation infrastructure already in place from its guidelines, the Charter and its conservation principles failed to apply to a significant section of heritage resources of India, which is comprised by the architecture and artifacts under the custodianship of the ASI. The

Charter is in fact an independent guideline prepared in the spirit of the ICOMOS (International

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Council on Monuments and Sites) Charters that were generated from time to time to give direction to preservation strategies globally. Therefore in spite of upholding policies and conservation ethics that are better suited to the Indian context, the Charter is limited by the lack of legal jurisdiction. Finally, the Charter does not completely re-evaluate the basic concepts of conservation and preservation and retains strong traces of the Western understanding of these concepts. In spite of several references to indigenous tradition of cultural management practices, these are not elaborated within the Charter and the proposed understanding of conservation and what it comprises or signifies is not explicitly defined. For example, the Charter does not propose a structure for the new setup. Even though it emphasizes the participation of local communities, it fails to elaborate the exact organization that would facilitate such participation.

These drawbacks within the INTACH Charter have allowed for the problems of unsuitable preservation policies to persist.

This thesis strives to expand upon the reevaluation process already initiated by the kind of critical thinking that led to the formulation of the INTACH Charter. However it seeks to begin the re-evaluation at the very basics of heritage management, by discussing the concepts that underline this discipline, concepts such as time, history and memory.

The first section of the thesis makes the case for change. The section begins with a critical examination of the concept most basic to this discussion; that of time. It is a qualitative analysis of the perception of time rather than a quantitative and mathematical approach. The contemporary and common assumptions regarding time are contrasted with ancient Indian perceptions of time with particular reference to the role of ‘change’ in plotting these different

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conceptual diagrams for time. The findings in this section are crucial in understanding the origin

of the flaws in the current heritage management practices.

Next, the research goes on to verify if the concept of history was indeed introduced to

India by Western influence of if there existed such a concept which merely differed from its

Western counterpart. The transformation of the Indian ‘sense of history’ through the colonial influences is traced to its institutionalization and culmination as legislations that underpin current preservation strategies. It goes on then to examine current legislations through examples demonstrating their failure and through analysis of the definitions and clauses upheld by them. A comparative study of the legislations leading up to the one currently in effect is made to

demonstrate that no significant change has been made to the legislative setup since it was

formulated early in the twentieth century during colonial rule.

The second section is a discussion of alternatives. It begins with an illustration of the a

unique historic site, the Grand Trunk Road in India, that is ‘preserved’ in a manner that does not

perhaps conform to contemporary definitions of preservation, yet embodies its antiquity in ways

that could be used to create a new understanding of what signifies historicity. This is used to

enter into a discussion of ‘everyday preservation’ a concept introduced and inspired from the

principles of everyday urbanism, a practice used in architecture and urban design.

By examining the Grand Trunk Road, an ancient road that has been in continuous use, the

case study explores an alternate understanding of mnemonic tools from those that are upheld by

the present legislations. In spite of the lack of any consolidated preservation efforts proposal the

seemingly opposing notions of continuity and change are balanced through daily appropriation of

the road and the surrounding landscape. Keeping in mind that each context demands its own

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unique intervention, the study of the road aims at isolating the catalysts that facilitate change and continuity to occur in a manner that preserves the integrity of memory even within a fast changing landscape. This was used to derive possible variants to the present preservation model that could be developed specifically with the Indian context in mind to achieve a more holistic understanding of the past and its relationship with the present.

By way of proposals, the thesis tries to fill some of the loopholes of the Charter and generate regulatory tools from the observations made that could be introduced at the community level through a new legislative apparatus thus taking heritage management back to a grass root level while empowering it through legal jurisdiction. The principles of everyday urbanism is adapted to formulate the concept of ‘everyday preservation’ using community participation as the significant driver for heritage management efforts and these findings are incorporated in a set of recommendations. The underlying goal of this thesis is to alert law makers and the custodians of India’s heritage resources of the immediate need for an overhaul of the current legislations in favor of a more original and integrated approach to heritage management for India and to suggest a possible direction that could be taken to achieve this.

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02. Time Constructs

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

Commonly attributed to Mark Twain, this quote encapsulated a significant concept.

History is not monotonous. It always includes variation within its stride. In fact, it comfortably

negotiates two seemingly irreconcilable notions: that of change and continuity. While this idea

has baffled thinkers for many years, it is evident in the fact that history or rather, the past itself

cannot be simplified into a series of sequential events that are lined up in time. In other words,

time cannot be understood as a straight line. In addition, time is not discrete1, since each event is

not discrete. Events overlap and within each event one can find other events in whole or residues

of them.2 This is because time is continuous. At the same time it also encompasses a component

of change lending variance to something that appears continuous on a whole.

Change is often incorporated in the linear,

sequential model of time by the up and

downswings commonly represented by a

sinusoidal curve, with each rise and fall

representing repetitive paradigms of growth and 1. Sinusoidal curve decline. Yet this model ascribes a sequential quality to the events, where no two events can occur at the same point in time. This we know to be false. A convincing proof is the common practice to recollect important landmarks in time by

1 R. G. Collingwood, "Some Perplexities about Time: With an Attempted Solution," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 26 (1925-1926), 136-137. 2 Ibid., 136-137. 6

recollecting our own actions at the same moment. For e.g. I remember working on a presentation for a review of my first year architectural project in India when the U. S. was under attack on 9/11/2001 and I remember dropping my pencil in shock when I first heard the news on the radio. There are several parallel events occurring at the same point in time. Even if they don’t occur at exactly the same instant, they definitely share segments of time. In fact our very reference of time is an event, the motion of the hands of a clock in an analogue or the changing of the digits in a digital clock. The two dimensional event-time model however ascribes discreet time intervals for each event and cannot explain such overlaps in time between events.

This begins to elucidate the real complexity of time and its understanding. Even if we retain the up and down swing of change it becomes essential to bring in at least a third variable which would allow for change to occur within the same interval of time in more than one event.

Thus time and consequently the past could be viewed as not a sinusoidal curve but more as a helix. When perceived in two dimensions the model would still resemble a sinusoidal curve, possessing the recurring ebbs and swells, however it would have an additional dimension of depth which is also a variable thus transforming a 2D line diagram representation of time and events to a 3D model with variations in at least two dimensions. The second variable could be representative of the variation in the character of change itself.

Change makes history rhyme rather than repeat. It is change that arrests repetition and generates rhythm instead. The temporal continuum provides the element of congruity while change provides the variance. A constant change through time would make the past into a very regular, formulaic pattern of events. What adds unpredictability is the dynamism of change itself.

Change itself varies in intensity and the pace in which it occurs. Any narration of the past

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therefore is not only dynamic in the variation of the occurrences that make it up, but also in the

deviations in the nature of these variations themselves. Thus the variations in an event as

represented in the 2D model are augmented with the variations/change being made into a

variable in itself. Thus several events could be undergoing simultaneous but different changes

during a given interval of time. This would account not only for more than one event occurring at a given time but also represent the variations in change through the temporal density of the

events.

Perhaps Eviatar Zerubavel’s concepts of ‘extraordinary (marked) time’ and ordinary

(unmarked) time’ presupposes this variation in change.3 A period of intense change that is fast

paced could be deemed as an extraordinary time whereas periods where change is subtle and less

noticeable could be considered ‘ordinary’.

Arguably it is the extraordinary times that

remain embedded in the memory for

longer durations while the ordinary times

due to the slow paced change appear

monotonous and are soon forgotten. Also

extraordinary times receive greater

representation from mnemonic tools like

literature, media, rituals, commemorative 2. Conceptual representation of time in 3D acts etc. whereas ordinary times lack

representation and are less remembered.

3 Eviatar Zerubavel, Time Maps : Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 180. 8

For e.g. the transfer of power from one king to another would be considered extraordinary times

and signified through deliberate and subtle commemorative gestures, like building palaces and

defense structures, renovating temples, erecting funerary structures and other monumental

symbols. These survive to tell the tales of the extraordinary times in which they were built, while

the everyday dwellings lack such limelight and are easily forgotten and replaced. Also

interestingly, a palace itself goes though extraordinary and ordinary stages. For example once

built, it is a site for many closely spaced events, celebrations, rituals, public displays etc. Yet,

there were always times, perhaps when the initial excitement wore off, when the palace went

through unmarked period of lull. In relative terms, it could perhaps never become as ‘everyday’

as a common man dwelling, but in relative terms it perhaps went through times of being

ordinary. In fact, many rulers ensured that continued activity took place in and around the

symbolic administrative center of a settlement to keep it in focus within public memory at all

times and not fade away to oblivion. Thus it is not the perceived history alone that could be

understood to have variations of change and variations in the nature of change itself, but the

artifacts themselves embody these in their own lived narratives. These are therefore attributes of the artifacts themselves and not assigned to them through experience alone. Experience in fact is clouded by selective remembrance of the artifacts. Thus artifacts are more than mere representations of the past, they embody a past of their own.

These concepts take on great significance when applied to the strategies adopted to manage cultural resources and the material remains of our heritage, which are sought to be addressed in this thesis. Several well used terms and approaches used in these fields could be examined critically once the notion of time and the various functions (fx) of time have been re- examined through the lens of change and continuity. One can consider restoration as an 9

example. It is a very deliberate intervention at a time of a building's life to restore it to a different

point in time that is deemed more serviceable than its present state. By serviceable, one could

even include semantic purpose where the buildings serve to represent something, an event, a

person, a religious symbol, a function etc. Not only is the act of restoration an act of

appropriation in itself, but also an act carried out in the present, in spite of the fact that it seeks to

create a representation of a different time. This is due to the undeniable fact that, “we have only

present evidence for past circumstances,”4 as David Lowenthal puts it.

In addition, no later than an artifact has been restored to represent a certain point of time in its past existence, than it begins to age again, re-entering the ever flowing motion of time and the changes that come with it. In fact, the act of restoration and revival of aging, are a part of the ongoing process in the building's life and not a process of reversal and renewal as it is often mistaken to be. In addition, even if one were to assume that an exact reversal could be made so as to restore an object to a certain instant in its life, there would be another factor that would still remain a variable, i.e. the nature of change it would undergo as soon as it had been restored. The change it would undergo would be in the present and hence would not reflect the same sort of changes that it underwent the first time around. To try and manipulate the change it undergoes is to attempt to modify the ‘lifeworld’ it is situated in, in other words to remove it entirely from the

present and present experience.

Likewise, with such an understanding the terms like 're-store', 'revive', ' reverse', 'renew',

conserve and even 'preserve' come under scrutiny. Each of these terms suggests a struggle

against change and alteration. In the context of buildings, such a struggle naturally extends to a

4 David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country (Cambridge Cambridgeshire ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 187. 10

struggle against the passage of time altogether, that is, an intention to revert to and retain a static instant in its unchanged form. Restoring a structure to a particular period, with the intent of keeping it unchanged would be to restore it to an instant of time, that is motionless and unchanging in itself i.e. to be able to isolate, or conserve a building from the 'decay' that has been brought on by time.

A very important element in this discourse is the concept of the instant. A majority of our understanding and strategies regarding historic structures are driven by the quest of a glorious instant in time when the structure was in its prime and pure; in other words, unaltered from its designed and envisioned state. Even change is addressed through instants, for e.g. an instant when an addition had come into existence as opposed to another instant in time when it did not exist. Thus time as a whole is understood as a series of instants, and change as the element of variation between the instants themselves.

So what is an instant and does it truly exist? This question has been addressed by Ernst

Gombrich in Moment and Movement in Art (1964) and expanded upon by Robin Le Poidevin in

The Images of Time (2007). Le Poidevin defines the instant in two ways. In the first definition, the instant is understood to be the “smallest part of an interval, where a part is itself defined in terms of dividing that interval”.5 Le Poidevin asserts that such a definition suggests that an

instant is hypothetical and cannot truly exist since the “continuity of time entails that there can be

no smallest part of an interval.”6

5 Robin Le Poidevin, The Images of Time : An Essay on Temporal Representation (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 129. 6 Ibid., 129. 11

A second definition of the instant does not consider it to be a part of an interval, but the indivisible boundary that separates two intervals.7 From this definition, if an instant is indivisible, given the assumption that time is continuous it can have no duration and therefore cannot have any motion or change.8 Yet important to note, that such an instant cannot be perceived, since it has no temporal existence. Much like the gaps between the still frames in a movie reel, the instant is imperceptible to cognition, let alone have a function in representation and interpretation. Time cannot therefore be experienced in terms of such instants, which leads to the question of whether time should therefore be represented as such instants at all.

Going back to the three dimensional model of time, these paradoxes are reinforced. When we talk of intervals a typical differential diagram explains the concept in two dimensions. Thus we can understand how hypothetically a certain interval can be divided to its smallest unit of time: the instant. However when the third dimension is introduced, a seemingly finite and infinitesimal quantity of time can have a completely different value. Thus the smallest interval is not really an instant in such a model. The second definition too can be similarly tested. A boundary between two intervals that is indivisible in itself cannot be plotted in such a model at all without allotting a certain temporal value. However if the temporal element was nearly eliminated as in the previous argument to create a seemingly durationless instant, the third dimension of the character of change itself would be the only defining factor of the instant, which in turn is a function of time also . Hence such an instant that has to be indivisible and durationless so as to be without motion or change cannot be plotted either in such a model of time.

7 Ibid., 129. 8 Ibid., 130. 12

R. G. Collingwood, who is well known for his discourse on history, also made similar

arguments in the early twentieth century in his article, Some Perplexities Regarding Time: With

an Attempted Solution9 He concerned himself with viewing time as composed of intervals as is

assumed in the former understanding of an instant. He assumes that “an event takes time and is

always (i) part of an event which takes more time and (ii) divisible into events that take less; and that events are in no sense composed of instants or point-instants but always of events”.10 He does make some references to what appears resonant of the second definition of the instant when he speaks of time being understood by mathematicians as compact series. The compact series was a notion to reconcile the discreet and the continuous characteristics of time, the series making it discreet while the compactness making it continuous. But Collingwood argues that a compact series “when actually counted always has gaps between all its terms.”11 These gaps,

which could be considered similar to the boundary between two intervals as in the latter

definition, he argues, are contrary to the notion of continuity itself.

Thus the instant is rendered either non-existent or completely imperceptible in a

representation of time that acknowledges continuity and change as given. It is also not possible

to represent an instant when change itself is considered as a variable. The implication of these

in-depth analyses of the scientific/mathematical/conceptual understanding of the nature of time

serves the purpose of pointing out that it is perhaps futile to preserve instants in time as

representations of the past. To seek to preserve/represent an instant in the life of a structure is

perhaps seeking a hypothetical notion to start with. Interestingly enough, in both arguments put

forth by Le Poidevin, it is the continuity of time that prevents the notion of the instant from being

9 Collingwood, Some Perplexities about Time: With an Attempted Solution, 136-137 10 Ibid., 137. 11 Ibid., 136. 13

established, since continuity and change cannot be reconciled in such a notion. In both cases,

change is assumed as a given and as a function of time. For e.g. in the first definition, if change

was eliminated each interval would have no variation between its beginning and end and would

therefore produce exactly the same intervals each time it was divided. Similarly, in the second

definition, change was the assumed distinction between a before and after interval. Thus one can

argue that to be able to represent time as it is commonly experienced, one has to consider

continuity and change as a given and therefore eliminate static instants as canvases.

The ancient Indians were well aware of these concepts of change within continuity and

the complex nature of time itself. They were not only conscious of time but they had also

evolved some intriguing models to help explain its complexity. Time, or kala as it was known in

ancient India, was understood to be imperishable. The popular televised adaptation of the ancient

Indian epic Mahabharat cleverly depicted time as the narrator, to keep the viewers apprised

regarding each episode12. As the only witness of those times to have survived all these years to

3. Screen shot from televized dramatization of 4. Carved stone wheel at Konark temple, Orissa, India the Indian epic Mahabharat

12 Mahabharat, Television, directed by Chopra, B.R. and Ravi Chopra 1988) 14

tell us the story, the character of time began each episode imparting the more philosophical and

moral lessons to be learnt within the given episode and the events it covered. According to early

Indian belief time was said to move in cycles, each cycle called a Mahayuga or the Great Cycle,

which lasts 4,320,000 years.13 Perhaps for the same reason, time in the serial Mahabharat is also

depicted as a chakra or wheel, not dissimilar to the wheel of the sun temple at Konark, built in

the 13th century.14 Each Mahayuga was further subdivided into four parts, with each part being

progressively shorter than the previous one. The four parts named, krita, treta, dvapara and

kaliyuga completed one great cycle or Mahayuga, after which total destruction would ensue and

a new cycle would arise from it. Interestingly, the names of the yuga are derived from dice

moves thus embedding an element of chance to the notion of time. 15

The concept of the four yuga within the mahayuga is not a mere objective quantitative

subdivision for ease of measurement, it instead signified change. The different yuga represented

the various stages of society from a ‘golden age’ to eventual decline with the last yuga (kali)

representing degeneration leading up to catastrophic destruction of the current mahayuga and the

initiation of a new one. Thus the wave like character of time is presupposed within the cyclic

model of time. These seemingly contradictory characteristics can be realized together once we

take into account that the cyclic model does not suggest that at the end of a cycle we return to the same point where it began, instead, we have moved forward in time, with the completion of the cycle. In other words there are no full circles in time, i.e. a 2D cyclic model of time is just as

13 Romila Thapar, Ancient Indian Social History : Some Interpretations (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1984), 285. 14 "Sun Temple, Konarak - World Heritage Site - Pictures, Info and Travel Reports," http://worldheritagesite.org/sites/suntemplekonarak.html (accessed 3/25/2009, 2009). 15 Romila Thapar, "Cyclic and Linear Time in Early India" In Time, ed. Katinka Ridderbos (Cambridge, UK ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 31-32. 15

inadequate as the 2D linear model of time in representing change and continuity together as

functions of time.

Romila Thapar argues that the early Indians understood time both as linear as well as

cyclic. According to her the cyclic notion of time as explained by the mahayuga and yuga was

primarily cosmological.16 This was also adapted in the serial Mahabharat by the depiction of the

wheel of time rotating within the cosmos, in the vastness of space, a sort of undefined space we

know as the universe. This notion of cyclic time was augmented by an equally developed

understanding of a sort of linear time, which is exhibited through the genealogies and dynastic

records that documented the chronological events such as births, deaths, and royal lineage.

However, considering the fact that most of the events were recorded much after they had

occurred, often with a lag of centuries, it could be said that the purpose of such documentation

was less scientific and not urged by a need to merely record events and occurrences for the sake

of historicity. This along with the consideration that many of these texts were often colored by

myth and imagination, suggests a more social purpose to such documentation. “It was maintained that the past can and does teach lessons, usually moral lessons, usually moral lessons. Since the individual is concerned with his own salvation, the lessons of history may be of some use,”17 as Thapar informs us.

Irrespective of the end purpose, along with the cyclic concept, the early Indians did have

a tradition of recording the past in a form that was considered socially beneficial. Perhaps the

most important of these texts were the Puranas and were included in what Thapar calls the

Indian historical tradition—the itihasa purana—and they claim to represent the past ‘as it was’.18

In fact itihasa, the Sanskrit term from early India that best corresponds to what is currently

16 Thapar, Ancient Indian Social History : Some Interpretations, 287 17 Ibid., 287 18 Thapar, Cyclic and Linear Time in Early India, 36. 16

known as ‘history’ means ‘thus it was’ or ‘so it has been’.19 Thus despite initial claims by

European visitors that India was primarily an a-historical society20, a tradition of chronicling was

alive and well in use in early India. Thapar considers this tradition to be within the framework of

a linear understanding of time.21

In this context it may be interesting to cite here, the introductory narrative recited by the character of time in the first episode of the TV series, Mahabharat. Although, it is a

contemporary interpretation of an ancient text, suitably adapted for public dissemination through

television, one can find many of the concepts regarding time as discussed above embedded

within this brief introduction. The accuracy and authenticity notwithstanding, the narrative metaphorically encapsulates the ancient Indian notion of time.

main samay hoon aur aaj main aapko mahabharat ki amar katha sunaane jaa raha hoon… (I am time and today I am going to narrate to you the story of Mahabharat) ….aur yeh katha mere siva koi doosraa sunaa bhi nahin sakta kyunki maine is katha ko itihaas ki tarah guzarte dekha hai (No one else can narrate this story; since I alone saw it happen; since I alone saw it occur like the passing of history) iskaa har paatra mera dekha hua hai; iski har ghatnaa mere saamne ghati hai (I know all its characters and incidents) main hi Duryodhan hoon, main hi Arjun aur main hi Kurukshetra (I am Duryodhan, the antagonist as well as Arjun, the protagonist; I am Kurukshetra, the battle field) kyonki mahabharat bante bigadte rishton aur rishton ke aadhaar aur jeevan saagar ko mathkar jeevnan ke tatwa aur satya ke amrit ko kaadhne ki kahaani bhi hai (It is the story of conflicts between relationships and its concluding outcome; the story of churning the sea of life to extract the elixir that is the meaning and truth of life.) aur yeh ladhayi har yug ko apne apne kurukshetra mein ladni parti hai

19 Thapar, Ancient Indian Social History : Some Interpretations, 270. 20 K. Paddayya, "A Review of Theoretical Perspectives in Indian Archaeology" In Indian Archaeology in Retrospect, eds. S. Settar and Ravi Korisettar, Vol. !V (New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research : Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2002), 118. 21 Thapar, Cyclic and Linear Time in Early India, 36 17

(Every era has to go through this conflict in its own turn.) kyonki har yug ke satya ko vartaman ke asatya se joojhnaa padta hai (Since every era is the continuous battle between good and evil) aur jab tak main hoon yeh mahayudh chalta rahega (and as long as I exist, this battle will continue to be fought.) aur mera koi ant nahin; main anant hoon (And I am perpetual and endless) iIsiliye yeh aavashyak hai ki har vartamaan is kahani ko sune aur gune, taaki woh bhavishya ke liye taiyaar ho sake (This story must be heard and assessed by each ‘present’ so it can prepare itself for its‘future’) yeh ladaayi ladnaa har vartamaan ka kartavya aur har bhavishya ki takdeer hai (This battle is the duty of every ‘present’ and the fate of all ‘future’)22

Here time is depicted as continuous, endless, all-encompassing and omnipresent. The

characters in any event in history is a manifestation of that period of time and represent the good,

evil as well as the conflict between them. In other words, the changes that occur in time are

played out by the characters and vice versa. Time recants this endless cycle of good and evil (as understood by the four yuga) to every mahayuga and brings in its wake, lessons from the past, for the benefit of the present, in order to prepare it for the future. Such a breakdown of time into a linear past, present and future, for human understanding and pedagogical benefits, i.e. the teaching of moral and philosophical lessons resonates with Collingwood’s argument that such a linear concept of time can only exist in the mind.23 It is for the social benefit, that linear time

exists. If not for the mind, the past and the future are both by themselves non-existing, an ideal

and are in fact exist only in the present. 24 Yet for human understanding, which it can be argued

cannot be purely objective, a linear understanding of time is as beneficial as acknowledging the

cyclic/metaphysical nature of time itself.

22 Chopra, B.R. and Ravi Chopra, Mahabharat, Episode 1 23 Collingwood, Some Perplexities about Time: With an Attempted Solution, 150 24 Ibid., 149 18

Early Indian concept of time therefore was a combination of a cosmic cyclic aspect

coupled with a more everyday chronological linear aspect. Such a perception of time resonates

with the 3D helical model of time proposed earlier. When viewed in 2D, this model appears both

as a circle along one plane and as a wave along the other. The wave like character of time allows

for the element of linearity, while the circle explains the cosmic cyclical nature of time as

represented by the mahayuga. The model also explains the yuga within the mahayuga i.e. the waves within the great circle. In addition the division of the mahayuga into yuga also signified change. It is interesting that the ancient Indians visualized these different phases within a given cycle to not only have varied connotations of change, such as progress as well as decline, but

also to have varied durations with the phase of growth being longest and the phase of

degeneration to be the shortest. This signifies that they accounted for not only change but also

the pace of change within their model of time. The phase of growth is considered the slowest

taking longer while the period of decline and degeneration is the most rapid. As Thapar tells us,

“there was an implicit rejection of the idea that history repeats itself: or to be more exact, that history can

repeat itself within the time-span of one cycle.”25

This discussion perhaps takes on more than the task of explaining that there are several

aspects to time which needs to be considered in any representation of time or temporal apparatus.

My hope is that through these discussions and the proposed model, I have been able to convey that time is highly complex, dynamic and irreplicable and is constantly in a state of flux. With the brief discussion of the early Indian notions of time, I seek to illustrate that these complexities were well understood in the Indian tradition and therefore any discussion regarding preservation

in the early India could not have pre-empted these underlying concepts regarding time.

25 Thapar, Ancient Indian Social History : Some Interpretations, 287 19

As discussed earlier, the notions of change and variations in the patterns of change itself,

take on great significance in the way that preservation is commonly understood and the vocabulary associated with it. Given the brief insight into the early Indian traditions of time, I would argue that, change and its variations were presupposed within the way the ancient Indians perceived the past and all that represented it. By extension, cultural resource management, in whatever form it existed precluded static representations and embraced the dynamism that they considered inseparable from any representation of time. However, the fact that these traditions are repeatedly attributed to the early Indians signifies that the more recent traditions do not stem from these earlier roots. In recent years there have been a growing number of conflicts in the field of heritage management.

The most controversial of these is perhaps of the Babri Masjid demolition, where several

Hindu extremists tore down the Muslim mosque and justified the act by citing ‘archaeological

evidence’ of a Hindu temple over which the mosque had been built. Nationalist and religious

sentiments aside, if one examines the incident as a purely scientific inquiry, the act of

demolishing a layer of time in favor of resurrecting a previous layer, is an act of denying change

that has occurred with the passing of time. Extending this justification to another controversial

example, the Taj Mahal, a world renowned edifice of significant historic and tourist value, could

also be considered expendable when compared to the rumored relics of an older era that many

believe are buried under it. However preposterous the suggestion of tearing the Taj Mahal down

in favor of recovering the buried architectural artifacts under it may be, would it be very different

from what occurred at Babri Masjid, if considered from a historic standpoint alone?

20

The reason for citing such extreme examples is to demonstrate that there is clearly an anomaly in the current understanding of time, where a value system had been superimposed on it, whereby certain temporal remains are given greater importance over others. In a region like the Indian subcontinent that has been in continuous occupation for at least 3000 years, the constraints of conducive habitable space and growing population dictates the constant renewal and reuse of land and settlements, thereby generating physical layers of time. However, these layers, in keeping with the character of time itself, are not distinct, discrete or imbibed with inherent values. Constant change ensures a continuity that permeates through the layers, making them contiguous yet inseparable.

Going back to the 3D model proposed, if two layers seem to be in distinct along one of the temporal planes, they are continuous and have common elements when viewed in the other plane. Thus one can never truly revert back to the state before the Babri Masjid was built, because even though the demolition of the mosque removes the structure that was erected, the underlying edifice and the changes it had undergone in its own life could not be restored. Not only that, the act of demolition and reconstruction in fact are not an act of reversal at all, in they are acts carried out very much in the present in an attempt to eliminate changes that occurred in the past. Two things are erroneous here: change is sought to be removed from the notion of time and the past is understood to be removed from the present. The two very essential concepts within the early Indian tradition; that of continuous change as represented through the cycles of time and the existence of the past only for a human mind in the present, are therefore no longer taken into consideration within the discourse of heritage management.

21

What brought about this alteration? The most commonly cited cause for such a change not only in India, but for many parts of the world is modernity. For India, it began with the arrival of the European thought which coincided with the complete paradigm shift that was occurring in Europe at the time. In the following chapter I will survey the evolution of the current preservation system. I will also briefly dwell on the conflicted definitions history and its awareness by examining and comparing the understanding of history in medieval India and

Europe.

22

03. Rise of Indian Antiquarianism

‘Sense of History’ in Medieval India and Europe

The earliest impression the Europeans had about Indian historic tradition was that it

lacked such a tradition altogether; that is, it was a-historic.1 However, as discussed previously,

Romila Thapar’s study of the ancient Indian texts suggest otherwise. In fact, India had a

significantly developed ‘sense of history’. However, this sense is markedly different from what

we understand to be a sense of history in the modern day. This variance relates to the difference

between the ‘sense of history’ as perceived in medieval Europe and as it began to take definition

during the Renaissance. Peter Burke associates three factors with the sense of history: a sense of

anachronism, the awareness of evidence, and the interest in causation. He illustrates the alternate

understanding of these factors, or lack thereof, in the Middle Ages.2 It is interesting to compare

his observations with those made by Thapar regarding early Indian traditions.

According to Burke, medieval men did not perceive the past as different from the present;

in fact they saw it in “terms of the present and projected themselves back on to the men of the

past.”3 The lack of a sense of anachronism can be observed in early Indian thinking also, where

the past is not an alienated entity distinct from the present, but flowing seamlessly into the

present. This, Thomas Metcalfe points out, is evident from early Indian art where “Indian artists

1 K. Paddayya, "A Review of Theoretical Perspectives in Indian Archaeology," in Indian Archaeology in Retrospect, eds. S. Settar and Ravi Korisettar, Vol. !V (New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research : Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2002), 119. 2 Peter Burke, The Renaissance Sense of the Past (London: E. Arnold, 1969), 1. 3 Ibid., 6 23

and designers endeavored to make the past (as represented in their art), seen as flexible and fluid,

into the present.”4

The awareness of historical evidence in the Western medieval culture was distinctly

different from that in the Renaissance and later, in that the attitude towards evidence in the

medieval was uncritical.5 All that was written was accepted without question or verification as

absolute and authentic. Citing previous works to lend legitimacy to claims was not considered

necessary since an author’s credibility was seldom called into question. Along with such a

‘passive’6 acceptance of the written word, there was also a tradition of actively augmenting

already recorded historical narratives with myths and legends. In many cases these served a

political purpose (e.g. ascribing new political leaders with divine lineages to lend legitimacy to

their ascension to power). Contrary to popular belief, early Indians also possessed a tradition of

written annals. These can be classified mainly as genealogies, myths and historical narratives.7

However, they were seldom segregated into these categories, and were often blended within the texts so as be indistinguishable from one another.

Another characteristic of these written chronicles was that they were often recorded in written form long after the events had actually occurred. The narratives were passed on through oral traditions and were eventually written down several centuries later. This suggests that the early Indians, like their medieval European counterparts, were not too concerned with the accuracy of the historical narratives. Perhaps the purpose of these writings, as Thapar suggestes,

4 Thomas R. Metcalf, "Past and Present: Towards an Aesthetics of Colonialism," in Paradigms of Indian Architecture: Space and Time in Representation and Design, ed. G. H. R. Tillotson, Vol. 13 (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1998), 15. 5 Burke, The Renaissance Sense of the Past, 7. 6 Ibid., 7 7 Romila Thapar, Ancient Indian Social History : Some Interpretations (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1984), 278. 24

tended to a more moral and philosophical end8 than the mere recording of scientific facts. This

might help to explain the apathy to veracity in recording history.

The third factor defined by Burke as contributing to “a sense of history” was the interest

in causation. As an extension to the lack of interest in evidence, motives and causes for events,

when mentioned, were not critically analyzed for verification of accuracy. They were accepted

and incorporated uncritically.9 Early Indian writings also lacked an interest in the causal

relationships between events. Causes were often less ‘scientific’ and events explained by reasoning derived from the supernatural. The first author to break away from this tradition of unquestioned acceptance of events was Kalhana, whose history of Kashmir, ‘Rajatarangini’ was

the first text with a marked difference in the character of causal relationships, in that rational explanations replaced supernatural ones.10 As a consequence, the Rajataranagini is considered as

an exception to the Indian historical tradition.11

Burke goes on to discuss how the ‘sense of history’ for Western society had its seeds in

the Renaissance. However, changes in the approach to the past led to a conviction of the past as being different from the present, i.e., a sense of anachronism. This was accompanied by an emerging need for historical evidence which was essential in establishing a causal relationship between events. The three factors that Burke ascribes to a sense of history, were heretofore lacking. One may argue, as Romila Thapar does in the case of India, that these factors alone do

8 Ibid., 287 9 Burke, The Renaissance Sense of the Past, 13. 10 Thapar, Ancient Indian Social History : Some Interpretations, 276. 11 Ibid., 276 25

not define a sense of history and that the absence of these factors does not in any way suggest an

obliviousness to history, but suggests an alternate way of approaching the past.

A keen interest in the material remains of past settlements and civilizations accompanied

this newly evolved sense of history. Travels and explorations brought greater exposure to these

and they were reported back through travelogues, letters and narrative accounts. Not only were

material remains observed as objects of interest, they were actually studied from a completely

new perspective, that of the antiquarian. Petrarch, referred to as the first modern man, was

perhaps the first modern antiquarian since he was interested in the reconstruction of the past

from its physical remains.12 Burke cites the example of Roman ruins. They certainly existed in

the Middle Ages and were noticed by medieval men. But they were accepted uncritically.13

However, to Petrarch these were the building blocks of an imaginative reconstruction of a time past that was distinctly different from his own.

Paralleling this newfound interest in antiquity was an equally developed dissatisfaction with the present and a conviction that the past was superior to the present and worthy of emulation and revival.14 Thus, not only was the past considered as distinctly different from the present, but also more valuable. This implied a sort of wishful denial of the transformation of past into present brought about by change. The present was not a continuation of the past, but was distinctly different. This generated a wistful longing for the excellence of the distant past,

i.e. the Ancients, as opposed to a more immediate temporal ancestry. The immediate past

separated the present from the distant past and, for the Petrarchs of the time, represented the

12 Burke, The Renaissance Sense of the Past, 23. 13 Ibid., 6 14 Ibid., 20 26

changes that had corrupted the present. In other words, change was what occurred between time

intervals and it was not constant. The much glorified distant past was not seen to be constantly

evolving towards the present; it acquired a stagnant quality, static and absolute, like the ruins and

remains that represented it.

To accompany this new attitude towards the past in the West, there was a change in the

approach to understanding and interpreting them. Peter Collins in his book, Changing Ideals in

Modern Architecture, 1750-1950, cites Voltaire as the first social historian since he was the first

to assert that ‘the history of a civilization comprises the history of its art and is mirrored in the

work of art it produces.’15 Authenticity took on the greatest significance in this modern

awareness of history. Mythology and the supernatural could no longer be used to explain away anomalous gaps in history, nor could history as recorded in the past be taken as a given without an objective study of the factual evidence underpinning the records. This critical approach is also reflected in Voltaire’s writings where he ruthlessly exposes myths and fables as products of fanaticism, romanticism and credulity.16

Everything now was understood to have a definite grounded history17 free from irrational

explanations for their existence. Until this time students of architecture accepted Vitruvius’s mythical account of the origin of the Roman orders18 with the same willingness as they accepted

his definitions for good architecture. The modern historical awareness discerned between such

facts and myths, by critically examining the verifiable causality of all that was observed or

15 Peter Collins, Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture 1750-1950 (London: Faber and Faber, 1965), 32. 16 Ibid., 32 17 Burke, The Renaissance Sense of the Past, 39. 18 Collins, Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture 1750-1950, 32. 27

studied. The Roman ruins were not, as medieval writers had depicted them, the work of giants.19

They were built using precise sciences like engineering, mathematics and physics. Thus, for the proponents of the Renaissance like Petrarch, Descartes etc. the Middle Ages (often equated with the dark ages) had lost the wisdom of the ancients and could not understand the rational processes that brought about the complex constructions of which only the ancients were capable.

To them the Ancients and the material remains they left behind were a quarry of scientific knowledge, to be rediscovered and restored within the less worthy present.

Interestingly, Collins observes that the Ancients, namely the Greeks, were not interested in history themselves since it was “concerned with what was transient and changing, with facts located in both space and time whereas the scholars of antiquity were with concerned with what was permanent and immutable, such as is expressible by mathematics.”20 Medieval men did

possess a certain sense of history and it resonated with the way the Ancients perceived history as

ambiguous and variable. However, this perception changed, as Burke illustrates, and history

began to be understood and studied as less relative. The modern antiquarians truly began to

believe that it was possible to study history ‘scientifically’ thus rendering it as a more absolute

science comprising facts and events that were corroborated through scientific and immutable

evidence founded principally on the study of material remains. It must be noted, that these

changes in antiquarian thinking evolved over several years, even centuries, while the Western

world went through several paradigm shifts like the Reformation, the Renaissance and eventually

the Enlightenment. However, all of these events could be summed up within the broad scope of

what we know as the rise of Modernity.

19 Burke, The Renaissance Sense of the Past, 6. 20 Collins, Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture 1750-1950, 30. 28

Early Interest in Indian Antiquity

For India, this new ‘sense of history’ came to be relayed with the arrival of Western

thought in the Indian subcontinent through European travelers who made their way here as early

as the 16th century. A reflection of this is evident in the fact that an interest in material remains of the past, which was heretofore lacking within the traditional historic discourse, began to rise.

Despite of a long tradition of literary and academic discourse in India, there are few references to

in indigenous writings to the historiography of heritage management and description of historic

architecture and artifacts. Most of the descriptions about the heritage resources of the region are

confined to travelogues. Dilip K. Chakrabarti’s A History of Indian Archaeology: From the

beginnings to 194721 is a comprehensive history of the development of objective interest in the

archaeology and antiquities of the region.

According to Chakrabarti, the earliest writings of this type began with the travelogues of

European travelers in the 16th century as they reported their encounters and observations back to

their respective countries through journals and letters. Chakrabarti also cites the earliest

expression of concern at the desecration of antiquity as a letter “written in 1515 by a Florentine

traveler Andrea Corsali from India to the Duke Guiliano de Medici of Florence, deploring the

destruction of an ancient temple in Goa by the Portuguese.”22 Partha Mitter, who also cites the

above letter, opines that such a concern stemmed from a “Renaissance enthusiasm for classical

21 Dilip K. Chakrabarti, A History of Indian Archaeology from the Beginning to 1947 (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1988), 262. 22Ibid., 1 29

art” that must have influenced Corsali strongly by due to his Florentine origin.23 Mitter’s observations could be applied to most similar writings of the time.

These were also the beginnings of “Historicism” which, “conceived of the history of art and architecture as a sequence of styles, one following the other as society progressed.”24 There was a strong preoccupation with finding the ‘classical styles’ of India in keeping with a similar trend in Europe at the time. Just as the Greco-Roman traditions or the ‘Ancients’ were revered for their pure styles, so also the Buddhist traditions were identified by the British scholars to be the Greco-Roman counterparts for India. Several factors influenced this choice. Indo-Greek connections were discovered and could be dated to the period of Buddhist prominence. This added weight to singling out the Buddhist styles to be the Indian counterpart to the European

Greco-Roman traditions.

Furthermore, the Brahminical, or Hindu traditions that the British encountered struck them as ‘degenerate’ wrought with superstitions and fanatic religious practices such as child marriages and Sati25 that to the refined European sensibility, bordered on being barbaric and

inhumane. This helped identify these traditions with the pre-Renaissance Gothic period which signified the dark ages, full of religious excesses and blind beliefs. Tapati Guha Thakurta states,

“ Just as the excellence of Hellenic art was associated with the greatness of the civilization of

Periclean Athens, the ‘superior’ qualities which the British perceived in Buddhist art came to

23 Partha Mitter, Much Maligned Monsters : A History of European Reactions to Indian Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 34. 24 Gevork Hartoonian, "In what Style could they have Built?" Fabrications, no. December (2007), 73-90. 25 The practice followed in some Hindu communities where a recently widowed woman would voluntarily or by use of force be incinerated on her husband’s funeral pyre. 30

hinge on a broader construct of the ‘purity’ of the Buddhist religion and culture in India.”26

Eventually several Indian archaeologists and historians have argued that such a prejudice in favor of the Buddhist style was fueled by a political agenda. This is an interesting observation regarding the intent behind the Western, particularly British, interest in Indian antiquities, but it cannot be said for certain that this interest was initiated solely by a political agenda.

As mentioned before, most of the initial ‘antiquarianism’ in the Indian subcontinent could be attributed to European travelers and their correspondence and travelogues. While these accounts tell us much about the general perspective of these travelers, they are as varied as the travelers themselves. Fascination, candid scientific inquiry, amazement, admiration and revulsion can all be found in these accounts. Common to most of these descriptions is a tendency to use similes and metaphors to equate these new and unfamiliar structures with something already known to the authors. For example, architecture with towering, tiered superstructures was commonly referred to as ‘Pagodas’. The term, possibly coined by Western travelers served to describe all such structures, irrespective of their purpose, origin or context.

This shows that the travelers were unfamiliar with what they encountered and struggling to reference what they saw, with familiar, known examples. It is no surprise therefore that there was a predisposition to conduct an ‘objective’ study of what they encountered. Unable to adequately comprehend all that they saw, the travelers had to dissociate the container from the contained. In other words, the buildings and artifacts (i.e., the material remains) served as better study material, being more tangible, than the cultural practices that they contained.

26 Tapati Guha-Thakurta, "Tales of the Bharhut Stupa: Archaeology in the Colonial and Nationalist Imaginations," in Paradigms of Indian Architecture:Space and Time in Representation and Design, Vol. 13 (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1998), 33. 31

Institutionalizing Antiquarian Studies

Until the British had fairly established themselves in the Indian subcontinent and ousted

most of its other European colonizing counterparts, the interest in Indian antiquity remained an

‘amateur’ inquiry with no formal structure. There was no consistent approach or attitude towards

what the observers encountered. The first formal organization for inquiries was made possible by

Sir William Jones, who founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784.27 It is suggested that he

modeled the institute after the Society of Arts in Britain.28 Chakrabarti observes, “The

foundation of the Asiatic Society was entirely in keeping with the scientific spirit of eighteenth century Britain. This is reflected by the fact that, by 1815 there were institutions all over Britain with the sole purpose of examining, cataloguing and scientifically classifying the flora and fauna of the region. Like flora and fauna, material remains constituted scientific evidence. The society also published an annual journal called “Asiatic Researches”.

Collins asserts that, rather than the technical innovations of the industrial revolution, several events that took place in the mid eighteenth century that prepared the way for modern architectural thought.29 The Gothic Revival substantially emerged in 1750, when Walpole began

to ‘gothisize Stawberry Hill.’ Early documentation of historic buildings appeared in 1751, when

Stuart and Revett and Soufflot made serious attempts at recording the Greek ruins. Blondel

published the first modern history of architecture in 1752. Laugier’s writings embodied all the

characteristics that Burke associates with a sense of history and he wrote extensively in this

period. His book, Age of Louis XIV was published in 1751 and Essay on General History of

27 Chakrabarti, A History of Indian Archaeology from the Beginning to 1947, 15. 28 Ibid., 15 29 Collins, Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture 1750-1950, 29. 32

Manners in 1754. Curiously despite the study of ancient architecture that accompanied the

revival of Antiquity, general thinking remained unaffected by it till the late eighteenth century.

The institutionalization of history and antiquarian study was the first step towards introducing

history and historiography formally into modern thought. This was echoed in India by the

founding of the Asiatic society and the ideation of defining of theories regarding the region’s

history.

Chakrabarti identifies two major theoretical traditions prevalent in antiquarian studies at

the time. One was initiated by James Rennell and centered around the idea of ‘plotting places

according to their latitudes and longitudes, with observations on their historical identification’.

For example, he identified present day Canauj as the historical Pataliputra and later went on to

propose that present day Patna was, in fact the historically known, Pataliputra, the capital of

Magadh.30 The second tradition had much to do with the biblical theory of origin, in vogue at the

time, and the supposed unitary origin of man from a common ancestor. William Jones, founder

of the Asiatic Society propounded this theory. The primary purpose of studies carried out in this

tradition was “linking Indian history with universal history as it was then understood.”31 This

formed another important cause for antiquarians to seek a connection between Indian antiquities

and Greek and Roman traditions thus seeking to establish a physical link between the two civilizations.

The next half century after the foundation of the Asiatic Society in 1784 witnessed no significant increase in formal archaeological writings. The scattered observations and studies

30 Chakrabarti, A History of Indian Archaeology from the Beginning to 1947, 16-18. 31 Ibid., 18 33

carried out by individual enthusiasts continued without sufficient impetus to propel the

antiquarian movement in India forward. Chakrabarti gives a good account of these. It was James

Princep, Secretary of the Asiatic Society from 1832-38, who gave the ongoing trend of

antiquarian studies a new direction by making it more data-oriented. He initially focused on studying ancient texts and inscriptions and deciphering them. He also carried out numismatic

studies. This gained fervor with the discovery of Greek and Roman coins in several parts of

India; however Princep’s interest was not confined to the pursuit of Greco-Roman connections.

The study of manuscripts, inscriptions and coins to verify the accuracy of early written

documents had been common in Europe since the Renaissance,32 but it was Princep who first introduced it at a significant scale in India.

The next key person in the development of Indian Antiquarian studies was Alexander

Cunningham. His formal position as the first officially designated surveyor of Indian antiquity put him in the forefront in the process of formalizing the tasks of documentation and maintenance of India’s tangible past. This nearly self-appointed undertaking has earned him the reputation of being the first in the line of several Director Generals of the Archaeological Survey of India, even though this position was not yet named so. Cunningham was a close associate of

Princep who put a great deal of emphasis on editing ancient texts and deciphering ancient inscriptions.33

James Fergussson, took up these investigations where Princep left off and added a

considerable component of site documentation and drawing up detailed documents of

32 Collins, Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture 1750-1950, 31. 33 Chakrabarti, A History of Indian Archaeology from the Beginning to 1947, 32. 34

monuments around India, taking particular interest in the preservation and documentation of the

rock-cut temples.34

Meanwhile, the British presence in India had been well established except for several

small pockets where other European countries continued to control. The East India Company,

which represented the British interest in the region, was primarily a trading company, but also

maintained significant military strength, on the pretext of safeguarding its trade interests. An

interesting offshoot of this evolution of a trading entity into a political power is that the initial

investigators of Indian history and antiquity were largely explorers, travelers and tradesmen.

However, as the East Indian Company brought more militia into the region, the population of

antiquarians began to be comprised of army officers rather than mere travelers. This led to a shift in the administrative as well as political involvement of the British in the region. A greater legislative presence was a consequence of this shift. Unified under the East India Company, laws formulated by the Company for the ease of their own administration applied for the first time to most of the subcontinent. It was not until well after the First War of Independence of 1857, or the

Sepoy Mutiny as it was known before India’s independance, that the British monarchy became involved in the administration of its colonies in India and displaced the East India company as the governing body of the region. With such administrative changes the organized rule of the

British Empire was finally established.

In 1889 Lord Curzon took over as the Viceroy of India. His viceroyalty spelled a new era for Indian archaeology. He took a great personal interest in the work done in this field and soon

34 Ibid., 48 35

busied himself in creating a centralized direction and enunciated a clear archaeological policy.

He also foresaw and facilitated increased governmental responsibility in this field.35

It was under his jurisdiction that the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904 (see appendix) was passed. This was the first comprehensive legislative Act of its kind in India that defined Archaeological practice for the region from a legal standpoint. For decades to follow this

Act would regulate and direct archaeological explorations in the region. In subsequent chapters some of the clauses of this act will be discussed in comparison with the legislations followed currently, to demonstrate the significance of this Act and the continued role it plays in defining archaeology and antiquity management in India. The only legal Act to precede the 1904 Act was the 1878 Indian Treasure Trove Act, passed to curtail the rampant and uncontrolled dealing in antiquities that was prevalent at the time due to the increasing interest in such goods from the

‘orient’. It is significant due to the fact that it represents the antiquarian culture of the time, which was concerned more with the objects of antiquity than their context, a generator of museums as well as private collectors.

It was during this time that the institutionalization of Indian antiquity management was carried out under the premise that the absence of a centralized governing agency to manage antiquity in India had led to extensive decay and mishandling of these resources. The Local

Governor till that time had the final say in any decision regarding a historic resource. Thus left to individual taste and interest, any measures taken for the restoration of a monument, if at all, was extremely subjective and whimsical. Lord Curzon submitted his proposals to remedy this situation by suggesting that a central government post of Director General be created who would

35 Ibid., 120, 121 36

take on the comprehensive responsibility for conservation along with integrating and coordinating local efforts. In addition, the post was also entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining a record of the conservation tasks undertaken and that would need to be undertaken in the various provinces.36

John Marshall was the first Director-General of what became the Archaeological Survey of India as a result of the proposals mentioned above. He set about the task of further organizing

Indian archaeology into a disciplined systematic format that paralleled the 1904 Act and several other administrative moves to achieve the same goal. Towards the mid-century significant interest was evoked by the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization and Mortimer Wheeler, the then Director General directed extensive excavations of the valley with exhaustive reports of the finds. The finding of the remains of a civilization contemporary to the ancient Egyptians and

Assyrian civilizations, with a script that remains for the most part undeciphered till date, was sufficient to occupy the imagination of all those who were interested in antiquity and archaeology, giving a further impetus to an ideology of ‘the older the better, the more valuable’ that came to define conservation strategies often adopted even today.

India had gained independence eleven years ago when the next legislative Act to do with historic resource management was passed. This was the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological

Sites and Remains Act of 1958. In the next chapter this legislation will be analyzed through excerpts and clauses and their applications and implications on contemporary preservation issues encountered in India. Controversies that seemingly stem from a contradiction between conservation and development will be discussed and their causality will be traced to the principle

36 Ibid., 122 37

definitions and assumptions made in the legislative structure of Indian antiquity management and to their obsolescence.

38

04. Making a Case for Change

This chapter critically examines the clauses and definitions laid down in the legislative acts and amendments that underpin the heritage management policy of India. In doing so, it aims to uncover some of the failings of these legislations as exhibited in the practices of the

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). As discussed in the previous chapter, the ASI is the central custodian of historic artifacts in India and the only agency with any formal legislative power. There are several ways in which the present heritage management system fails to generate contextual and meaningful interventions for the interpretation of the past through material and cultural remains. In fact, this chapter makes clear that the legislations are themselves antiquated and extremely confined in their scope and inadequate to address the complex range of issues in different cases of heritage management.

In this chapter, I will take up the complex issue of the Mumbai Mill lands. I will argue that the Mumbai Mills are critical artifacts of Mumbai’s history and therefore present a case for conservation according to the definitions laid down in the legislations. I then go on to probe some of the clauses in the legislations to understand why the ASI has failed to uphold its stated objectives in case of the Mumbai Mill lands.

I will point out here that the aim is to demonstrate through the case study that there are shortcomings in the way heritage management in India is constitutionally defined. In no way do these cases point out all the failings of the current system. The range of complications that arise within a country like India with a conglomeration of cultures and historic layers that date back several millennia can hardly be listed, let alone discussed, within one document. In fact, this is

39

one of the primary arguments for an entirely different approach to be adopted to manage India’s

heritage. Finally, I will briefly survey efforts made by historians and preservationists towards the revision of the heritage management system in India that are based on those critiques made in this chapter.

The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958 defines

‘Ancient Monuments’ as:

‘any structure, erection or monument, or any tumulus or place of interment, or any cave, rock sculpture, inscription or monolith which is of historical, archaeological or artistic interest and which has been in existence for not less than 100 years and includes: (i) remains of an ancient monument, (ii) site of an ancient monument (iii) such portion of land adjoining the site of an ancient monument as may be required for fencing or covering in or otherwise preserving such monument. (iv) the means of access to, and convenient inspection of, an ancient monument1

The Mumbai Cotton Mills have not been declared ‘Ancient Monuments’ by the ASI. In

2006, the Mill Lands with the mill buildings were finally slated to be sold to private developers.2

Let us examine if the Mills conform to the 1958 Act’s definition of an Ancient

Monument. To do so, we need to briefly present the history of Mumbai and its Mills. Mumbai as

we know it today was originally a cluster of seven islands. The British acquired it in 1661 from

the Portuguese and the East India Company reclaimed land from the sea to create a continuous landmass that we now call Mumbai. Then known as Bombay, it was soon recognized as an

excellent natural harbor and the East India Company was quick to discern its potential as a trade

capital. India was a large producer of cotton and was, along with America, one of the principal

1 Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, (1958): Clause 2(a). 2 Parwini Zora and Daniel Woreck, "Indian Government Gives Green Light to Sell Off Mumbai Mill Lands," International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/indi- a17.shtml (accessed 05/20/2008, 2008). 40

suppliers of cotton to Britain. “By early 1800’s its [Bombay’s] commercial growth rested upon

the export of cotton.”3

In 1854, the first cotton mill was set up by an Indian businessman. Several more sprang

up in quick succession. The American Civil War (1861-1865) elevated India’s and consequently

Bombay’s role as the world’s main cotton source and export center. Between the mid and late

1. India was a major competitor to America in the cotton production industry

3 Darryl D'Monte, Ripping the Fabric : The Decline of Mumbai and its Mills (New Delhi ; Oxford ; Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2002), 72. 41

nineteenth century, textile mills were proliferated rapidly due to multiple factors, particularly in

Bombay and Ahmadabad; Bombay soon became the Indian equivalent of Manchester. Due to this boom in the textile industry, coupled with the advantages of a successful port, Bombay soon overtook Delhi and Calcutta as the economic and business capital of India, a distinction it continues to hold today.

This explosive expansion of the cotton industry in Mumbai is quantified by S.R.B.

Leadbeater. “In 1875 there were 750,000 spindles and 8,000 looms in production. By 1885 there were 90 mills throughout India employing 2.145,646 spindles and 16,537 looms. Of these nearly

50 percent of spindles and 75 percent of looms were installed in Bombay.” 4 This expansion

2. Cotton Green, Bombay, 1900 c.

4 S. R. B. Leadbeater, The Politics of Textiles : The Indian Cotton-Mill Industry and the Legacy of Swadeshi, 1900- 1985 (New Delhi ; Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1992), 32. 42

coincided with and largely fueled the physical expansion of the city itself as the mills and their sub-industries provided jobs and an urban lifestyle. These were the hasty and relayed beginnings of the industrial revolution in India and the textile mills embodied it.

Therefore, the cotton mills of Mumbai denote more than a regional architecture or a sector of an industry. In fact, they represent national history. In the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India: “The history of cotton and of textiles is not only the history of the growth of modern industry in India, but in a sense it might be considered the history of India.”5 Thus referring to the definition for ‘Ancient Monuments’ laid down by the Act of 1958 the cotton mills arguably demonstrate sufficient historic value to be considered, particularly since the protected monuments are listed as “Ancient Monuments and

Archaeological Sites and Remains of National Importance”.

Architecturally, these mills represent an industrial genre that has few parallels in Indian cities and perhaps in the nation. The mill architecture represents some of the oldest steel structures to be built in India in those times. Furthermore, the buildings enclose impressive spaces, so much so that Jill Channer, Director of the POW Phoenix Trust on entering one of the galleries in the United Mill No.1 exclaimed: “This a cathedral of cotton!”6 Though currently abandoned and derelict, the buildings have tremendous potential for reuse. As Sir Bernard

Feilden, the noted British conservation architect, stated to the Bombay Times: “No other

5 D'Monte, Ripping the Fabric : The Decline of Mumbai and its Mills, 71 6 During the Mumbai Mills workshop organized by INTBAU (International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism). The Mumbai Mill Lands Charette was organized in March 2005 in Mumbai and was attended by representatives of several architects and historians from the UK and India. 43

metropolitan city in the world, not New York, not Los Angeles, has the opportunity as you have in Bombay, to do something historic as the key to development.”7

7 Ibid., 187 44

3. United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 4. Architectural detail, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 5. Architectural detail, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 6. Paving in driveway, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 7. Chimney, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 45 8. Bracket detail, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007

9. Interiors, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007 10. “Cathedral of Cotton”, United Mill No. 1, Mumbai, 2007

46

Why is it then that the ASI has not intervened to salvage these buildings in spite of the several

pleas made by representative organizations of the City of Mumbai to protect the mills and mill lands from being sold to developers? It is because the present legislations do not sufficiently empower the ASI to address such complex situations. Analyzing the legislations reveal some

essential defects of the system including the intent of the ASI in protecting an artifact. I would

argue that if one reads between the lines of the legislations, one can find implications of a very

restricted scope within which the ASI functions. One can extend this argument to claim that

these restrictions were generated by the 19th century outlook towards foreign cultures and their

past as was discussed in the previous chapter.

What is it that the ASI seeks to protect? There are no defined criteria in the legislations

for the selection of a monument other than the definitions of ‘Ancient monuments’ and

‘Antiquity’. The legislations empower the Director General of the ASI to declare protected

monuments; however, there are no criteria outlining the justifications for him/her doing so.

Furthermore it excludes all private property and religious structures from its jurisdiction. This leaves a very ambiguous notwithstanding narrow sector of antiquities that the ASI is custodian to. By the Act of 1958 definition, the ASI protects ‘ancient monuments’. The mills may fulfill the requisites outlined by the definition, but are they truly ancient monuments? They are certainly not ancient, that is, they do not belong to a remote period of history. They are fairly contemporary. Nor were they deliberately created as monuments. Yet historicity, as implied by the 1958 legislation, is inextricably linked with monuments. Nowhere in the legislations has a provision been made to protect non-monumental historicity. The term ‘ancient monument’ gives away the ASI’s focus of interest, though the definition appears more inclusive. There is certainly a discrepancy between what is implied and defined. The fact that the ASI has remained silent

47

regarding the continued degeneration of the mills could be ascribed to the ASI upholding the implied idea of the ancient monument over that which is defined.

It may also be argued that the ASI is not interested in protecting remnants of

contemporary history, but seeks to safeguard a more distant past which is removed from vivid

public memory. Yet there have been cases where the ASI has made an exception and taken

elaborate measures to protect and even restore relatively contemporary buildings. An outstanding

example of this may be the barracks at Red Fort. These were erected by the British Government after the 1857 War of Independence. As a direct retaliation, to the war which the British perceived as a mutiny, several Mughal buildings in the Red Fort complex was razed to the ground to make room for these defensive structures as the Mughal Fort was itself appropriated to serve as a British military fortress. These barracks, with relatively similar architectural value, to the mills are protected and maintained as a museum dedicated to Indian freedom fighters. The argument for the memorialization of these buildings is that several important figures in the

Indian freedom struggle were imprisoned here in the early 20th century.

Can it be then said that the ASI is primarily interested in a history that projects a certain

image of the country? The ancient monuments suggest the antiquity of the country and its culture. The only contemporary history that is considered worth retaining is that which affirms the freedom struggle. It is therefore a nationalist history rather than a national history that the

ASI endorses. It seeks to protect a glorious past as opposed to a past. To verify this hypothesis in the case of the mills we must take into account that they were built in collaboration with the

British though the owners were of Indian origin. In fact, the mills played a controversial role in the Swadeshi movement. The movement, led by Gandhi, evoked national spirit by fervently promoting handicrafts, home-spinning and handlooms over power looms and industrial products 48

since these were seen as instruments of colonial exploitation. Driven by profit considerations, the

mill owners, though Indian, were hesitant to right out support the Swadeshi movement started by

national leaders. In fact, throughout the many significant events that shaped the India freedom

struggle at the beginning of the 20th century, the loyalties of the mill owners swayed from the

British to the Nationalist causes depending on economic feasibility and business sentiments.8

Thus, while the Mills are an important component of national history, they also represent

residues of the colonial period that is sought to be obliterated from post-colonial Indian identity.

According to such sentiments, creating monuments of the mills, which for many represent exploitation of the working classes during the British rule, is celebrating anti-nationalist portions of national history, something that the ASI wishes to underplay rather than highlight.

Dr. A. Srivathsan, architect and urban designer, and assistant editor for the The Hindu, a newspaper of large circulation in India, writes:

If the colonial period was fixated on antiquarian and oriental interests, the post- Independence period was obsessed with the idea of nationalism. The ASI sieves the innumerable monuments in this country and extends central protection only to those it considers nationally important. Within a nationalist framework, monuments perceived to be representative and only those supporting the larger history of the nation tend to get prioritized. As a result, monuments are graded and hierarchized as national, regional, and local.9 If the issue of nationalist versus national history be put aside for the time being, there are other immediate issues that the ASI finds difficult to negotiate.

8 Leadbeater, The Politics of Textiles : The Indian Cotton-Mill Industry and the Legacy of Swadeshi, 1900-1985, 114 Simon Leadbeater observes: “Although some millowners (notably the Morarji family) supported Gandhi throughout the non-co-operation period, most were unwilling to contemplate an open break with the colonial administration” 9 A. Srivathsan, "How to make Past Future Perfect," The Hindu08/15/2007, 2007. 49

The most significant cause for the

decline of the Mumbai mills and their

eventual conversion into local strip malls

is the lure of prime land for real estate

developers. The city houses over 20

11. Rush hour at Chhatrapati Shivaji Railway station million10 people in less than 200 square

miles. Since the mills were established in

the formulative years of the city, they

occupy parcels of land at prime locations

in the city. Mumbai’s surviving 58 mills

occupy 602 acres of land.11 For a city with

an urban density of about 10,000 per

square mile, that is invaluable real estate.

So, can Mumbai afford such monuments?

It would seem not; certainly not in the way

that the ASI defines them.

12. Figure ground showing land occupied by Mill Lands in Mumbai

10 World Gazetteer, "India: Metropolitan Areas," http://www.world- gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=&men=gcis&lng=en&dat=80&geo=-104&srt=pnan&col=aohdq&msz=1500&va=&pt=a (accessed 06/29/2009, 2009). 11 Zora and Woreck, Indian Government Gives Green Light to Sell Off Mumbai Mill Lands 50

According to the 1958 Legislation, the definition of “maintain” includes the fencing, covering in, repairing, restoring and cleaning of a protected monument. 12 To extend this notion of “maintain”, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules of 1959 stipulates a “prohibited zone” and a “regulated zone”:

Regulated area means an area near or adjoining a protected monument which the central Government has, by notification in the official gazette, declared to be a regulated area, for purpose of mining operation or construction or both.13 The Central Government has declared upto 100 meters from the protected limits to be prohibited area and further beyond it up to 200 meters to be regulated area for purposes of both mining operation and construction.14

13. Feasibility of the prohibited area regulation in an urban setting like Mumbai

12 Central Government of India, Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, Clause 2(f) 13 Archaeological Survey of India, "Frequently Asked Questions for: Regulated Areas," http://asi.nic.in/asi_faq_regulated.asp (accessed 05/29/2008, 2008). 14 Ibid. 51

Such cordoning of sites may be interpreted as a process of museumification of history.

The past is removed from its immediate surroundings, removed from active participation in the

present, removed from the scope of appropriation, of everyday interpretation and it is placed on a pedestal, to be admired from a distance creating a disjointed experience between the observer and the observed, the object and its context. They are no longer part of the same matrix of a common ‘lifeworld’. History is made into a linear sequence of events where the past cannot be associated with the present. A. G. K. Menon, Convenor, Delhi Chapter of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage observes: “this has legally frozen the slum-like conditions that surround many heritage buildings in the cores of historic cities.”15

As observed before, this dissociated perception of the past was inculcated by the British

through their way of addressing the remnants of India’s past as they encountered it. As Thomas

Metcalfe observes: “No longer was it [the past] to flow into the present. It was a past seen as past, from which the British stood apart.”16 In fact, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy during whose

tenure the 1904 Act was passed, had great admiration for the architecture of temples and other

religious structures. However, he considered any religious practices being carried out in them as

defilement that needed to be stopped immediately to save the integrity of the building. In fact use

was considered to be altogether detrimental to the historicity of a structure.

A district official was slapped down when he proposed outfitting Trinamul Nayak’s palace at Madurai as government offices while Curzon spoke disapprovingly of devotees being allowed annually to whitewash the tombs of the saints in Bijapur. He insisted that once the government had saved these structures from ‘destructive carelessness and the uncultured neglect of the British, we were not going to hand them back to the dirt and

15 A. G. K. Menon, "The Case for an Indian Charter," http://www.india- seminar.com/2003/530/530%20a.g.%20krishna%20menon.htm (accessed 03/12/2009, 2009). 16 Thomas R. Metcalf, "Past and Present: Towards an Aesthetics of Colonialism" In Paradigms of Indian Architecture: Space and Time in Representation and Design, ed. G. H. R. Tillotson, Vol. 13 (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1998), 16. 52

defilement of Asiatic religious practices’. In his address to the Asiatic Society he said: ‘a race like our own who are themselves foreigners, are in a sense better fitted to guard, with a dispassionate and impartial zeal, the relics of different ages, and of sometimes antagonistic beliefs, that might be the descendants of the warring races of the votaries of the rival creeds.’17 With Curzon as one of the principal proponents of the 1904 legislative Act, it was natural that these sentiments were engrained within the policies outlined by the Act. This dissociation with the past also naturally translated to archaeological practices: “Fergusson (one of the pioneers in modern Indian Archaeology) himself and after him the Archaeological Survey, initiated a minutely detailed study of India’s monuments with the objective of compiling a

‘systematic record and description’ of all historic structures, and so placing them in proper chronological order.”18

Such apathy and the natural dissociation of the architectural shell from the contained cultural practices rose from several factors that were discussed in the previous chapter where heritage artifacts were looked on as mere objects and the foreign outlook contributed to perceive the object as removed from its cultural context.

Perhaps the colonial government restricted its conservation work because it was dealing with an alien culture and believed a focus on only exemplary Indian monuments to be adequate. But why does ASI adopt the same vision in independent India? Like the colonial conservators, it too avoids engaging with the hundreds of thousands of less than exemplary monuments that exist in the crowded heritage precincts of our historic cities. These remain as incomprehensible to the ASI as they were to its colonial predecessors.19

Even the process of preservation reaffirmed the dissociation in the physical separation of the buildings from their surroundings. “In archaeology the colonial aesthetic demanded that

17 Ibid., 18 18 Ibid., 18 19 A. G. K. Menon, "The Case for an Indian Charter," http://www.india- seminar.com/2003/530/530%20a.g.%20krishna%20menon.htm (accessed 03/12/2009, 2009). 53

ancient monuments be preserved, preferably in garden surroundings in half ruined state.”20 Such a reverence for ruins sprang from the Romantic period where follies and derelict structures within park-like settings were fashionable. According to Menon:

“The ASI still follows conservation guidelines drafted by the English archaeologist John Marshall, the first Director General of ASI (1904-28). These guidelines represent a profoundly English sensibility towards the past. This sensibility was the product of the very particular English historical experience of the Romantic Movement and the industrial revolution on the one hand, and their interpretations as conservation ideology by such seminal thinkers as John Ruskin and William Morris on the other. John Marshall transported this very context-specific sensibility to India and incorporated it into his guidelines. It has permeated Indian consciousness, at least in the formal sector of governance, and continues to be the ASI’s bible. Like fundamentalists of all ilk, the ASI strongly profess ‘the word’ as revealed by John Marshall despite new vistas opened by changing circumstances.”21

14. Painting of the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque between 1808-1820 by an unknown artist

20 Metcalf, Past and Present: Towards an Aesthetics of Colonialism, 18

21 Menon, The Case for an Indian Charter 54

While the origins of the dissociative practice of preservation in India become clearer, it is not surprising that such practices continue with little or no change. The Legislations that empower the Archaeological Survey of India have not been significantly revisited or revised and are therefore ironically antiquated themselves. As discussed in the previous chapter, of all the legislations passed regarding heritage and antiquity management, perhaps the most definitive was Act was the one passed in 1904, called the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act. The next

Act and the first since India gained its independence in 1947, was the Ancient Monuments and

Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958. But barring the title of the Act little else was modified (refer to Appendix for copies of the two Acts).

All crucial clauses in the Act remained the same with only the modification of the

‘Collector’ being replaced by the ‘Director-General’ or the Central Government as the principal decision makers in the processes laid down. It is also interesting to note here that almost all crucial decisions regarding an ‘ancient monument’ are based on what the Director-General may

15. Illustration of similarities and differences between the 1904 and 1958 Acts

55

‘apprehend’. Such apprehension has neither been defined nor quantified within the legislations.

Though in 1972, The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act was passed, the main Act concerned

with the management of built heritage remains the 1958 Act. It can be argued that the

constitutionalized heritage policy of India is a century old and a colonial construct. How does

this reflect in actual practice of heritage preservation?

The Mills are a good example of the failure of these antiquated policies in dealing with

the complexities of preservation within a dense and diverse urban fabric. The multitude of

stakeholders within the Mill complexes itself notincluding those in a 100 meter radius periphery

all around them is something that the ASI is ill-equipped to address. The autonomous position it

seeks to assume through the legislations places insurmountable hurdles of long-drawn court

battles and land acquisition and counter claims, which the ASI cannot negotiate. The various

socio-cultural issues implied are an entirely different tier of complexities that impair the ASI’s

stated purpose of safeguarding heritage. Though the

ASI claims to be the guardian of cultural heritage,22

none of the clauses or definitions addresses cultural

practices as heritage.

For example, in the context of the Mumbai

mills, several territorial traditions were well 16. A small theatre within the United Mill No. 1 complex for the workers, with billboard developed. Street entertainers and tamasha players advertising local theatre

22 “The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), under the Ministry of Culture, is the premier organization for the archaeological researches and protection of the cultural heritage of the nation.”Archaeological Survey of India. ‘About Us’ http://asi.nic.in/asi_aboutus.asp. Accessed on May 29, 2008 56

formed the working man’s theatre.23 However, strictly according to the legislations these have no

legitimate heritage value.

The Mill surroundings are comprised

largely of tenement houses of the mill workers.

In keeping with Mumbai’s characteristic

juxtaposition of extremes in the social and

economic spectrum, the immediate surroundings

of the Mills also include expensive, high rise 17. Mumbai: Juxtaposition of economic extremes condos and even a five-star hotel owned by ITC, one of the largest corporate firms in India. A

casual look around the site reveals multiplicity: multiple subcultures, multiple interests, multiple

visions, multiple expectations. In a country of over 1 billion people, with diverse cultural,

religious, social and economic constituents, the legislations fall terribly short of a satisfactory

18. The United Mill No. 1 (left) and its surrounding hinterland (ITC hotel is to the right)

23 Rajnarayan Chandavarkar. The Origins of Industrial Capitalism in India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). 172 57

and well rounded heritage policy. On the topic of

ownership and claims, the clauses have been framed to deal

only with one, or in some isolated cases, several co-owners.

They were certainly not formulated to address the

multiplicity encountered in these situations since they were

formulated to protect dissociated monuments rather than

buildings that are integrated within the present and are

associated with fairly vivid and raw memories. It seeks to

create islands of history, the Deleuzean striated space24 within which the monument, now reduced to a mere shell, is encased, removed and delineated from the smooth space25 that surrounds it.

It becomes evident from the above discussion that

there are gaping loopholes in the process due to which

heritage management which fails to function within such a

complex and multifaceted situation as the Mumbai Mills.

These failings may primarily be attributed to the antiquated

origins of the policies but more importantly to the fact that

19. Monumentalization: Smooth to striated space Image 1: The non-monuments in harmony with its context (smooth space). Image 2: Isolation of the historic. Image 3: Forced integration of new identity as a monument with surroundings. Image 4: Island of past created within the dynamic present (striated space)

24 Gillis Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. Biran Massumi, Minneapolis ed.University of Minnesota Press, 1988), 475-477. 25 Ibid., 475-477 58

these policies have not been revisited and revised or redrawn to suit a more indigenous context.

These ground realities should determine the nature of conservation that is practiced in India, but as matters stand, they do not. Unfortunately, by seeking to pursue ideals developed in other cultural and economic contexts in the belief that they are ‘universal’, conservation policies are trying to put square pegs in round holes; this critically compromises the future of our past.26 These observations regarding the shortcomings of the current heritage management system were

made by A.G.K. Menon who advocated for the formulation of a Charter for India along the lines

of the International Charters from UNESCO. The International Charters serve as guidelines for

conservation and preservation projects around the globe. They are not legislative acts and hence

are not legally binding, but they have helped shape conservation strategies internationally.

Menon’s efforts culminated in the formulation of the Indian Charter for Conservation, entitled Charter for the Conservation of Unprotected Architectural Heritage and Sites in India in

2004 (see appendix). Menon’s critiques of the prevalent preservation system in India were expressed in a paper that he wrote to make a case for the formulation of the Indian Charter and

they echo the discussions earlier in this chapter. Menon is an advocate as well as a key person

the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), a non-profit organization founded in 1984 to append the conservation efforts in India. He too commented on the antiquated origins of the legislations as well as of ASI’s practices.

Before the advent of INTACH, conservation of Indian architectural heritage had been the exclusive preserve of the ASI and its state-level counterparts. It was ASI’s ideology and practice that were benchmarks of the profession. In this respect the ASI continued, in letter and spirit, colonial practices; the ASI Act of 1958, for instance, is the same, mutatis mutandis, as the 1904 Act formulated by the British.27 The ASI still follows conservation guidelines drafted by the English archaeologist John Marshall, the first Director General of ASI (1904-28). These guidelines represent a

26 Menon, The Case for an Indian Charter 27 Ibid. 59

profoundly English sensibility towards the past. This sensibility was the product of the very particular English historical experience of the Romantic Movement and the industrial revolution on the one hand, and their interpretations as conservation ideology by such seminal thinkers as John Ruskin and William Morris on the other. John Marshall transported this very context-specific sensibility to India and incorporated it into his guidelines. It has permeated Indian consciousness, at least in the formal sector of governance, and continues to be the ASI’s bible. Like fundamentalists of all ilk, the ASI strongly profess ‘the word’ as revealed by John Marshall despite new vistas opened by changing circumstances.28 Menon also laid great emphasis on the preservation of traditional building methods, considering

those practices as significant elements of a living heritage. He made provisions in the charter for

the continued patronage of these arts.

INTACH has certainly been instrumental in forwarding conservation practices within its

limits. It is, however, confined to interventions that are privately funded and in most cases acts in

the capacity of a preservation consultant. INTACH does, however, include natural and cultural

resources within its scope of work. INTACH also published A Case for National Policy for

Heritage Conservation and Management,29 a compilation of the presentations made at a two-day

workshop on National Policy for Heritage Management and Conservation organized by

INTACH. The workshop produced excellent inputs and recommendations. Unfortunately, of

these observations remains confined to a book that is poorly distributed. Indeed, I was able to

locate only a single copy in the United States at the Getty’s Museum library, Los Angeles. This is unfortunate, since the proceedings of the workshop were in agreement with most of the observations made in this chapter as well as by Menon.

28 Ibid. 29 Rajeshwari Tandon, A Case for National Policy for Heritage Conservation and Management, First August 2002 ed. (New Delhi: INTACH, 2002), 236.

60

The book mentions the few isolated case the at city level where the legislation was completely modified. These were brought about by a couple of motivated individuals who struggled against the system for several years before finally making a difference. However, these cases are exceptional, and since 2002, when the proceedings of the workshop were published, little has changed. In fact, Mumbai is one of the cities with the modified legislations and the

Mumbai Mills Land issue remains at staus quo. This makes it clear that mere changes in legislation alone is not adequate and that the entire system needs overhauled so that the revisions can actually take effect. However, the revision of legislations itself is not yet a trend. Delhi passed the Delhi Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act in 2004 and it is nearly the same as the 1958 Act with very slight variations, much like the 1958

Act was a slight variation on the 1904 Act. Although, not a legislative Act itself, the Indian

Charter of 2004 has been the only formal document that significantly deviates from this family of repeatedly rehashed legislations.

INTACH uses the new Charter as a guideline for its practices. However, it has been successful in translating Menon’s vision of an alternative approach in Indian preservation only so far as to allow for reconstructions and appropriation through adaptive reuse. The Charter’s aims and goals in many ways resonate with the observations and recommendations made in this thesis.

However, INTACH, the organization that was intended to put the charter into practice, has not been able to translate the good intentions of the charter successfully.

61

Dr. A. Srivathsan comments:

The charter, which is yet to be put in practice, is noble in intention, but INTACH as an organization has not invented itself to work at field levels. It is certainly not involved in capacity building at the local level. Neither is it clear what validity or impact the charter will have on institutions such as the ASI.30 He also adds that INTACH has adapted the same hierarchy observed earlier of placing

significance on buildings and artifacts of national importance over those of cultural and local

value. Thus, despite of the efforts that have spanned over a decade, the situation remains without

much change, particularly in the realm of buildings and artifacts that do not have substantial

financial representation.

The primary flaw that can be observed in the formulation of the charter is that it

completely excludes the ASI and all heritage elements that come within its fold. It remains

disturbingly silent regarding the interface of the new proposals and the extant systems. Despite

recognizing and critiquing the flaws in the present system, the charter and Menon’s plea for a

new charter, neither addressed the fact that such an enormous institution and custodian of an

extensive wealth of heritage needed to be somehow incorporated/replaced/accounted for in the new proposed system. INTACH, the charter and all of the auxiliary systems that were installed by this proposal, completely bypassed the current legislative setup along with the ASI in its practices. In doing so, the major setback that occurred in putting the new charter into practice was that it lacked any legal binding and did not involve the principal player in Indian heritage management for over 100 years, the ASI.

There are over 3000 monuments currently under the care of the ASI. Given India’s historic background and wealth of heritage, the number is incredibly small. Nonetheless, they do

30 Srivathsan, How to make Past Future Perfect 62

make up a significant number. These buildings remain dissociated monuments, cut off from their

surrounding contexts, one of the critiques that Menon raised in his writing. In fact, he calls the

100 meters prohibited zone ruling a ‘draconian rule’.31

The observations and intentions of this thesis are very much concurrent with the

observations and intentions of Menon as well as the Indian Charter. However, the point of deviation is mostly in the recommendations. While I too, like Menon, would argue for a completely new perspective towards heritage management, I find that for such a radical change to take place, no part of the existing system can go unrevised and allowed to remain static.

Despite its many flaws the ASI is a formidable institution that has been around for nearly a century and has a significant work force, infrastructure and network that is already in place.

More significantly, under the current setup it is the only institution that has any legal capacity.

That is extremely important in bringing about a transformation of the desired magnitude. As

Menon himself observes with regard to the ASI’s ability to enforce extreme measures such as the

100 meters prohibited zone regulation, “such reflexive action makes one suspect that what ails

the ASI is not a lack of resources as it claims, but a lack of imagination.”32

The following segment of this thesis will attempt to incorporate the imaginative aspect

that Menon calls for in the ASI. By using examples of sites, I hope to approach the problem from

an angle that may help think alternatively about preservation itself. In fact, I will use the term

heritage management to deviate from the signified meaning of the word ‘preserve’. As a point of departure from the way heritage management has been practiced so far in India, I propose we look at surroundings and sites where one can find continuity and change. The seemingly

31 Menon, The Case for an Indian Charter 32 Ibid. 63

contradictory characteristics of time are negotiated naturally and with ease without any external intervention. I will look to these for ideas and observations that may help formulate a recommendation that is more conducive to the Indian context and will address the several drawbacks of the morphed and antiquated system that was discussed here.

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05. Monumental and Local Narratives: The Grand Trunk Road

Tucked away in a narrow lane of Serampore

West Bengal, India, is an old derelict structure on the

verge of collapse. I know of the ruin only because it

leads up to my childhood haven, my grandparent’s

house. This precarious ruin escapes notice for most,

partly due to its unobtrusive presence and partly due to

the fact that it is covered almost entirely by vegetation

blending it with its surrounding patch of wilderness.

Anyone can see that it has no tangible use anymore and

1. Serampore Dolmoncho that it has been without function for several years, slowly erasing it from the forefront of awareness for the community that surrounds it. In fact, perhaps my mother photographing this structure at my request served to wipe away several years of oblivion from a once active and throbbing site of religious and cultural significance. The structure, remembered by a rare few as the ‘Dolmoncho’

or the ‘platform for the festival of Holi’, was part of a triad of structures that comprised the

religious sites associated with the patron deity of the region, ‘Radhaballavji’. A similar structure

lies forgotten at the banks of the River Ganges not half a mile from the Dolmoncho. Aptly named

the Bhanga Mondir or the broken temple, this particular structure was in fact the original temple

and was retired when it was shelled by the British embanked at the cantonment settlement on the

65

opposite bank. With large gaping ‘wounds’ of battle the Bhanga Mondir continues as solitary testimony of a heyday once gone by.

Few others than ‘romantics’, enthralled by the aesthetic found in a ruin and decay perceive it to be a ‘temporal testimonial’. For most, these are places that harbor antisocial elements of society to carry on their surreptitious acts in the seclusion and cover of the unfrequented ruins. A building with the obvious tell-tale signs of desolation and dereliction may have poetic significance to those seeking it, but for others may be more of a burden, perhaps even an object of waste. The daily association and interaction with these structures divests local residents of appreciation of them as an obscure oddity from a different time and places it within their everyday realm, even though they might have a negative connotation at times. Therefore it is not for the mere aesthetic of a ruin that the two structures, (Dolmoncho and Bhanga Mondir) continue to remain embedded within a growing urban fabric. Why is it then that the Dolmoncho and the Bhanga Mondir continue to survive, though barely so?

Evidently, society picks out artifacts to retain from the past and carry on into the future. It does so by a selection process that is quite different from that of conventional historic preservation. The parameters are diverse and contextual and the selection process are subtle and subdued, often concealed within the broader social rituals and processes. For example, the owner of an old house may choose to restore a certain segment of the house over a certain period of time. Depending on his/her means, availability of local craftsmen, ongoing construction trends etc, new layers of building will be appended to the existing one. In the process, the owner makes several significant decisions regarding the historic fabric and its continuity into the present.

He/she inadvertently selects a portion of a historic element to continue on and replaces another

66

portion of it with something new, which ironically immediately begins to age and begins to

assimilate into the historic. Similar transformations can be also observed in larger scales and in

course of time leave a collage of historic layers that create a composite narrative of the region’s

past.

Such a process is engrained with change as well as continuity at the same time. It

inherently embraces the dual character of time that accounts for continuous transformation while

retaining a sense of the past being brought forward into the present, not as something distinct and

distant, but as an essence of the present, the foundation for it. The very process also is suggestive

of the future, the transformation and change that is inevitable is accepted and incorporated within

the process of time without any deliberate intention to preserve for preservation sake in the conventional sense. The simultaneous changes that occur at various scales, places and regions

allow for these processes to take place in the multidimensional realm of time that was discussed

initially in the thesis. It is this multifarious nature of the process of ‘social selection’ that

facilitates the negotiation of the complex tiers of space and time and scale at the same time.

The process is similar to unofficial commemoration. As Karen A. Franck and Lynn

Paxson, authors of Transforming Public Space observe: “Citizens create spontaneous memorials

themselves, immediately and without direction from officials or designers.” Official memorials

on the other hand which “result from lengthy contested deliberations among a variety of officials

and design experts, sometimes with the participation of the relatives of those who are killed.”

Franck and Paxson note that these official memorials are almost without exception “austere and

serene, cool and empty, abstract” and do not have the “handmade qualities or the density of

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sensations of spontaneous memorials.”1 One can easily begin to see the commonalities between the processes of unofficial memorial making and social selection. Citizens appropriate public space to situate their own expression in commemoration of events, lost people/objects etc. thereby creating unofficial memorials, just as local residents select and bring forth into the present elements from the past creating their own mnemonic tools.

Christine M. Boyer in The City of Collective Memory offers such a perspective on the way we think of history altogether.

“Suppose we say that “history” is the weave of difference, the folded-over edge of paper onto which images are traced in another form. Then traces of the past would open on difference.

They would be the memory of rejected parts, the supplementary other, the play of citations and allusions. Memories would become fragments reinscribed into other fields and given new meaning according to the constraints of these new contexts. The mark of the past would be only a trace, not a literal re-collection: either a borrowed element graphed onto another context or a condensation point where two incompatible images collide and coalesce.”2

This notion will be instrumental in defining the following section and in thinking about the way such a history is brought about in the following study.

One very common but less tangible example of ‘social selection’ is the appropriation and/ or rejection of street names. The following tables from the reference section of the section for

Calcutta in 1940s at www.geocities.com list the names of roads and streets in Kolkata that have

1 Karen A. Franck and Lynn Paxson, "Transforming Public Space" In Loose Space: Possibility and Diversity in Urban Life, eds. Karen A. Franck and Quentin Stevens (Oxford;New York: Routledge, 2007).

2 Christine Boyer, The City of Collective Memory (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994), 373.

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been changed over the years. It is interesting to note as one briefly browses through the extensive

list, many of the names under the ‘old’ column are English and not native names. The

corresponding changes reveal that these old names that evoked the regions colonial past have

been replaced by names of national leaders and other local/native nomenclature. One could argue

that this is caused by the sense of nationalism discussed in the previous chapter. However the

selection of an identity, whether national or colonial is also an example of ‘social selection’.

Even though the original names are old and in fact in many ways entwined with the origin and

identity of these places, the local decision makers have successfully selected the identities they

chose to ‘preserve’ and those they wanted to ‘obliterate’. The vast number of changes confirms

that this is not an isolated case but reflects the larger aspirations of an entire community.

LIST OF STREET RENAMINGS IN CALCUTTA3

Abbreviations

A.J.C. Bose Road Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Rd A.P.C. Road Acharya Prafulla Chandra Rd B.C. Road Ballygunge Circular Rd B.T. Road Barrackpore Trunk Rd D.H. Road Diamond Harbour Rd G.T. Road Grand Trunk Road

Av Avenue Ap Approach Bt Bithi Cy Colony Dh Dahar Gy Gully/Gally La Lane Pk Park Rw Row Rd Road Sr Sarani Sq Square St Street Su Setu Tr Terrace

All Street Renamings in Calcutta (old->new)

Old New Old New

Albert Rd Uttam Kumar Sr Aloo Posta Amar Bose Sr Amar Bose Sr Chorebagan La Amherst St Raja Ram Mohan Roy Sr Amralla Gali Saroda Pd. Banerjee Rd Ananda Prosad St Balakhana St Arpuli La Surendralal Pyne La Auckland Rd Sahid Khudiram Bose Rd Auckland Sq Benjamin Molaeir Sq

Babubagan La New Pk Sahid Trakeswar Udyan Badur Bagan St Biplabi Pulin Das St Bahir Soorah Rd Suren Sarkar Rd Baithakhana 1st La Debendranath Pal La Baker Rd Biplabi Kanai Bhattacharya Sr Bakul Bagan Rd (Part) Rajsekhar Bose Sr Balcoquire La Banamali Mitra Rd Ballygunge Circular Rd Promothesh Baruah Sr Ballygunge Place (Part) Dr. Amiya Bose Sr Ballygunge Rd Ashutosh Chowdhury Av Bancharam Akrur La Dhiren Dhar Sr Banerjee Bagan La Banerjee Bagan Rd Banerjee Para Rd Suresh Nath Paul Sr Banomali Chatterjee St Shyama Charan Mukherjee St

3 Source: "Reference Section," http://www.geocities.com/calcutta1940s/reference-section.html

69

Banstala St Sir Hariram Goenka St Beadon St Abhedananda Rd Beleghata Main Rd Dr. Suresh Chandra Banerjee Rd Beleghata Rd (Part) Parikshit Rai La Bhabanipur Rd Debendra Lal Khan Rd Biren Roy Rd Raja Ram Mohan Roy Rd Bosepara La Ma Saradamoni La Bowbazar St Bipin Behari Ganguli St Brabourne Rd Biplabi Trailokya Maharaja Rd British Indian St Abdul Hamid St

Calvert Rd Nafar Koley Rd Camac St Abanindranath Thakur Sr Canning St Biplabi Rash Behari Bose Rd Cantopher La Satish Chandra Mukhopadhyaya Sa Casuarina Av Pranabananda Sr Chakraberia Rd (North) Pandit Madan Mohon Malabya Sr Chandi Bibi St Chandi Bari St Chandi Ghosh Rd Biplabi Ashutosh Kali Sr Charnock Place Netaji Subhas Rd Chetla Rd Dinesh Das Sr Chingrighata Rd Debendra Chandra Dey Rd Chitpur Bridge Approach Mohit Maitra Sr Chitpur Rd Rabindra Sr Chowringhee Ap B.N.Sarkar Sr Christopher La Satish Ch. Mukhopadhyaya Sr Circus Rw Biplabi Jyotish Joardar Sr Circus Rw Biplabi Dinesh Majumdar Sr CIT Scheme No. Lxiv & Lxiva(GUABAGAN) Boy's Own Library Rw CIT Scheme Lxi Rd Derozeo Av CIT Scheme Lxi Rd Dr. Kutnis Sr CIT Rd Lalmohan Bhattacharya Rd CIT Rd Lu-Tsun Sr CIT Rd, Kankurgachi Manik Bondopadhyay Sr CIT Rd, Scheme Viiia Maulavi Mujibar Rahaman Sr CIT Rd ( New Alipore) Naresh Mitra Sr CIT Rd (New Alipore) Nalini Ranjan Sarkar Av CITRd Promothes Chaudhury Sr CIT Rd (VIP Rd) Acharya Satyen Bose Sr CIT Rd Ramtani Lahiri Sr CIT Rd Sibnath Shastri Sr CIT Scheme No. 49 Sundari Mohan Av CIT Rd Ustad Alauddin Khan Sr CIT Rd Ustad Amir Khan Sr CIT Rd Ullaskar Dutta Sr CIT Rd Vishwadeb Chattopadhyay Sr CIT Rd William Carrey Sr Civil Rw Rajendra Prosad Sr Clive Ghat St Narendra Ch. Dutta Sr Colootalla St Anagarika Dharmapal St Colootalla St Maulana Saukat Ali St Cornwallis St Bidhan Sr Cornfield Rd Dr.Radha Kumud Mukherjee Sn Coolia Tangra 3rd La Mathurbabu La Cooper St Dr. Naresh Sengupta Sr Corris Church La Dr. Kartick Bose St Cotton St Utkalmani Gopabandhu Av

Dalhousie Sq Binoy Badal Dinesh Bag Dalimtala La Boy's Own Library Rw Darga Gy Colootola St & Colootola La Deadon St Dani Ghosh Sr Old New Old New

Dharamtala St Lenin Sr D.H.Rd (Part) Tarapada Chakrabarty Sr D.H.Rd (Part) Bankim Mukherjee Sr D.H.Rd Shibnath Shastri Rd D.H. Rd (Part) Ramtanu Lahiri Sr Dihi Serampore Rd Rameshwar Shaw Rd Dilkhusha St Dr. Biresh Guha St Dover Tr (Part) Surendranath Ghosh Sr Doychatta St Digambar Jain Temple Rd Dukuria Bagan La Amiya Hazra La Dum Dum Rd (Part) Samar Sr Dum Dum House Cy Rastraguru Av Eden Hospital Rd Dr. Lalil Banerjee Sr Ekdalia Rd PC Sarkar Sr Elgin Rd Lala Lajpat Rai Sr Esplanade Rw (East) Sidhu Kanu Dh European Asylum La Comrade Abdul Halim La

Fancy La Kannalal Banerjee La Faria Pukur St Shibdas Bhaduri St

Galif St Mahatma Sisir Kumar Sr Garcha 2nd La Dover Tr Gariahat Rd(Part) C.V.Raman Sr Gariahat Rd Lila Roy Sr Gas St Dr. M.N.Chatterjee Sr Gobra Gorasthan Rd Mahendra Chatterjee La Government Place (Part) Marx - Engels Bt Gray St Sri Aurobindo Sr Grey St Arabinda Sr

Haikpara La Ramdhan Khan La Hari Mohan Roy La Parikshit Roy La Harish Chatterjee St Swami Satyananda St Harish Chaterjee St (Part) Premendra Mitra Sr Haritaki Bagan La Dr. Dhirendra Nath Sen Sr Haritaki Bagan La Hari Parikshit Roy La Harrison Rd Mahatma Gandhi Rd Hayat Khan Ln Manindra Nath Mitra Rd Hazra & Kali Temple Rd (Link) Dr. Amareshwar Thakur Sr Hindustan Pk (Part) Acharya Suniti Kumar Sr Hiralal Mitra La Uma Charan Mitra La Holwell La Bhuparjatak Ramnath Biswal La Howrah Flyover Chandidas Su Hrishikesh Ghosh La Dr. T.A. Majumdar St Huges Rd Dr. Ambedkar Sr Hungerford St Picasso Bt

Ironside Rd Dr. Gyan Majumdar Sr Jeliatolla St Sudhir Chatterjee St

Kalicharan Dutta Rd Brojo Moni Debya Rd Kali Charan Ghosh Rd Probodh Ch. Lahiri Sr Kalighat Pk South Dr. Hemendranath Das Gupta Rd Kalighat Rd Manya Sardar B.K.Moitra Rd Kankurgachi 3rd La Ramkrishna Samadhi Rd Kapi Bagan La Thakur Radhakanta La Kantapukur La Sachin Mitra La Kashi Nath Dutta Rd (Part) Narendra Nath Paul Rd Karaya Bazar Rd North Range Karaya Rd & Shakespeare Sr Ustad Enayet Khan Sr Karbala Rd Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Rd Kasba Rd Banku Bahari Chatterjee Rd Kayatala La Biplabi Ambika Chakrabarty Sr 70

Khendra Putty St Pandit Purusattam Ray St Khudiram Bose Rd Principal Khudiram Bose Rd Koilaghat St Bengali Shawarsee La Koilaghat St Babu Tarapada Mukherjee Sr Koila Sarak Rd Maulana Muhammed Ali Rd Kyd St Dr. M .D. Isak Rd Kulia Tangra 3rd Ln Mathur Babu Ln Kulia Tangra 4th La Rani Rashmoni Garden La

Lansdowne Rd Sarat Bose Rd Lawrence Rd Rani Rashmoni Av Lee Rd O.C.Ganguli Sr Lindsay St Neli Sengupta Sr Little Russell St Nandalal Bose Sr Loudon St Dr. U.N.Brahmachari Sr Lower Circular Rd Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Rd

Macarthy La Sudhir Sen Barat La Macpherson Rd Amrit Lal Daw Rd Machua Bazar St Madan Mohan Burman St Madan Mitra La (Part) Dr. Bhupen Dutta Sr Magazine Rd (1st Floor) Doctor Rabindra Nath Tagore Rd Mango La Surendra Mohon Ghosh Sr Manicktala Main Rd Satin Sen Sr Manicktala St Sisir Bhaduri Sr Manohar Pukur (Part) Satyendra Nath Majumdar Rd Manohar Pukur Rd (Part) Purna Das Rd Manuman Gali Synagogue St Market Sq Charlie Chaplin Sq Marquis St Mustaque Ahmed La Marsden St Paymental St Masjit Bari St (Part) Akshoy Kumar Dutta Sr Maya Dasi Rd Moulana Abul Kalam Azad S Mayarpur Rd Pearymohon Roy Rd Mayor St Bidyatan Sr Micheal Dutta St Micheal Madhusudan Sr Middle Rd (1st Part) Dr. Lalmohan Bhattacharya Rd Middle Rd (2nd Part) Barendra Krishna Bhattacharya Rd Middleton Rw Sir William Jones Sr Mirjapur St Surya Sen St Mission Rw Rajendranath Mukherjee Rd Moore Av Manik Bandopadhyay Sr Mott La Monilal Saha La Moyerpur Rd Station Rd Muktaram Rw Rajendra Deb Rd Muraripukur Rd Biplabi Barin Ghosh Sr

Nakuleswartala La Rasik Lal Dey St Nandan Rd (Part) Sushil Sen Rd Narikelbagan La Dr.Jagabandhu Basu La Narikeldanga Main Rd Moulana Abul Kalam Azad Sr (Part) Natabar Dutta Rw (Part) Shanti Institute Rw Nath Roy La (Link) Sailandra Nath Mitra La Nebubagan La Bankim Mukherjee Sr Nebutola Ka Rasta Pollock St Neogi Pukur La Taltala Library La New Kasiabagan La (Part) Radha Gobinda Saha La New Rd Rev. Lalbehari Shaw Sr Nirmal Lohia La Nurmal Lohia St New Sinthee Rd Acharya Prafulla Chandra Av North Range Nurmal Lohia St

Old New Old New

Old Ballygunge Rd Ashutosh Chowdhury Av

Pagaya Putty St Basantalal Murarka Rd Palm Av Bibhuti Bandhopadhyay St Panchukhsama La Dr. Debendra Mukherjee Rw Pearl Rd Dr. Amo Ghani Rd Phul Bagan Rd Sir Syed Ahmed Rd Portugese Church Sr Sahid Nityanda Saha Sr Pretoria St Dr.Harendra Kr. Mukherjee Sr Princep St (Part) Biplabi Anukul Chandra St

Raibagan St Mahesh Bhattacharya Sr Raja Manindra Rw Northern Av Rash Bagan La Dr.Panchanan Mitra La Rawdon St Sarojini Naidu Sr Richi Rd Pankaj Mullik Sr Ripon St Muzaffar Ahmed St Robert St Mahim Chandra Das Sr Russa Rd 2nd La Chinmoy Chattapadhyay Sr Russa Rd (South) Deshpran Sasmal Rd Russa Rd (South 1st La) Radha Gobinda Nath Sr Russel St Anadilal Poddar Sr

Sandal St Moulana Abdur Razzaq Malihabad St Sankaritala 1st La Nri Singha Mukherjee La Sastitala (Kidderpore) Satya Doctor Rd Sastitala Rd (Narikeldanga) Atal Behari Bose La St. George's Gate Rd Munshi Premchand Sr St. James Sq Santosh Mitra Sq Schalk St Durgacharan Banerjee St Scott La Rajkumar Chakrabarty Sr Seal La Atal Sur Rd Shyam Sq East Dinabandhu Sen St Simla St Dr. Narayan Roy Sr Simlaipara St Dr. Subhash La Simlaipara Bye La Dr. Subhash La Sir Gurudas Rd Atal Behari Bose La Swinhoo St Anil Moitra Rd Sooterkin St Prafulla Sarkar St Southern Av Dr. Meghnad Rd South Sealdah Rd (Part) Parikshit Ray La South Tangra Rd Mathiswartala Rd Sterendale Rd National Library Av Suburban School Rd Suhasini Ganguli Sr Sukea Rw Daud Ali Daulat Sr Sura 3nd La Dr. Ashutosh Shastri Rd Sura 1st La Abinash Chandra Banerji La

Tala Pk Av Tarasankar Sr Taltala Av Puran Chand Nahan Av Tangra Rd Radha Nath Choudhury Rd Tanupukur Rd Nripen Banerjee Sr Tarikhana Gali Raja Debendra Narayan Deb La Theatre Rd Shakespeare Sr Tobin Rd Bagha Jatin Rd Tollygunge Circular Rd Somnath Lahiri Sr Tollygunge La Brojendra Lal Ganguli La Topsia La Abinash Choudhury La 71

Townshend Rd Sakharan Ganesh Dey Naskar Sn

Ultadanga Main Rd Bidhan Nagar Rd Upper Circular Rd Acharya Prafulla Chandra Rd

Waterloo St Nabab Sirajuddaula Sr Wellesley 1st La Abdul Ali Rw Wellesley 2nd La AK Mohammed Siddiq La Wellesley Place Red Cross Rd Wellesley St Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Rd Wellington La Raj Kumar Bose La Wellington Sq Raja Subodh Mallick Sq Wellington St Nirmal Ch. St Woodburn Pk Bibhabati Bose Sr ???? Brahuabandhar Upadhyay Sr

This segment of the thesis is a discussion of this process and the nature of the various

mnemonic apparatus that it generates. I would argue that this inherent process of renewal, preservation, regeneration and replacement is built into society and must be adopted by any attempt at reformation. Any ‘change’ in the attitudes towards the past must take this process into

account. All new heritage resource management practices must aim to ‘manage’ this very

process to arrive at a more contextual and socially compatible practice.

It is difficult to define the process of social selection. It manifests itself in different forms

in different contexts, which in fact makes it so appropriately contextual. However one can find

the evidence of it having occurred everywhere. Sites with the most dense and complex historic

layers have the strongest of traces of such a process having occurred over time leaving behind a

conglomeration of temporal distillates that are almost inextricable from each other. It is only

through examples that I hope to bring out the essence of this process. Even once it becomes clear

that such a process does exist, it is difficult to isolate the exact factors, parameters and norms that

govern or regulate this process. I however hope to outline an alternate regulative structure to the

current preservation apparatus, namely the ASI and the legislations, which will allow for the

optimum utilization of this process for the purpose of regulated and contextual heritage resource

management.

72

The following chapter will briefly introduce the case study I will use as an example to observe and comment on the process of ‘social selection’. It is not a conventional case study since there is no conventional analysis of a case. I will however use the process of examination itself to comment and highlight certain predispositions regarding the study of the past, while introducing my audience to the site and its characteristics.

In the next chapter, I will delve more into the nature of the products of the process of social selection by studying the site as a collage of historic layers to trace the mnemonic elements that are scattered throughout. I will do this to analyze the scope and shortcomings of the present preservation apparatus in addressing the entire range of remnants that is left behind.

In doing so, I will make the argument that preservation, or rather cultural resource management, has to work within the process of social selection, sometimes encouraging it and sometimes regulating it, rather than work against it as is suggested through current legislations. I will also use a prevalent trend in architectural theory as a possible model for emulation and modify it to derive my set of recommendations.

In the last chapter, I will assimilate these observations into building an alternate framework for heritage resource management practice for India that would both derive from and work into the social selection pattern. The aim would be to create an executable framework that would embrace the social selection process and at the same time regulate it but not through overarching laws. The aim is not to suggest laws and new legislations, but to recommend a formal setup, which once appended with correspondingly appropriate regulatory powers, would allow for a more contextual and meaningful interpretation and management of India’s heritage resources.

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In this chapter I will take up the example of a site where such selective assimilation of historic layers occurs without any external intervention or preservation efforts. The site I have selected for this purpose is the Grand Trunk Road. This principle road in India originates at

Sonargaon (currently in Bangladesh) and runs along the Gangetic plain in North India to

2. Grand Trunk Road (present course)

Amritsar in the North West of the country where it enters present Pakistan. Currently a large segment of this road is National Highway 1 in India and most parts of the road are very much in use. There are several characteristics of this road that make it appropriate as a site to observe the process of ‘‘social selection’’.

74

Much like the Historic Route 66 in the US, the Grand Trunk Road is a site that has

evolved over time and has therefore as a physical object it has been in a continuous state of

change. In fact, as a road that has been in a constant state of repair and without actual physical

references to the past in itself, the road serves as a challenge in terms of material culture that

preservation currently confines itself to. It therefore best serves to illustrate the not so obvious

aspects of mnemonic apparatus that so often eludes most preservation efforts and is an excellent

example to study the inclusive and the exclusive aspects of memory that is dealt by historic

preservation.

Another aspect of the road that makes it a conducive subject for this study is that a road is

dynamic in itself, perhaps more so than any artifact. As a medium of transport, it is in a constant

state of flux, shifting, morphing, expanding, contracting; in fact constantly altering. The

consistent factor is the dynamism that enfolds within this site. In fact the site itself is fluid and

not static, changing, even if ever so slightly, its location, orientation, composition with the needs

and demands of the time and surroundings. In fact it is perhaps one of the most contextual

examples without being confined within any defined bounds. The very expanse of the site that makes it monumental also prevents it from remaining static, with shifting surroundings, scenery, geography, cultures etc. It is not only the traveler that moves, but the road moves with him/her. It is a highly relative and fluid experience and in some ways it aptly reflects and represents the nature of time itself in the complexity that these seemingly contradictory characteristics are easily balanced.

In order to familiarize the readers with the site it is essential to give a bit of historical background. The long history of the Grand Trunk Road has been instrumental in its evolution as

75

a complex conglomeration of temporal remnants. I will briefly discuss the history of the road and at the same time use it to comment on historical narratives as a mnemonic tool in itself. I hope to make a point regarding the way we currently perceive history and the past in my manner of approaching this discussion of the road, its hinterland and its history.

It is said that the writer of the Imperial Gazetteer (1908-1939) in colonized British India wrote:

“Before the advent of the British in India, roadways, in the modern sense of the word, were practically unknown; and even after its establishment there were few to be found except within urban limits until 1839, when it was decided to connect Delhi with Calcutta by means of a good metalled road, suitable for wheeled traffic, with bridges over small streams and proper ferries across large rivers.”4

The road he was referring to was the Grand Trunk Road.

The statement gives the impression that road building activity was introduced in India by the colonists, particularly the British in the 19th century. Yet any traveler on the Grand Trunk road will be able to discern the inaccuracy of this statement from the many residues of pre- colonial highway architecture like milestones (kos minar) and rest stops (serai) that adjoin the

3. The milestone or Kos Minar (behind the marker) 4. The traditional highway rest stop or Serai

4 Sarkar, K.M. The Grand Trunk Road in Punjab. General ed. H.L.O. Garrett (Patiala: Languages Department, Punjab, 1971). 2.

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road even today. Their proximity to the present road is suggestive of how the new road is merely

an overlay of layers of road building activity of generations before. One can also find clues in the

names of places like Ber Serai, Serai Kale Khan, Mughal Serai etc. where there are no physical

traces of the buildings left.5 The road continues to wind through these active and passive narratives of a long history of road building activity and serves almost as a living museum.

Interestingly not many academic studies have been made in recent times regarding the roadways of ancient and Mughal India. Perhaps this is because the dynamic nature of the road prevents it

from being viewed as a conventional and tangible ‘artifact’, being still very much in use and

lacks all the exoticism and ethnic connotations of a typical monument and hence does not hold

great appeal to historians and scholars. Yet as one travels on the Grand Trunk road one

encounters a distinct sense of historicity that cannot be missed.

To understand the complexity of the process by which the Grand Trunk Road has become

the enigmatic and elusive mnemonic experience, we must briefly dwell on actual process of road

building. Under favorable economic conditions and when the need for roads was present, the

location, course and direction of roadways were often dictated by geographical factors and

existing settlement patterns. In case of the Grand Trunk Road, most of its length remains

confined between the Himalayan foothills and the river networks that run parallel to it; a region

that had great stretched of forests and rocky terrain etc. The construction of roads primarily

involved clearing out segments of the land. Large amounts of human labor had to be employed

for the process and it consumed both time and money. It could be argued that along with the

5 Serai are traditional rest stops along highways and at popular trade centers.

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significant investment, the geographical factors as well as the settlements that the roads

connected altogether helped situate the road i.e. it did not easily alter course.

5. The evolution of major road axes (Fig. B, C, D) along the prominent trade paths (Fig A)

6. Roadways as they existed in the Mughal, post Mughal (British) and post colonial periods 78

In tracing the antiquity of the roads, fewer references have been made in the texts from the earlier Aryan period, which was primarily pastoral. Abul Khair Muhammad Farooque, author of Roads and Communications in Mughal India, accounts this to the scarcity of trading centers in those times.6 While it may be understood that each small settlement may have been self- sufficient and independent as Farooque suggests, we can assume that even the process of drifting and exploration that led to the eventual occupation of each of these settlements, must have occurred along specific paths or trails so as to leave residues that can be considered as the earliest of the roadways. Like the primordial ‘cities’ that they connected, these primeval ‘roads’ perhaps lacked in physical definition and at places were eventually reclaimed by the surrounding environs leaving no trace at all. This makeshift character of the road suggests that there were no sustaining elements in the settlements that they connected to ensure continued use and consequently there was no need for maintaining them.

However in course of time the situation changed as the isolated pastoral settlements grew into more complex urban societies, creating the need for better connections between them. Trade, being an important element of urban growth, was largely instrumental in this. By the time of the

Mauryan dynasty (324-185 BC)7, the northern part of India was under a consolidated empire. As we know from traveler’s accounts, a defined road came into existence, perhaps from the residues of these paths and trails as some of these primeval settlements expanded into cities. This road is referred to as the royal road of the Mauryans and ran from Patliputra (present day Patna) to the

6 Abul Khair Muhammad Farooque, Roads and Communications in Mughal India, 1st ed., Vol. 43 (Delhi: Idarah‐i Adabiyat‐i Delli, 1977), 4. 7 Ibid., 4 79

7. Major phases in time that contributed to the growth of the Grand Trunk Road

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North Western frontier of the empire. This may be considered as the precursor of what was later

built and rebuilt into the present day Grand Trunk Road. In fact K. M Sarkar, author of The

Grand Trunk Road in Punjab says that it was likely that the royal road of the Mauryans was

created by integrating already existing routes.8 It is interesting to note that near about the same

time, the silk routes were also well defined and they connected China all the way with Turkey.

The region prospered under a single empire for many generations till the fall of the dynasty of Harsha (606-647AD)9 after which the empire dissipated and there was no single

comprehensive rule in the region. It was ruled by several provincial leaders called Rajputs who

looked after smaller kingdoms independently. Sarkar notes that Mauryans invested in the royal

road to ‘facilitate the scheme of a consolidated empire in India’10 whereas Farooque observes that the Rajput rulers who ruled in the region were caught up in administering their individual kingdoms and therefore did not need to maintain a countrywide network of roads11 and therefore

the road perhaps fell into disuse. It thus seems evident that focus on developing roadways

increased only when there was a consolidated rule in the region and that road building activity

was directly proportional to the scale of the empire that the ruler of the region aspired to.

This is further verified when we see the contributions made by the Islamic rulers who were largely concerned with the expansion of their empire and road building took on primary focus from the very beginning of their settling into the region.

8 K. M. Sarkar, The Grand Trunk Road in Punjab, ed. H. L. O. Garrett (Punjab, India: Patiala Languages Department, 1971), 1. 9 Farooque, Roads and Communications in Mughal India, 5 10 Sarkar, The Grand Trunk Road in Punjab, 1 11 Farooque, Roads and Communications in Mughal India, 5 81

Trade was a major catalyst in the development of roads. Trading centers were lucrative

targets for invaders since they were rich economic bases. In such cases, the trade routes took on a new role as paths of aggression through which foreign powers could find their way into the trading centers and overthrow the existing political/religious power. On the other hand, there was always a need to seek out new resources and set up trading centers that would could tap into these resources and capitalize on them. In such cases the invaders were more of explorers looked for new opportunities for trade.

The first Muslims to enter the region were the Ghaznavids (986-1173 AD)12 from

Afghanisthan and in their case, it was a combination of both trade and exploration. The trade

centers had existed in India before the Islamic rule, but the Sulaiman, Safed Koh ranges and

Hindu Kush mountains worked as a formidable barrier between these centers and the Islamic

frontiers to the northwest of present Pakistan. It took invading armies of the Afghans to finally

break through the barrier and enter the Indian peninsula when Mahmud of Ghazni crossed over

the Sulaiman ranges. This invasion served to link the two disjointed territories enabling trade

routes to span across the mountains and to introduce Muslim rule in India for the first time.

In course of time, more traders from Turkish and Mongol lands began to enter the Indian

peninsula in large numbers. This period was consequently marked with constant skirmishes

between the various invading groups each of whom sought to overthrow the other. The roads

therefore became sites of violence or at the very least, facilitators of it. Cities could only be

warned about approaching invaders by spies and messengers who were placed along the roads to

keep a lookout.

12 Ibid., 6 82

When the Turks finally replaced the Afghans as the central stronghold in the region, they

well recognized this vulnerability of the roads and the Mongols were a constant concern for

them. They therefore took several measures to cope with this threat. Along the north-western

frontier, the Turks built several well garrisoned forts and they built outposts along the roads

themselves.13 The forts in turn housed soldiers and this in turn prompted the growth of garrison

towns around them and newer routes were needed to connect them to the main roads and the nearest market towns. The road had become more than a means of conveyance. It was a vulnerable link that needed to be safeguarded to protect the integrity of the cities they led to. It

had also become the site for future townships, drawing human habitation around these newly

emerging urban nuclei. A secure road network ensured safe passage to the travelers and traders,

encouraging more traffic on these routes, bringing in further business and habitation to the cities

they connected.

The construction of the actual road was only part of the entire road building activity. In

course of time along with the defense structures, other structures were commissioned for the

continued safety and comfort of the travelers. As a result several architectural structures and typologies evolved that were unique to these ancient ‘freeways’.

These were primarily:

• Serais also known as caravanserais or rest stops

• Kos minars: Milestones erected at every kos (2 miles appx.)

• Dak chowkis: Post offices for relaying imperial news and messages

13 Ibid., 7 83

However, according to Farooque, the Mauryan road was also equipped with rest houses

and milestones and therefore these architectural types were not new to the region.14 It is interesting to note that similar architecture served different societies at different periods of time.

Due to lack of physical evidence, one cannot compare the architectural typology in the different eras. Had this been possible, it might have been interesting to see if architecturally these structures greatly differed from their predecessors, or if they were merely modifications to accommodate the cultural variations that the new clientele brought.

Besides building activities, the Turkish Sultans had trees planted all along the road at frequent intervals. These provided shade and it might have also served in keeping the surrounding environments from reclaiming the cleared tracks that made up the road. The Turks also set up dak chawkis (post offices) at regular intervals on the roads to ensure smooth communication.15 The post offices served as nerve centers for the empire. News in any society is

powerful and many upheavals in history can be accounted to news being appropriated or

intercepted or sometimes even to being conveyed successfully. The Muslims obviously

recognized this since they took great pains to establish, maintain and defend the post offices

along the roadways. It is not farfetched to assume that communication existed in the Mauryan and pre-Islamic times too and that the system had dissipated during the period of isolated kingdoms till the Muslims consolidated the system again.

Babur (1525-30 AD)16 was the first Mongol who finally succeeded in ending the uninterrupted reign of the Turks. The transfer of power from the Turks to the Mongols (Mughals) was not accompanied by any slight towards the efforts initiated by the Turks towards the

14 Ibid., 4 15 Ibid., 7 16 Ibid., 9 84

advancement of roadways and their accompanying infrastructure. Babur, set up square towers each twelve quaris (1 quari = 24ft or 36 ft) at every eighteen miles. He also set up horse chawkis

(stables for changing horses for efficient postal system) every 36 miles.17

Babur was followed by Humayun (1530-1540 & 1555-1556 AD)18 who was usurped by

Sher Shah (1540-1545AD)19 of Sur who has been largely credited with the establishment of the

Grand Trunk Road as we know most of it today. Sher Shah set up garrison towns all along the

North West frontier to prevent further invasions from the regions beyond the mountain ranges.

He built forts in every district and rebuilt the earthen rest houses in brick to provide safer shelter to the travelers.20 But his greatest contribution was the expansion of the better segments of roads confined in the Delhi and northern regions to India to Bihar and Bengal. He initially began with connecting Delhi with Attock in the North West frontier and followed it up with the expansion to

Sonargaon in Bengal21 since these were the extremities of the kingdom and hence most vulnerable to external threats. The maintenance and upkeep of these long segments of roads was difficult from isolated centers that were located at great distances. Sher Shah solved this problem by issuing responsibility to local village headmen and they were held accountable for the safety and comfort of the travelers in their respective regions.22 The Mughals who regained their power a couple of generations after Sher Shah, continued this practice.

17 Ibid., 9 18 Ibid., 10 19 Ibid., 10 20 Ibid., 11 21 Ibid., 11 22 Ibid., 12 85

Akbar (1556-1605 AD)23, considered to be the greatest of the Mughal rulers, focused on expanding the empire southwards thus creating the need for new networks of roads in the Deccan region. He ordered the erection of kos minars at every kos (two miles) between Agra and Ajmer as way of guidance for travelers. By this time, the cities in the empire were established centers of administration as well as religion. Thus the travelers now also included pilgrims traveling to specific destinations for religious ends. By extension any act that furthered the comfort and convenience of these travelers was also an act of piety and thus an added impetus for the rulers to invest in the betterment of roadways and associated infrastructure.

Jahangir, (1605-1627 AD)24 Akbar’s son, augmented his predecessor’s efforts by commissioning kos minars at two mile intervals along the Grand Trunk road (between Agra and

Lahore) and wells at every three kos (six miles). He also ordered the construction and of more rest houses or serais and consolidation of existing ones. With the expansion in the empire, roads no longer connected only cities. They now linked other significant roads and also linked cities with other modes of conveyance like waterways. Thus roads began evolving into a hierarchal network with primary secondary and tertiary roads and this hierarchy was reflected in the traffic, infrastructure and importance attached to them.

The most important roads were the ‘highways’ that connected the principal towns and ports and had the greatest concentration of kos minars, serias, wells etc.25 The secondary roads connected the garrison towns that had evolved along these roads and the tertiary roads were concentrated within the towns themselves. The infrastructure not only varied in density but also

23 Ibid., 12

24 Ibid., 13 25 ‘The Agra - Patna route had over thirty serai and some of them were grand and famous’. Ibid., 100 86

in complexity depending on whether they were situated along the primary secondary or tertiary roads. Farooque points out that the serai were of two types, some more elaborate and luxurious with more facilities for the travelers and these were located near the principal cities and along the more important roads. The other type, which was more makeshift and built of mud and straw, was mainly used for overnight emergency stays and run by local families.26 It is interesting to observe here that the more elaborate serai were once less permanent structures too and were expanded upon as the significance of the routes increased. The organization behind road building also became more elaborate as the road networks expanded in girth and complexity.

From elaborate, impromptu clearing of land by invaders, the road building process under the

Mughals was overseen by a dedicated public works department.27 This gradual process of accretion continued with Shahjahan, Jahangir’s son, until Aurangzeb marked the end of the prosperous segment of Mughal history in India.

By this time, the landscape along the roads had also changed, gathering density and definite signs of habitation. From desolate landscapes that linked distant settlements, the roads had acquired a life of its own, with growing frequency of human activity and commutation. After

Aurangzeb there was a dissemination of power but road networks by then were fairly evolved to return to a state of complete disuse. So when the British and other colonizers arrived, there was already a well evolved road network present. As we saw earlier it was the British who finally appropriated the existing road and modernized it to take on the needs of the twentieth century and a completely different density and pace of transportation. As a motorable road, there was a rapid transformation in the character of the road itself as well as its surrounding hinterland. The

26 Ibid., 97 27 Ibid., 22 87

pace of the changes occurring along it had also altered as was much more rapid than it was earlier. The present road is certainly a modern road with all amenities that comes with current

transportation needs, yet as discussed before, years of accretion has left traces along the way of

the long road building history which is evident even today.

The process of accretion as observed over the large scale of the road in its entirety is also replicated at the micro level in neighborhoods and the surrounding hinterland. The smaller scaled collages conglomerate to generate a composite that exudes historicity. Much like fractals, the historic character of the Grand Trunk Road consists smaller but similar units of historicity that have been generated through years of accretion and ‘social selection’ at the local neighborhood levels. Just as the spatial scale changes from macro to micro as zoom in from the composite road in its entirety to its individual units and fragments, so do the temporal scale of historic narratives/stories that are associated with it. The conventional historic background associated with the road that was discussed earlier covers a large span of time and skims over epoch events that were highlights of the entire lifespan of the road with events that occurred at different places, in different times etc. One can call this a sort of ‘monumental history’.

Monumental history can be identified with this sort of over arching narratives that are on are on a scale so grand that it is unrelatable to for people living in present times dealing with time at an everyday scale. Perhaps the Grand Trunk Road due to its extensive span and expansive history is one of the more complex examples. Present attitudes towards past relics seek such grand narratives to further monumentalize artifacts that may be monumental in spatial scale. As David Lowenthal in The Past is a Foreign Country says: “It is so customary to think of the historical past in terms of narratives, sequences, dates, and chronologies that we are apt to

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suppose these things attributes of the past itself.”28 In fact certain sites that may not have a material artifact that is monumental could still be made into a monument by attaching a monumental history to it. It is interesting to note that it is not only the spatial removal, but also the temporal removal that alienates an element from the past and the person experiencing it.

However if broken down, each monumental history is only a broad overview of a much more complex temporal narrative that comprises a finer grain that can be both temporally and spatially smaller in scale. As discussed in the first chapter, time is complex with multiple dimensions and characters (linear, circular) and so also a narrative which is a representation of time in verbal/written form is in fact more complex that it is usually denoted to be. Thus a true representation of time or the past cannot be made by monumental narratives alone. The finer grain of such narratives needs to be revealed and at least alluded to in any representation of the past. I will explain this by briefly citing the example of one of the small units that comprise the grand Trunk Road-one of the neighborhoods located in its hinterland.

28 David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country (Cambridge Cambridgeshire ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 219. 89

8. Location of Serampore with respect to the Grand Trunk Road

The neighborhood of Mahesh, in Serampore, West Bengal, is situated towards the eastern

tail end of the road. Having been settled later than the North West segment of the road, the

narratives associated with this area does not date back to as far back as the more western parts of

the road. It is in this neighborhood that the Dolmoncho and the Bhanga Mondir that was menationed earlier are located. Apart from being situated so close to the Grand Trunk Road, this small sector of Serampore, a suburb of Calcutta (present Kolkata), Mahesh is also abutted by the

Ganges river. This is not too uncommon for the Grand Trunk Road hinterland, since as we saw before, the road and the river runs along a near parallel course, the road having formed to connect the settlements that had sprung along the fertile river bank.

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Serampore too has a monumental narrative. It has mostly to do with to do with the fact

that this was a Dutch colony not very long ago. The local educational institutions, architecture,

local industries and their vestiges along with less tangible urban relics like street names are all

reminiscent of the colonial heritage that gave the place a new identity and transformed it rapidly from a more pastoral settlement into a bustling colony that has now evolved into a well sized town.

9. The wrought iron gates to Serampore College 10. Serampore College was a gift from the Queen of Netherlands

However the everyday history of this place speaks of a more complex past, yet, it cannot be isolated as easily as a monumental narrative. It is the local people who have their finger on the pulse of the everyday narrative. The fact that much of the history of Mahesh cannot be found in a printed, published or researched document speaks for the fact that it has never attracted sufficient attention for such research to take place. It is the local people who have lived year through several years that narrate the stories of the region with a familiarity that can only be had with

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firsthand knowledge and daily recitation. David Lowenthal observes that such repetition of

“most orally transmitted past is consistent with the belief that ‘nothing happened’ between the

beginnings” and recent times and that “by contrast most literate historians focus on middle

periods whose incremental changes shed light on the ongoing historical processes.”29

Yet oral narratives are also not truly repetitive. With each new recitation, there are some subtle changes and modification which in course of time cumulate to perceivable changes. In fact

these modifications reflect the ongoing historical process. What one must take into account,

history does not move forward in leaps and bounds but progresses slowly and liminally. To be

able to fully comprehend the large transformations that occur in time it is essential to consider

these slow mutations in the everyday narratives. This is in fact consistent with the rhythmic

rather than repetitive pattern of time discussed in the first chapter. If viewed only as large events

occurring sequentially one after the other, history may be considered linear. However if one

takes into consideration these everyday narratives that are rhythmic and therefore more cyclical,

the dual character of time as both cyclic and linear unfolds.

This is obvious in the fact that in my attempts to gather the historic background for the

region the only three non-oral sources I found were a fictional piece of writing set in the region

that used local history as the backdrop, a testimonial to the local deity written by a

knowledgeable devotee and finally the many dedication plaques found on the walls of the local

temple. These sources individually and collectively tell a tale that intricately links together the

local religious, political and domestic history. The everyday history is not removed from

monumental narratives. In fact it is the finer print within the narrative. The further one zooms in,

29 Ibid., 220 92

in scale, both spatial and temporal, the more the everyday narrative emerges. Such complexity in

spatial and temporal scales makes it almost impossible for a region’s past to be represented

completely by a linear narrative alone.

There are several parallel strains of events during a given time frame that at times overlap

and at times are completely independent of each other. For example, in case of Mahesh, one is to do with the evolution and establishment of a local deity, Lord Jagannath,30 who is associated

with Serampore as a whole. The second is a similar history of the local neighborhood deity, Lord

Radhaballav. Inspite of the spatial hierarchy which might suggest Lord Jagannath to be the more

important of the two, the local sentiments place the two at a similar level of respect. In fact the hierarchy is more of a temporal nature where Lord Jagannath and the events associated with him take prominence once a year at the annual festival held in his honor and people from all over

Serampore gather to worship him. Whereas, the local deity’s temple, Lord Radhaballav Mandir is frequented daily by most people in the Mahesh neighborhood and this ritual may remain uninterrupted during the annual celebrations for Lord Jagannath.

The annual event has more of an impression over the collective memory of the region, as a single episode, however the daily interaction and significance of the local deity has an altogether different mnemonic character to it. The daily familiarity makes the deity, temple and all that is associated with it to not so much stand out in the local person’s mind, but be more of an integral part of his/her identity. The person may not be able to situate the daily rituals and interactions associated with the temple as something noteworthy to be recorded for future

30 Interestingly enough, the name Jagannath was the source of the English word Juggernaut which is often used to refer to something huge and heavy and unstoppable. This originates from the annual event referred to in the discussion during which the deity is placed in an enormous wheeled cart and pulled by hundreds of devotes along the street to different temple. 93

remembrance, but at the same time, the absence of it would be felt perhaps more strongly, each

and every day than if say the annual event was suspended for one year.

Interestingly, the religious aspect of the local history allows for myth and history to be

blended beyond recognition. Apart from the ‘unscientific’ nature of certain aspects of the

narratives, which could be identified by the lack of a scientific explanation in present days, the character of the narrative is much like any other. Dates and names of people involved, all feature

in the narrative with specific details of actions and transactions that brought about the

establishment of the temples. The actual history of the establishment of the town does not infact

begin with the Dutch settling here, but it begins with these religious beginnings, the records of

which have been considered as ‘a-historic’31 in terms of modern definitions of history.

For example the testimonial to the founder of the temple of Lord Radhaballav, Rudraram

Bandopadhyay, written by a local devotee, Harihar Chakravarty in a leaflet titled Rudraram

Sarane or in Memory of Rudraram, states that Rudraram meditated in the woods for a several years and finally through his meditations became aware of a large black stone that was located somewhere in the local feudal lord’s residence.32 He then went on to acquire the stone and had it

broken into three fragments, each of which was carved into similar idols to be placed in three

different neighborhoods around the region. One was placed in Ballavpur, an older name for the

part of Serampore that Mahesh is located it and hence the name Radhaballav. A temple was

erected in his honor on the banks of the Ganges (the present ruins of which is known as the

Bhanga Mandir, or broken temple). Inspite of the mythical nature of the story of its origin the

31 K. Paddayya, "A Review of Theoretical Perspectives in Indian Archaeology" In Indian Archaeology in Retrospect, eds. S. Settar and Ravi Korisettar, Vol. !V (New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research : Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2002), 119. 32 Harihar Chakravarty, "Rudraram Sarane" . 94

broken temple therefore still commands great respect in the memory of local people as the starting a debosthan or a divine site.

What is it then that makes these vestiges of the past sustain? It is not the conventional sense of preservation to retain a segment of the past for the benefit if future generations. The merit and value of the ‘artifact’ is in fact much more embedded within the meaning and cultural function than the more superficial properties like the architecture and isolated historical events.

As a matter of fact, in some cases the actual object itself may be deemed unserviceable and replaced without compromising its significance to the local residents and their sentiments. This leaves such local neighborhoods as Mahesh with a plethora of relics, remains and residues in different states of ‘preservation’ though the process of ‘‘‘social selection’’’. Such ‘‘‘social

selection’’’ does not consider factors or parameters but functions as a large sieve through which

the vestiges to the society that have become obsolete or have been replaced percolate through.

Yet one finds that derelict ruins like the broken temple continue to exist. The reasons for

survival are sometimes quite tangible like use, protection laws etc. However, as we found in case

of the Bhangamondir and the Dolmoncho, the reasons often may not be as obvious. To list a few

reasons why certain structures/buildings/mnemonic apparatus survive the sieve:

-Continued use (retains some sort of function for surrounding community -Protected through law/ preservation agencies/custodians of heritage (architectural/ historic/ monumental value) -Sentimental reasons (family heirloom, local event that occurred-not necessarily historic) -Cultural/religious significance (Platform for annual festivals, not used year round except for during a particular festival) -Neglect (too insignificant or unobtrusive for any initiative) 95

This proves that function is not defined by use in the process of ‘‘social selection’’.

Sometimes the factor responsible for the sustenance of an object is its unobtrusive nature, where

it has remained since no one really noticed that it was still there. Sometimes the effort to take

down a structure is too much to make replacement worthwhile.

In the next chapter, using the Grand Trunk Road as backdrop, I will look at the character

of some of these vestiges left behind and evaluate the scope of the current preservation apparatus

in addressing these various tiers of ‘artifacts.’ In the course of these studies it will become

obvious that the ‘‘social selection’’ process is perhaps to be worked with and not against in the attempt to deliberately ensure that certain objects from the past survive the sieve. The preservation process should be an implant in this selection process and not an imposition.

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06. Relics, Remains and Residues: Accretion through Social Selection

This chapter examines the Grand Trunk Road in India as a site of ‘temporal continuity’.

The goal is to survey the active and passive elements that comprise the memory-making

apparatus encountered along its hinterland. As discussed in the previous chapter the process of

“social selection” leaves behind a range of relics from the past in various states of integrity. In

surveying this range of heritage resources with the Grand Trunk Road as a backdrop, this chapter

will also try to gauge the scope of the current heritage management system in India as formalized

by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Following the previous examination of the

legislations that underpin the working of the ASI and the failings of the preservation process in

the case of the Mumbai Mill lands, it may become evident that any recommendation for change

in the current system will need to take into account the range of artifacts that one encounters in the Indian context and the process by which they are generated.

This chapter not only addresses the conceptual flaws that limit the ASI in its address to address or even recognize the entirety of the heritage resources found along the road, but I also hope to demonstrate that this shortcoming stems from an understanding of memory and preservation that tends to perceive the past as static frames rather than a dynamic continuum that is constantly in a state of flux. Towards the end of the chapter the possibilities for an alternative to such preservation practice will be discussed that takes its cues from parallel architectural and urban discourses in order to derive conclusions which will follow in the next chapter.

I must point out here that the Grand Trunk Road will be used more as an example of an alternative scenario than as a prescriptive model to be emulated. The road is not a formal

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example of preservation since no consolidated preservation effort has been made towards it. This

chapter will seek to tap into the inadvertent elements that allow for the Grand Trunk Road to be

an interesting case of preservation, outside the conventional sense of the word, and try to understand if these elements could be translated into formal strategies that allow for a more meaningful and contextual interpretation of preservation.

In the course of centuries, years of road-building activity that paralleled settlement and

urbanization in the region has left behind a trail of architecture, culture and literature that

continues to linger. Some of it is very tangible in its form, including monumental remains that

have been duly preserved by the Archeological Survey of India (relics). Some others are vestiges

that have escaped notice, having remained concealed within the body of activity and occupation

that lines the road (remains). Some are more ephemeral in nature and are constantly shifting in

location as well as time (residues). The road continues to wind through these active and passive narratives of a long history of the region and serves almost as a living museum. The following is a survey of these various kinds of historic resources and the process by which they evolved.

1. Relics 2. Remains 3. Residues

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05.01. Relics

The most palpable elements from the past have survived under the custodianship of the

ASI, and deliberate efforts at preservation have ensured their inescapable presence. These are

mainly the serai (rest stops) and the kos minar (milestones), built mainly during the Mughal times. These buildings have been carefully documented, catalogued and conserved as directed by the legislations. There are several observations to be made with regards to these structures. These are monumentalized by ascribing a certain representational quality to them and they have been made static in time and place by being given a certain meaning through conservation efforts. A specific period in the structures’ long history is evoked and sought to be preserved. Memory is prescribed through information, plaques, brochures, videos, visitor’s centers etc. Facts, dates, names leave very little to personal interpretation.

4. Marker with date and event ascribing a specific meaning to the site 99

It is interesting to note that these structures were not built to serve as monuments and hence they are merely relics. They were not commemorative in nature and did not aspire to make a statement. They were, in fact, buildings of everyday use in their time, being equivalent to no more than modern day motels and freeway signage.

=

5. Milestone or Kos Minar 6. Signage on a present day freeway

=

7. Rest stop or Serai 8. Present day motel

Yet they are monuments in the present day. The process of monumentalization has transformed them from ordinary, everyday structures to something with a greater significance.

This too, it can be argued, is a sort of appropriation. New meaning has been attached to them and their intent and function has been altered completely.

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9. Monumentalization: a relic is appropriated and transformed into a monument

Such appropriation does not allow the structure to remain an object from the past but

instead makes it something that is very much a part of the present, in use and significantly

altered. This seems to defeat the very purpose of ‘preservation’ that, in essence, seeks to oppose

alteration. The actual physical shell of the structure notwithstanding however, the preservation of the everyday past is bringing about a significant alteration in itself. Yet such an alteration is not without its use. Relics have their utility within the memory apparatus. As David Lowenthal points out in his book, The Past is a Foreign Country: “to have a piece of tangible history links

one with its original maker and with intervening owners, augmenting one’s own worth.”1

Interestingly, more often than not, something about their context allows the monuments along

Grant Trunk Road to remain in contact with their surroundings as opposed to being removed artifacts that have been made temporally and contextually static. Being bounded physically by the road on at least one edge, these relics cannot always be placed within the protective bubble

1David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country (Cambridge Cambridgeshire ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 43. 101

marked by the 100 mts. periphery stipulated by the ASI.2 The road as an indispensible object of

present day use creates the scope for an exception. As a consequence, the surroundings of these

structures do not resemble regular ASI monuments. They are often situated amidst farmlands that

cannot be built upon but are certainly not the isolated islands that are an extension of the static

monument. The road and the farms all display the vibrancy of everyday life and even the

monuments partake of it. The structures when set again the vibrancy of the present, evoke a

greater sense of the past than as mere vestiges in isolation.

10. Serai at Karnal; it is situated amidst mustard fields

2 Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules 1959, (1959): 31. 102

05.02. Remains

‘Memory and history pin-point only certain things as relics; the rest of what lies around us seems simply present, suggesting nothing past. And daily familiarity divests of their pastness many artifacts formerly identified as relics.’3

11. An old well, worn with use. Age is implied through the imperfections like the wearing of the stone.

3 Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country, 238 103

These are the elements that elude the conscious realization of their being antiquity

through daily encounters. While still recognizable as being from a different time if observed

closely, they remain camouflaged amidst the everyday. These are frequently only fragments of a larger entity, left behind while the rest slowly dissolved with time into its surroundings through additions, alterations, modifications and even vandalism, all means of appropriation. Yet, even as fragments they retain the ability to hint at a whole, perhaps by the very absence of an entirety.

The voids are reflected in the incompleteness and incongruity. It is the ‘flaws’ and the absences that allude to the past more than the vestiges themselves. The remains act merely as reminders of what had been and what is no more, or more appropriately, of what has changed. The ASI cannot justify the preservation of these fragments without ascribing meaning to the fragments alone. In most cases the legislations fail to address the ‘imperfections’ (incompleteness, incongruity) and any attempt to negotiate them would risk losing the aspect of the void. The inadequacy lies in the very understanding of preservation whereby the ASI seeks to preserve a memory that is iconic and pre-interpreted.

12, 13. Gateway pillars found tucked away with its counterparts and auxiliary structures missing

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The philosopher Deleuze would argue against such a model of memory because it implies

that ‘an object can be re-presented and re-cognized as the same one as that experienced in the

past.’4 According to him, such a perception of memory fails to take into account that an object in

the present cannot be experienced temporally and contextually in the same manner as it would

have been in a different time.5 His critique of this model is useful in understanding the failure of

the ASI to incorporate these remains within their scope of influence. The only means of

preservation the ASI is empowered with, which, through the legislations, is based upon the

notion of memory as a means of summoning old perceptions.6 It is perhaps as well that the ASI

is unable to recognize or deal with such remains since, as in the case of the Grand Trunk Road,

they continue unimpeded to be an integral part of the seamless landscape along the road in spite

of being temporal indicators.

I would like to point out here that remains in the context of this chapter do not refer to

isolated ruins that broadly fall into the category of follies, picturesque vestiges of the past

popularized during the Romantic period. While ruins did glorify the decay in time, it was more

the ‘patina of age’7, as Lowenthal calls, it that was valued in the case of the follies than the

everyday appropriation. Unlike the remains addressed here, these ruins were ‘enshrined’ as

‘consummate exemplars of the irregular, the accidental and the natural,’ all attributes that were

ascribed to them at that given time as opposed to being the inherent connotations of the past

discussed earlier. What is interesting is that remains could be made into ruins not by any change

in the objects themselves, but by the change in the perception of it.

4 Cliff Stagoll, "Memory" In The Deleuze Dictionary, ed. Adrian Parr (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 160. 5 Ibid., 160 6 Ibid., 159 7 Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country, 169 105

05.03. Residues

The road makes for a unique hinterland that is in a constant state of flux through

incessant renewal. The road itself is a constant, but all that it conveys is transitory. The perpetual

motion seems to carry over into the surrounding settlements, lending dynamism and spontaneity

to all that occurs there. However, within a larger time span this constant change is also

accompanied with a process of ‘sedimentation’ where residues from each phase accumulate over

14. Sedimentation

time creating a composite that suggests a past which is not discernable within each individual

residue. Under serendipitous circumstances, these random vestiges have remained embedded

within a completely transformed context. Unlike relics or remains, in isolation, residues lack

identity being incapable of representation or reference and therefore of evoking a consciousness 106

of a past. However, even in isolation these residues trigger ‘involuntary memories’. Tim Edensor

defines involuntary memories: “In contrast to the conscious use, transmission and representation

of the past- are unpredictable and contingent, and given that they are enmeshed in sensation and

vague intimations of previous atmospheres, they are slippery to pin down, to describe and represent.”8

15. Fleeting and ephemeral, involuntary memory triggers are difficult to identify, pinpoint and isolate

Being inherently elusive, one cannot predict where one may encounter these triggers of

involuntary memory, but every stretch on a site like the Grand Trunk Road that has been in

continuous use is potent with the possibility of encounters with such residues. The likelihood of

8 Tim Edensor, Industrial Ruins : Spaces, Aesthetics, and Materiality (Oxford U.K. ; New York: Berg, 2005), 143. 107

failing to notice these latent stimulators individually is enormous. The ephemeral nature of the

residues coupled with the motion that the road embodies makes for a fleeting encounter at best

that is imperceptible to the conscious mind. But it is a collective of these feeble and transitory

stimuli that cumulate in an unmistakable sense of nostalgia that cannot be quite explained. It is

16. Often these residues are signifiers of local culture and rituals and not an artifact in the conventional sense

the totality of the experience that evokes the past and not individual, isolated elements.

If the ASI finds itself in an uncomfortable zone in addressing remains, it is at a total loss

when it comes to residues. The ineptitude of the ASI in this case springs not from its lack of a

stance regarding these residues, but from the incapacity to recognize or comprehend them as a

powerful memory apparatus. The flawed understanding of memory as discussed earlier is

partially a cause for this. Also responsible is the character of the residues themselves, since they

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function more as a collective and also due to their elusive and ephemeral nature. It is almost futile to consciously seek them out and even if one is able to isolate it, once perceived outside of

17. Symbol representing a once dominating political party and signifying a bygone political era fading amidst layers of flyers, each partially peeled away after having served its purpose. the collective narrative, it may lack all the poetics of nostalgia being almost disfigured and mutilated.

From the above discussions there seems to be an obvious need for change in at least two accounts to arrive at a better understanding of preservation than that constituted through the present legislations. Firstly the notion of memory needs to be redefined such that the memory apparatus is broadened to address the idea of change. Time and place are both functions of each

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other in such an understanding of memory. The ‘frozen in time’ approach needs to be replaced

by one that absorbs changes as participants in the process of memory-making and allows for it to

occur. For this it is essential to accept that memory is more of a tool for the present than the

representation of the past. As Ian Hunter puts it, “the prime function of memory is not to

preserve the past but to adapt it so as to enrich and manipulate the present.”9

The second change is more of a derivative of the first and involves increasing the scope

of the ASI’s understanding of heritage to include not just relics but remains and residues as well.

Relics do play an important role as temporal landmarks, thus providing a sense of orientation;

just as a person trying to recollect a particular episode, is oriented by a reference of time, the

person’s age, a parallel landmark event etc. These are static relative to the memory itself which,

on the other hand, is dynamic and constantly

shifting in time. In other words, the

preservation apparatus must take into account

the process of accretion, thereby generating a

holistic understanding of the past whereby

artifacts are as much a part of the present as

those interpreting them. Such an approach, one

that glorifies the process of history rather than isolated objects floating in history, that separates memory and recollection from a

18. Towards a dynamic memory: From museumification to including change 9 Ian M. L. Hunter, Memory (New York: Penguin, 1964), 202-3. 110

wistful nostalgia, resonates of another movement that has been discussed at length in urban

studies-‘everyday urbanism’.

The foremost principle of everyday urbanism is that lived experience is more important

than physical form. When applied to preservation this translates to celebrating the process of

memory-making rather than the monumentalization of empty shells alone. Crucial to the analogy

between the two approaches is that both are essentially accretional. Margaret Crawford, who is a well known exponent of everyday urbanism, regards the accretional approach as the point of

deviation of everyday urbanism from its counterparts.10 Similarly, what sets remains and residues

apart from relics, or prevalent preservation practices from that which is being proposed here is

the process of accretion. Both remains and residues are products of accretion that arises from

19. Accretion

10 Margaret Crawford and Michael Speaks, Everyday Urbanism: Michigan Debates on Urbanism, ed. Rahul Mehrotra, Vol. 1 (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 2005), 44. 111

what Lowenthal describes as a ‘temporal asymmetry: the cumulations of time generally surpass

its dissolutions, and yield sums greater than their parts.’11 He also adds that ‘it is accretion that

generates the past’s enrichment.’12

In fact, India’s own tradition of attitudes towards the past in the pre-colonial era recognized as well as forwarded this process of accretion in the conservation and restoration of historical objects. These practices were known as Jirnoddhara and Navikaran13A. G. K. Menon, took this traditional model of conservation into account when he proposed the Indian charter.

“…traditional craftspeople believe that buildings live, die and are rebuilt in an organic process and that its authenticity inheres in the continuously evolving integrity of the historic building for its intended use. In this view, the site is more venerated than the building built over it. This represents the putative ‘cyclical’ concept of time.”

Society sculpts its surroundings and this process has been recognized and acknowledged

by everyday urbanists to be key in designing better living environments. Such an approach is in

agreement with the premise of this thesis that social factors generate the everyday and these are

designed partly by designers and partly by society. In fact in the absence of designers the

everyday would still exist, since society is a capable designer itself, however architects/planners/

designers need to tap into this process of the everyday to be able to manipulate it to achieve the

desired effects. So also preservation needs to work within the process of social selection, which

can be considered to be a part of everyday urbanism in itself and work within it to manage

historic assets without being contrary to the context.

11 Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country, 59 12 Ibid., 59 13 K. Paddayya, "A Review of Theoretical Perspectives in Indian Archaeology" In Indian Archaeology in Retrospect, eds. S. Settar and Ravi Korisettar, Vol. !V (New Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research : Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2002), 125. 112

An interesting comment made by Dave Mohney, was paraphrased by Steve Ward in a

discussion forum titled ‘Everyday Urbanism-Design and/or Default’. The forum was initiated by

John Kaliski, the co-editor of the book, Everyday Urbanism.14 Ward says: “David Mohney, Dean

of University of Kentucky, likes to describe architecture as something like algebra - a

management of multiple variables to arrive at an elegant solution - so that he can then describe

urbanism as calculus - a sort of coercion of multiple algebraic functions acting independently

into one system operating in a more complementary way.”15 Given this eloquent analogy, once

can draw a parallel between such a perception of the relationship of architecture and urbanism to arrive at a similar understanding of the correlation of social selection and a possible process that would equate to everyday urbanism in the field of preservation.

If each isolated case like those found along the Grand Trunk Road like that of the Dol

Moncho in Mahesh, Serampore were to be considered as individual serendipitous accidents that led to the retention of an object from the past, then could not one set up a heritage management apparatus that would coerce the multiple social factors acting independently into one system operating in a more complementary way? A good example may be seen in the Hudson River

Heritage Historic District, a site similar in complexity and size to the Grand Trunk Road. In this case the non-profit organization, the Hudson River Heritage “acts as a preservation advocate and works with various historic sites and community groups, including the Great Estates Consortium,

Clover Reach, and the Northern Dutchess Alliance, and makes comment on proposals for change along the Hudson River corridor.”16

14 John Chase, Margaret Crawford and John Kaliski, Everyday Urbanism, Expa ed. (New York: Monacelli Press, 2008), 224. 15 Archinect discussion forum, 2007, http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=59801_0_42_0_C. 16 Hudson River Heritage, "About Us," http://hudsonriverheritage.org/about.html (accessed 06/28, 2009). 113

A good analogy would be that of a quilt. The various fragments that make up a quilt do

allude to different materials, colors, and fabrics, but without a design that would weave them

together into a pattern, they remain fragmented and isolated and difficult to appreciate. In a similar manner, isolated acts of social selected, that may be considered both designed and accidental at the same time have left us with a plethora of fragments from the past that do suggest historicity but fail to warrant appreciation due to their fragmented nature. However if there was a setup in place that were to facilitate and regulate these isolated cases of

‘preservation’ so as to make them meaningful in both the micro (i.e. the local) as well as the macro (i.e. as a component of the Grand Trunk Road itself), that would make way for a more integrated and contextual heritage management policy.

Based on the observations made, I propose that an ‘everyday preservation’ be examined as an alternative to the present preservation philosophy. Broadly speaking, such an approach would be an extension of the concept of everyday urbanism and applied to preservation.

Everyday urbanism does not seek to replace existing patterns but works along with, on top of, or after them.17 So also everyday preservation will not seek to dramatically alter a historic context,

but will have to work within the existing fabric to retrofit it for optimum utilization of the

available historic resources without removing them from everyday appropriation. In fact, through

small changes, the appropriation of these resources could be designed and the design generators

in turn would take cue from the context and the patterns in change and continuity observed in it.

However, even such an approach is not without the possibility of setbacks.

17 Crawford and Speaks, Everyday Urbanism: Michigan Debates on Urbanism, 19 114

Preservation at present is practiced as a discipline under the auspices of the ASI. As

discussed in the critique of the legislations in my earlier study, most of the framework that drives

preservation in India today is derived from the British system and handed down directly by the

British in the nineteenth century. Most of the laws and important definitions are as much as a

century old. As a discipline, it sought to isolate physical remains from the past, catalogue,

document, quantify and prioritize them. Just as artifacts in a museum, these objects were

recorded and shelved for future reference, their physical immobility being the impediment to

actually placing them in a museum. The suggestions made in this chapter are an attempt to

rethink preservation from this narrow, disciplined approach that de-humanizes the experience of

the past and treats it as an observable measurable object.18

However in doing so, one may need to exercise certain regulations that allow for the past

to continue being appropriated by the present, but in a regulated and controlled manner. It is a

difficult balance to achieve, whereby, in the interest of optimizing the past resources through regulated appropriation, one could begin to wield too much control. Though it may not be clear how, such a process could very well take a direction where, like many others before, the disciplinary institution of preservation is slowly metamorphosized into a control society19 and the

forces that earlier flowed naturally into shaping a temporal continuum, would be implanted by

designed forces, thus robbing the system of its spontaneity altogether.

In the case of the phenomenon that is the Grand Trunk Road, the everyday preservation

could tap into the many nuances that make up the unique quality of antiquity observed here that

jostles side by side with the present. Yet, if lessons learnt from this site are used to prescribe

18 Kenneth Surin, "Control Society" In The Deleuze Dictionary, ed. Adrian Parr (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 54. 19 Ibid 53 115

preservation patterns without caution and sensitivity, it may lose the very spontaneity in the appropriation process that generates the continuous narrative which we seek to preserve. The following chapter will collate these various observations in the form of a recommendation that

may help tap into the everyday aspect of preservation and at the same time regulate it without

being too overbearing.

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07. Conclusion and Recommendations

India in the twenty first century faces a strange dichotomy. It is a young nation, in the

modern sense of the word, only sixty one years old. On the other hand it has been around for thousands of years comprising several settlements, kingdoms, cultures, even civilizations that trace their roots back to this region. The rich and diverse heritage that comes with such a historical background is bound to pose questions for a country that is at the crossroads of progressing forward while carrying a vast load of assemblage from its past. Unlike a clean slate that is easier to work with, any discussion regarding India’s progress has to address the issue of continuity and repercussions to the past i.e. how things were and to the present i.e. how things are.

Heritage management takes on great significance in this case, since one often encounters a problem of ‘too many’. If mismanaged, the country stands to lose a great deal of historic wealth. On the other hand, progress is paramount in the priorities of all administrative and state decisions. This places historic management in a peculiar position where it draws significant concern, but does not instigate radical measures. Therefore it becomes obvious that state administration cannot be left to manage the historic resources by itself since it gets sidelined and does not receive the necessary attention. The other factor that makes it necessary to disseminate the responsibility of historic resources from the government, is that “government is used to the exercise of power”, but as K.C. Pant, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, said in

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his address to the Workshop on National Policy for Heritage Conservation and Management:

“you cannot really preserve heritage through the exercise of power.”1

He adds: “According to the provision in the Constitution of India, the responsibility for

the preservation of Monuments which are declared to be of National Importance vests with the

Central Government directly under the supervision of the Archaeological Survey of India. On the

one hand it provides a clear allocation of authority and accountability. On the other, it dilutes the

responsibility of the common citizen.”2

Preservation needs to have local representation. It is only the local people who interact

with their heritage on a daily basis that have a finger on the pulse of the living heritage of a

region. At the same time, daily familiarity often divests them of an appreciation for a heritage

that is commonplace and everyday to them but from a global perspective has singular value. As

the renowned conservation consultant, Architect A. G. K. Menon, observes, “while people are

generally happy to see heritage conserved, they are reluctant to have their own building so

classified because they fear a loss of productive use.”3 Srivathsan who also emphasized the

importance of local participation in heritage management in his article asks some vital questions

that will need to be addressed. “How will local bodies participate in the conservation of

monuments if they are not able to draw up their own inventory of cultural assets and list of priorities based on the local significance? What if they place cultural significance over art and historical considerations?”4

1 K. C. Pant, "Inaugural Address" In A Case for National Policy for Heritage Conservation and Management, ed. Rajeshwari Tandon, First August 2002 ed. (New Delhi: INTACH, 2002), xi. 2 Ibid., xi-xii 3 A. G. K. Menon, "The Case for an Indian Charter," http://www.india- seminar.com/2003/530/530%20a.g.%20krishna%20menon.htm (accessed 03/12/2009, 2009). 4 A. Srivathsan, "How to make Past Future Perfect," The Hindu08/15/2007, 2007. 118

Before deriving the conclusions and recommendations for this thesis let us take up an example of a preservation model that upholds a more bottom up approach. The preservation

model currently practiced in the US also emphasizes on grass root level interventions. I will

briefly survey this model to look for strengths and lessons that can be drawn from it.

06.01. The American Model

The preservation framework in the U.S. largely empowers local citizens. The National

Historic Preservation Act of 1966 is perhaps the most important and impactful of the series of

Acts that make up the legislative paraphernalia for heritage management in the US. It made provision for most of the decisions to reside with the local people, by making them accountable for moderating the impact of all federally supported developments on their local historic resources.

The main provisions of the Act were as follows:

1. Creation of the National Register of Historic Places, a comprehensive list of heritage resources in the US. 2. Grant upto 50% of required funding for States to conduct statewide surveys of historic resources. 3. Establish programs to support the States with preserving significant sites for public benefit. 4. Establish a program of grants-in-aid to the National Trust for Historic Preservation 5. Require federal agencies to ensure that projects funded by their agencies have minimal impact upon artifacts on the national register. 6. Establish the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is the primary custodian of most endangered historic properties/relics. This structure definitely has its strengths as far as preservation is concerned. As observed earlier, local representation in preservation is extremely important. The American model of preservation facilitates that by empowering the State Historic

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Preservation Offices which in turn represent and feed into more local agencies. Being too

invested in the problem may disallow locals alone from taking any objective decisions in the

matter. In other words, they could be too close to the problem making them either too attached or

too dissociated due to daily familiarity. Hence local representation alone cannot be given

unchallenged custodianship of their cultural assets.

The SHPO is an excellent way to balance local opinion with expertise thereby diluting the vested quality of local opinion with more generic parameters for historic/heritage value. By comprising experts on local history and acting as liaison between the public and the developers, the SHPO ensures that most parties with an interest in the piece of historic property/relic have a voice in the matter. Another advantage to having local representation is the dissemination of responsibility, thus increasing the scope of intervention. By transferring custodianship to local authorities ensures greater watchfulness and awareness of the local developments which might otherwise be overlooked by a central authority.

It is also interesting that the Federal Government is held accountable for all its undertakings as far as their implications regarding heritage resources are concerned. The Section

106 reviews projects that are federally funded giving the impression that it is implied that locally funded projects would take into account any implications and does not need to go through the

Section 106 review. Thus the State and local governments when independent of federal support is held responsible for its own decisions and undertakings.

It can be argued that most undertakings that could have a significant impact on historic sites, would in some regard or the other involve the federal government, be it in form of financial support or permits. This covers most undertakings, thereby ensuring that most projects be cleared by the Section 106 and Section 110 before it is executed. This signifies that new development, no

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matter how significant, cannot take place at the expense of sites of historic significance, once

they are deemed so by the local authorities. Even though the SHPO functions at the state level,

public involvement at every stage of the Section 106 review ascertains that there is a finer scale

represented than that of a statewide.

Inspite of its strengths, the National Historic Preservation Act it not entirely without faults. It is a common lament among preservationists that due to the largely ‘bottom up’ structure

of the preservation apparatus laid down in the NHPA, there is the shortcoming of the lack of a

central authority that can overrule local decisions when historic properties of significance are at

stake. In other words, there may be times when local neighborhoods may prioritize development

over heritage and be willing to sacrifice significant pieces of national history that fall within their

domain. In many complex and dense urban settings which have become blighted over the years

but contain significant historic wealth, it is evident that the local residents may be willing to tear

down the neighborhood, in order to put an end to the many challenges that it creates for the city.

Even though there are many who are in favor of restoring the vast store of architecture and sites

of historic significance, it must be noted, that if put through the Sections 106 review, and there

may be possibility that some of this heritage could be lost.

The flaw in the NHPA provisions is that the Section 106 review is the only process

separating a historic site from possible obliteration. In case of a decision that may not be in the

best interest of preservation, there is no scope for a secondary appeal. If the National Register

were more than a list of significant buildings and sites, i.e. if it were possible that any decision

regarding some stipulated heritage sites like those on the National Register would need

secondary approval than the Section 106 alone, it would perhaps help in balancing the

overbearing power the local citizens have over their neighborhoods.

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A second flaw is that there is no provision for the protection of buildings and sites that are privately owned. The only incentive at present for private properties is the tax incentive given for properties restored according to Secretary of Interior standards. However, this may or may not prove sufficient for a property owner to restore and maintain a historic property, since these often require significant and prolonged investments. The NHPA falls short of covering the responsibility of owners of private properties that are of historic value. The National Register again covers private properties, but does not signify any protection for them. As a consequence, privately owned properties are under constant threat of demolition. Preservation policies, it can be argued, all over the world, have drawbacks. In case of the US, though the NHPA has helped overcome significant threats to heritage resources, it still falls short of saving them all.

Thus local representation alone cannot be given unchallenged custodianship of their cultural assets. Thus a median path is to be sought. The current preservation system is largely a top down one. Local bodies do exist, but they have no representation from local communities.

Tipping the balance over to the other side, would mean local representation that has little or no central regulation. What I would seek to propose is a balance between the two extremes. The argument in favor of retaining a central regulating authority is to ensure that a value system based on expertise is added to the natural process of selection by popular choice upheld through local representation.

122

06.02. The Quilting Metaphor

One can think these issues by taking an example that Deleuze and Guettari use to explain

smooth space. In the book, A Thousand Plateaus, they point to the construction and form of the

patchwork quilt as a generator and embodiment of smooth space by pointing to its lack of a

center and its “amorphous collection of juxtaposed pieces that can be joined together in an infinite number of ways….”5 The Grand Trunk Road and its hinterland can be perceived as a

such a smooth space. The system lacks hierarchy and no one section is given importance over

another. Unlike the nationalistic hierarchy that has been imposed by the ASI through the unwrit

intervention criteria, such a system would not have a single focus, instead would work within the

context. Such an approach would treat the historic resources like the pieces of fabric that make

up the quilt where the relics, residues and remains are all weaved together to form a pattern that

brings meaning and interpretation to each segment without isolating or aggrandizing any single

one.

However there is an important lesson to be drawn from such a parallel. The quilt can be

viewed as a conglomeration of pieces selected from discarded fabrics. However a plain

assortment of pieces of fabric thrown randomly together does not make up a quilt. Each segment

has to be carefully ordered to fit into a larger pre-decided pattern so as to give meaning to both

the whole and the parts within it. Such an order within the system is not immediately apparent

since the fragments as well as the whole are equally perceived without taking significance over

the other. When observed closely, each fragment has retained its individual character, the

pattern, the fabric, the texture etc. Just as a residue is no longer whole but retains strong

references to its past contexts, so also the segment within the quilt retains certain embedded

5 Gillis Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. Biran Massumi, Minneapolis ed.University of Minnesota Press, 1988), 476. 123

aspects of its identity. It is therefore in many ways complete even as a part of the whole. It is the composition of the whole that brings such completion to the part and vice versa.

The symbiotic relationship of the smooth and striated spaces as represented by the part and whole is what is sought to be achieved. In other words, social selection by itself is a mere assortment of pieces that does not have any order, system or greater agenda to it. To be able to utilize and direct social selection to work as a tool for heritage management, one has to formulate a framework that will piece together the various fragments and weave them into a pattern or a whole without disturbing the unique and individual characteristics of each piece within itself. In the words of Deleuze and Guettari, “It is as though a smooth space emanated, sprang from a striated space, but not without a correlation between the two, a recapitulation of one in the other, a furtherance of one through the other.”6 Therefore it becomes apparent that inspite of social selection there needs to be some sort of a centralized pattern that needs to be implanted within the system to coerce it towards creating a meaningful holistic interpretation of the pieces i.e. local control must be regulated through a larger central coordinating body.

6 Ibid., 477 124

06.03. Conclusions

Given these observations made in this thesis, the following primary conclusions become apparent:

1. Temporal representations need to take into account change and continuity as the

attributes of time. The current preservation practice tends to create ‘freeze-frame’

representations of time that deny change, by removing artifacts from their contexts,

monumentalizing them and seeking to arrest them in time. Such a practice fails to

consider that fact that such monumentalization is an act of appropriation in itself. It

also neglects the India traditions of history and time that embraced change and

practiced preservation more as a form of regeneration. Such practice was based

practice the concept of “jeernodharanam, the symbiotic relationship binding the

tangible and intangible architectural heritage of India as one of the traditional

philosophies underpinning conservation practice.”7

2. Heritage management cannot be allowed to continue in the dissociative, a-contextual

manner as is at present. Foreign and antiquated origins have led to a system that is

crippled by its own structure and means of empowerment i.e. the legislations.

3. In order to remedy this, the legislations need to be completely rethought and altered

to change them from being a collection of overarching ‘draconian laws’ to more of

regulatory, guidelines that could be interpreted to suit each context. Such flexibility

would have to be built in without resigning all control; instead it would have to be

7 Charter for the Conservation of Unprotected Architectural Heritage and Sites in India, (11/04/2004, 2004), 36-41 125

reworked to coordinate and regulate rather than dictate and incorporate traditional

ideals regarding heritage management.

4. Any change in the heritage management system would have to recognize that an

inherent process of selection is at work within any community and this fact must be

respected and assimilated within the management process. Such a process is

generated by the context itself and therefore should inform all interventions that seek

to be contextually appropriate.

5. Local control and participation is vital in order to allow as well as regulate the

process of such ‘social selection’. While a great deal of historic resources are

retained, preserved, restored, adapted, without any external intervention through this

process, there are perhaps some that are lost due to lack of awareness and

appreciation caused by everyday familiarity.

6. Local control though critical in a system that employs social selection, cannot be

allowed free reign without any sort of binding and regulatory system. A new structure

needs to be setup that would facilitate a symbiotic relationship between local bodies

and a more central regulatory body.

7. The current system needs to be reorganized and assimilated into the proposed one. As

discussed earlier, bypassing the current system has not improved the situation. The

ASI is custodian to too many historic structures and artifacts to be left to its own

means within any reformative action. Also the reformation cannot have any legal

binding without empowerment through legislative actions, which signifies that

current legislations need to be revised and redrafted.

126

8. Therefore a more collaborative approach must be adopted, where local decisions

would take precedence over overarching directives, but not without moderation

brought about by an overall vision and enforced by a co-ordinating entity. In the

words of Mr. Pant “A policy, therefore, needs to be prepared to ensure that the

archaeological and other heritage sites are preserved and protected as a joint endeavor

between the State and citizens.”8

9. There is a gross lack documented surveys of all historic elements, not only

monumental. All surveys that have taken place so far have completely kept the local

public at bay during the process and public opinion and representation has been

completely missing. This is a dire situation, since local people are the best raconteurs

of local cultures and narratives which are testimonials to the significance of all that is

historic in a locality. Some or most of them may not be evident to external agencies

sent to survey a neighborhood, if they do not consult with the locals. In fact for an

outsider it may still be difficult to perceive the significance of a particular artifact

since they are removed it.

10. The private sectors, with agencies like INTACH, have carried out significant work in

heritage management within their own limited means. Without any legal authority,

these agencies have to rely on private sponsorship through projects to intervene in

this field. Most of these agencies employ well trained preservationists who receive

education from various parts of the world and therefore are not lacking in

qualifications. However when left to their own means they lack collaboration and as a

result the composite result is patchy and without a comprehensive meaning. Also lack

8 Pant, Inaugural Address, xii

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of local participation is a drawback in this case too, where professionals often take

precedence over the actual stakeholders of the historic/cultural relic, who have a

vested interest in the outcomes of the interventions.

06.04. Recommendations

From the above observations there seems to be a need for strong nodes to be placed both

at a local as well as the central/national level. Let us first look at possibilities that may be exploited at the local level. In order to achieve efficient and quick implementation it may be a better to look to the existing infrastructure that are in place and utilize existing networks and systems towards such a process. At the local level there is a need for a body which comprises

representatives of the local people who are native to the region as well as are well respected and

capable. Such a representative body needs to be intimately connected with the region and is

responsible for a small locality and not beyond. These parameters are well met by a long existing

network already in place in the form of co-operatives.

India has a large and extensive existing network of co-operative bodies that are greatly

involved in sectors like agriculture, banking, small scale industries etc. all run by local co-

operative institutions. Originally intended primarily to further agriculture and banking, co-

operatives have had a successful run for several years expanding in complexity, fields of

involvement as well as network. The Act that first brought about the formation of co-operative

societies in India was the Co-operative Credits Societies Act of 19049 which ironically is the

9 Eleanor M. Hough, The Co-Operative Movement in India (London: Oxford University Press, 1953), 47. 128

same year when the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act was passed under the leadership of

John Marshall and Viceroy, Lord Curzon. But unlike its counterpart, the co-operatives have seen several amendments to the Act that empowers them which has adapted it from its British inspiration, the English Friendly Societies Act, to suit a more regional context. These reformations took place both at national as well as regional scales.

To gather an idea of what a co-operative primarily consisted of; one can look to one of the primary provisions of the 1904 Act which states:

“That any ten persons living in the same village or town, or belonging to the same class or caste, might be registered as a Co-operative society for the encouragement of thrift and self help among members.”10

Antiquated and/or undesirable and obsolete as some of these parameters may be in contemporary society (such as class and caste division), what this provision helps demonstrate is that co- operatives are essentially consistent of small groups of local people who have a shared heritage and area of domicile. Co-operatives therefore make potent candidates for taking up the mantle of being the local nuclei in a new setup.

However India has opened up its markets to foreign and private investments in the last fifteen years, thus partly embracing the capitalist model. While this has not completely wiped out co-operatives, which continue to dominate in certain sectors such as agriculture, it has certainly diminished the scope of co-operatives. A major reason for this is that unlike the corporate sectors, co-operatives currently lack a central nucleus that causes a “lack of spontaneity” which

Hough asserts is the “greatest inherent weakness”.11 This again goes to reinforce the conclusion that it is essential to balance central and local control.

10 Ibid., 47 11 Ibid., 299 129

According to the Preamble of the Indian Constitution, India is a Sovereign Socialist

Secular Democratic Republic. The Co-operatives in many ways fit into this identity of India.

Inspite of the recent advent of capitalism, India has however retained the socialist aspect by retaining government owned and supported alternatives for all sectors. Co-operatives bridge these two market models quite effectively. On one hand, being run by people and not entirely by the government, the co-operatives do have an interest in making profit. However this interest is both moderated by the desire for greater public good as well as directed towards empowering and supporting the very people that feed into the cooperative industries. Thus both the consumer as well as the producers is protected from being unduly exploited without losing the competitive edge brought on in recent times by capitalism. Indeed co-operatives have been called “‘self-help writ large’ – concerted effort by the members of a group to improve their own and each other’s condition.”12

Co-operatives comprise of the people and are run by the people for the people. Therefore

it is a democratic institution in its very essence and principle. India is the largest democracy in

the world (in terms of population) and cooperatives contribute significantly towards upholding

democracy in the country. As an organization of the people it also contributes towards the

republican character of the country. Through regulations it can also be ensured that interests of

all segments of a community are represented through co-operatives providing a secular front.

Thus cooperatives certainly come forth as a considerable contender for being the liaison

for local people in a new reformed heritage management structure. The size and strength of a co-

operative of a region would have to be calculated according to context to ensure that no single

unit of the cooperative has too much responsibility. Thus the limitations would have to be

12 Ibid., 298 130

calculated depending on spatial area since more often than not material remains would be under consideration and spatial scale would affect their count. In more urban settings, to ensure that a fair number of people are represented it would have to take into account population density also.

It has already been discussed why local bodies cannot be allowed to work independently and unsupervised even though it is evident that they would be the primary decision-makers in the proposed system. This creates a need for a centralized national body that can manage and coordinate the co-operatives and act as a liaison between the various units of the new system.

This would be a tremendous task and would require a significantly large setup. The ASI currently commands a large workforce, skill set, knowledge base, experience and legal backing.

As discussed previously, there needs to be a comprehensive decision made regarding the future of the current setup for which the ASI and its state branches make up most of the infrastructure.

The polarity between local and national nuclei needs to be bridged and the state divisions of the

ASI can be instrumental in this role. Currently these state divisions carry out the ASI directives at the state level. Rather than completely dissolve the ASI altogether and lose its assets in the process, I propose that the ASI be deconstructed and restructured to take on a role of a central coordinator for the new system.

131

1. Diagram showing proposed administrative structure for preservation management in India 132

The following structure is proposed with the intention of it serving as a possible start towards a new heritage management framework. This setup is no way absolute or executable without working out in great detail each tier, its role and the interrelationships between them.

Heritage Listing

1. A comprehensive inventory in India’s heritage resources needs to be prepared.

Preparing inventories conforms to the more scientific model of heritage management

which is a modern concept in the Indian preservation scene, however it helps gather

an overview of the scale, range and expanse of the resources at hand as well as keep

track of all that is retained and lost.

2. The inventory would also serve to establish historic districts, a concept currently

lacking in Indian heritage management, by providing the locations where heritage

resources are found in greater concentration.

3. In preparing such an inventory, a significant difference can be made by the decision

of who makes the judgment call regarding what is considered as a heritage resource

and what value system is placed on it. This is the opportunity for local representatives

to voice their judgment with regards to what is culturally significant for their

community.

4. I therefore propose that each local co-operative first takes up the task of surveying the

community entrusted to them to prepare a listing of heritage recourses and grading

them according to predefined value parameters. Such listing would include private

and public buildings alike.

5. Using a universal method of grading seems a-contextual. This is addressed by

defining the parameters according to the context. The locals decide the parameters

133

which need to conform to broad headings that would be laid down by the legislative

guidelines and enforced through ASI. An excellent example of broad headings could

be Alois Riegl’s seven criteria for heritage value: age value, historic value,

commemorative value, use value, newness value, art value, and relative art value.

Several others could be added to this list including cultural and religious value. These

factors though uniform across the country, could be reinterpreted within each context

to include or exclude artifacts based on the local people’s discretion.

6. The English heritage management system currently uses the following grading

system:

a. • Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest b. • Grade II* are particularly important buildings of more than special interest c. • Grade II are of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them13

7. In such a decision they would be assisted by historians, historic preservationists,

architects, planners and other professionals traditionally concerned with heritage

management. However they would be present, to guide and educate and thereby

create awareness so as to inform the decision and not make it for the locals. The

ultimate task of evaluation would rest with the local representatives after adequate

study and discourse with the professionals.

Distribution of responsibility

8. Once the inventory had been prepared it would be submitted to the Archaeological

Survey of India. In imposing a value on the resources, a decision regarding the scope

of intervention of each of the tiers in the new structure is also taken.

13 "About Listed Buildings," The English Heritage, http://www.heritage.co.uk/apavilions/glstb.html (accessed 07/13/2009, 2009). 134

9. All resources that are given the highest grade and thereby proclaimed to be of utmost

significance would then be brought under ASI jurisdiction. Any decision regarding

large scale interventions such as alteration, renovation, demolition etc. would have to

be brought to the ASI’s notice and would have to be taken by the locals in

collaboration with the ASI. One can safely assume that each community would have

very few of these resources, in fact, some might not have any.

10. Similarly resources which fall within the next tier of significance are dealt by the state

departments. This is where the State Archaeological Offices can be restructured to

serve this function.

11. Decisions regarding private properties that were included in these higher tiers of

grading would have to be made in collaboration with the owners. This could be

settled by the co-operatives. Being locals, they would have a greater ability to

negotiate with their neighbors. However in case of long pending decisions, the ASI

and local judiciary bodies could be brought in to settle, through negotiation and or

compensation. Historic districts would additionally have bylaws which would be

decided by the local co-operative in consultation with the ASI and planners. These

would be binding on private and public properties alike.

12. The tiers of resources that received the lowest grades would be addressed with the

consultation of district offices which would have to be setup. It could be easily

incorporated within municipalities.

13. All religious structures that face demolition to make way for a structure of a different

religious group would have to be brought under the notice of the ASI and any

decision regarding it would have to be made by a larger representative group that was

135

diverse and secular in composition. Given India’s religious diversity, such a measure

may help ensure that cases like Babri Masjid demolition are not justified by

archaeological evidence alone.

14. The primary function of the ASI and these zonal divisions would be to provide the

technical support by mediating between preservation consultants and these local

bodies and ensuring the best skill set be made available for the problems. Such a task

would require dauntingly large manpower, and the lack of quality conservation

consultants could easily become a setback. This could be overcome, if each problem

initially is treated like a charette process, involving private conservation consultants

and professionals including agencies like INTACH, where the consultants work in

collaboration with local decision makers. These private agencies have been so far

alienated for the most part from most ASI initiatives. When they have participated it

has been largely through private sponsorship and as discussed earlier fragmented

isolated efforts that are rarely coordinated overall or engage in a dialogue with a

larger context beyond the physical boundary of the site.

15. INTACH as the largest agency with chapters in various cities could take on the role

of coordinator for the private sector creating bridges between the local co-operatives

and local conservation firms and agencies.

16. Using the private agencies to inform and educate the local co-operatives would create

a large scale awareness regarding the heritage value of the resources in the

community. Aspects of tourism, possibilities of adaptive reuse, art appreciation, could

be furthered through the dialogue between the locals and the professionals.

136

17. Another important aspect of such dissemination of professional knowledge would be

the rejuvenation of local craftsmanship and reinstating patronship for many lost arts.

The co-operatives could be entrusted with seeking out artisans who are trained in the

traditional arts. At times this may require the local word-of-mouth advertising, since

often such workers are found to have drifted into alternate, more contemporary

professions due to lack of work in their own special fields. The conservation

professionals trained in conservation methods could be instrumental in utilizing such

skill work towards the initial restoration, repair, conservation and other such tasks

thereby providing training and bolstering the local skill base.

18. In time such charette processes would generate sufficient local knowledge bases

needed to create specialized local conservation units. These would in turn generate

employment and facilitate one of the important aspects of preservation; the

sustenance of fast dwindling local skills, especially those facing the danger of

obliteration in the face of industrialization and mass production. Local industries

producing traditional materials could also find sustenance in such an endeavor.

19. It could also be ensured that through scholarships and such incentives, local

professionals like architects and planners could be trained in preservation. Continued

support could be granted by providing travel grants for conferences etc. and other

forms of support to ensure that the knowledge base is kept updated and does not

stagnate.

137

Funding

20. Consolidating all elements currently involved in Indian heritage resource

management would signify that the monetary resources that support the field and its

associated industries are also consolidated in the process.

21. Government funds allocated towards supporting the ASI finding would continue to be

available. In fact due to reduced workload, some of those funds would remain

available for alternate allocation in other parts of the new setup.

22. Co-operatives are setup to generate their own funds through local sponsorship and

investments. This principle would be utilized in case of heritage management also

where private finding would be actively solicited in form of donation, investments

etc.

23. The resources/projects that are graded highest and brought under ASI jurisdiction

would be given highest priority in obtaining funding. State government funds that

currently support state level projects would likewise help with second tier projects.

Projects that remain within local control would have to be funded through local funds,

unless private sponsorship is available. Local citizens interested in conserving and

restoring private properties

24. So far, preservation has been swept to the sidelines because it was considered as a

liability that required large investments. With India’s current priorities being

economic development and progress, heritage management has taken a back seat to

industrial and corporate growth. Thus it is extremely essential for heritage

management to become self sustainable and perhaps even contribute towards

138

furthering India’s economy. With the vast store of historic artifact that India has

available, this is quite possible, if they are treated as resources. This is why

throughout the thesis I have referred to preservation, conservation and all its

associated activities as historic resource management. These recourses need an

industry that would utilize them judiciously without draining the economy.

25. The most important industry that heritage resource feeds is that of tourism. Tourism is

the cause, means and/or the end product in many cases of historic preservation. The

preservation effort often needs an audience to justify it. This audience often becomes

a consumer group who pay to experience the past (take tours, live in heritage hotels,

enact colonial lifestyles etc.), learn about it (visit museums, buy books and DVDs

about the site), and take away a piece of it with them (buy memorabilia, replicas etc.).

In doing so they also cause the generation of a support industry, restaurants, shops,

public amenities, infrastructure, etc. all paid for and supported by the industry of

tourism. This should be capitalized and co-operatives must actively participate in this

industry to generate revenue for projects within its community.

26. As an industry, heritage tourism functions within the same framework of demand and

supply as most industries. It also requires advertising and promotion and marketing as

any other. In turn it serves to sustain and preserve the very resource it feeds on. In

some ways it could be said that this is one industry with a regeneration capacity that

is greater than most others. Thus preservation, that starts out as the justification for

the investment, ends up becoming indispensible eventually due to the economic

benefits it generates. This can be found to be a healthy symbiosis for most parts and

139

even though sometimes compromises the integrity of both; this is perhaps the better

chances that preservation has to redeem itself objectively.

27. Such incentives would also help local people warm up to the idea of heritage

management, since it would open up opportunities for economic benefits for the

neighborhoods. In establishing historic districts, efforts must be made to

simultaneously stimulate the infrastructure so as to develop the district as a tourist

center.

28. Adaptive reuse must be sought as an option wherever sustained survival of a resource

is dubious. Private auctions, corporate loans, and other innovative possibilities must

be applied to find user as well as sponsors and investors for such properties.

Incentives such as low interest loans, tax benefits could be explored to encourage

such reuse. Co-operative banks being a common financial institution in India, a

collaborative understanding would be made between the two similar institutions,

heritage and financial co-operatives.

Ideals and philosophies

In setting up this framework for heritage management, certain ideals and philosophies

must be adopted to guide all decision making. In many ways, by dissemination of

power in this field to local bodies, many of the assertions made in this thesis would be

addressed. However the entire system could easily fall back into the previous mold if

the very ideals and concepts that fuel such undertakings are not revisited and

reworked.

29. Time must no longer be considered to comprise of a past that is completely distinct

and removed from the present which needs to be ‘preserved’ for the future. Time is

140

not composed of static points and lines. In fact time is complex, multidimensional and

multiplicitous. Just as it cannot be reverted back to, so also an object cannot be

reverted back in time to a different state. Keeping in mind the Indian traditional

concepts that embraced both the cyclic and linear character of time, the new setup

must also rethink the currently linear mode of thinking about time.

30. Change must be accepted as an attribute of time and must be considered as an

inherent element in the representation of time. While this must be controlled for

cultural, economical (as discussed earlier with regards to tourism) as well as

pedagogical, it must not be curtailed completely. Wherever essential, acts of

restoration must be recognized for what it is, an act of appropriation.

31. The past must no longer be considered as removed from the present. All intervention

efforts must recognize that each action that is taken is in the present and the object as

well as its purpose is in and for the present.

32. Material remains should not take precedence over the culture that generated it. It must

always be kept in mind that the craft is as, if not more, important as the product it

gave rise to. Local craftsmen and artists must be patronized. It is not too different

from the popular saying, “If you give a person a fish, he will have food for one day. If

you teach him how to fish he will have food for a lifetime.”

33. Monumentalization is not the objective of heritage management. Objects from the

past must be allowed to participate in the present and not be removed from its

context. Objects that were not designed to be monuments may become relics through

the act of appropriation; however, this too must be recognized as a change in the

141

identity of the object and the illusion that it is exactly what it had been years ago must

be broken.

34. It must be recognized that any artifact is comprised of layers. The decision to

preserve one layer over the other cannot be justifies on the basis of age alone. In

numerous cases such a justification could cause layers deemed far more significant, to

become sacrificial. Since no universal parameters for value can be found, the decision

must reside among the stakeholders, largely located within the community

surrounding it. In India the diversity ensures that each community is distributed. The

local co-operative would have to demonstrate at initiation that its composition is

secular, and would have to maintain secularity throughout its operation.

35. All heritage recourses are of national importance and all national recourses are of

local importance. The hierarchy created by placing importance on a certain identity of

the nation dilutes the richness that India boasts of. The diversity and variety comes

from local flavors. It must be recognized that certain elements from the past evoke

collective memory thereby generating national monuments inspite of the diversity.

36. ‘Everyday preservation’, in other words the principles of everyday urbanism applied

to heritage management, must be considered as the model for initiatives by the co-

operatives. Each of their projects could be treated as an everyday urbanism problem

and the relevant strategies could be adopted.

37. Dynamism must be sought in all intervention efforts, to allow for continuous

evolution and interpretation. The Indian traditional model for heritage management,

Jeernodharana must be revoked to inform and guide all initiatives.

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These recommendations are perhaps only a starting point in working towards a transformation that is much needed for the Indian heritage management scene. For a country with vast historic and heritage resources like India, a comprehensive strategy to manage this vast store has been long pending. Implementation of any new scheme would take enormous planning, co-ordination and foresight. In this thesis I have endeavored to survey, examine and critically discuss the several factors why such an undertaking, even though considerable needs to be made at the earliest.

143

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148

Appendix

149

Indian Treasure Trove Act, 1878 (ACT NO. VI OF 18781) (12th February 1878) An Act to amend the law relating to Treasure Trove [As modified upto the 1st September, 1949]

WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the law relating to Treasure-trove;

It is hereby enacted as follows: -- Preliminary

1. Short title.—This Act may be called the Indian Treasure-trove Act, 1878.

Extent.—It extends to 2[all the provinces of India].

*3 * * * * * 2. [Repeal of enactments.] Rep. by the Amending Act, 1891 (XII of 1891)

3. Interpretation clause.—In this Act—

“treasure” means anything of any value hidden in the soil, or in anything affixed thereto:

“Collector” means (1) any Revenue-officer in independent charge of a district, and (2) any officer appointed by the 4[Provincial Government] to perform the functions of a Collector under this Act.

When any person is entitled, under any reservation in an instrument of transfer of any land or thing affixed thereto, to treasure in such land or thing, he shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be the owner of such land or thing.

Procedure on finding Treasure 4. Notice by finder of treasure.—Whenever any treasure exceeding in amount or value ten rupees is found, the finder shall, as soon as practicable, give to the Collector notice in writing—

(a) of the nature and amount or approximate value of such treasure; (b) of the place in which it was found;

1 For The statement of Objects and Reasons, see Gazette of India, 1876, Pt. V, P. 1403 for discussions in Council, see ibid Supplement pp. 1288 and 1326; ibid. 1878, pp. 207 and 287.

This Act has been declared to be in force in Sonthal Parganas by the Sonthal Parganas Settlement Regulation (3 of 1872), s.3.

Khondmals District by the Khondmals Laws Regulation, 1936 (4 of 1936), s. 3 and Sch and

Angul District by the Angul Laws Regulation, 1936 (5 of 1936), s.3 and Sch.

It has also been declared by notification under s.3 (a) of the Scheduled Districts Act, 1874 ( 14 of 1874) to be in force in the Scheduled Districts of Hazaribagh, Lohardaga and Manbhum and Pargana Dhalbhum and the Kolhan in the District of Singhbhum—see Gazette of India, 1881, Pt. I, p. 504. (The District of Lohardaga included at that time the present District of Palaman, which was separated in 1894: Lohardaga is now called the Ranchi District: see Calcutta Gazette, 1899, Pt. I, p. 44).

2 These words were substituted for the words “the whole of British India” by the Indian Independence (Adaptation of Central Acts and Ordinances) Order, 1948.

3 The words “And it shall come into force at once” were repealed by the Repealing and Amending Act, 1914 (10 of 1914).

4 These words were substituted by the words “Local Government” by the Government of India (Adaptation of Indian Laws) Order, 1937. 150 (c) of the date of the finding:

and either deposit the treasure in the nearest Government Treasury, or give the Collector such security as the Collector thinks fit, to produce the treasure at such time and place as be may from time to time require.

5. Notification requiring claimants to appear.—On receiving a notice under section 4, the Collector shall, after making such enquiry (if any) as he thinks fit, to take the following steps (namely):-

a) he shall publish a notification in such manner as the 1[Provincial Government] from time to time prescribes in this behalf, to the effect that, on a certain date (mentioning it) certain treasure (mentioning its nature; amount and approximate value) was found in a certain place (mentioning it); and requiring all persons claiming the treasure, or any part thereof, to appear personally or by agent before the Collector on a day and at a place therein mentioned, such day not being earlier than four months, or later than six months, after the date of the publication of such notification;

b) when the place in which the treasure appears to the Collector to have been found was at the date of the finding in the possession of some person other than the finder, the Collector shall also serve on such person a special notice in writing to the same effect.

6. Forfeiture of right on failure to appear.—Any person having any right to such treasure or any part thereof, as owner of the place in which it was found or otherwise, and not appearing as required by the notification issued under section 5, shall forfeit such right.

7. Matters to be enquired into and determined by the Collector.—On the day notified under section 5, the Collector shall cause the treasure to be produced before him, and shall enquire as to and determine—

a) the person by whom, the place in which, and the circumstances under which, such treasure was found; and

b) as far as is possible, the person by whom, and the circumstances under which, such treasure was hidden.

8. Time to be allowed for suit by person claiming the treasure.—If, upon an enquiry made under section 7, the Collector sees reason to believe that the treasure was hidden, within one hundred years before the date of the finding, by a person appearing as required by the said notification and claiming such treasure, or by some other person under whom such person claims, the Collector shall make an order adjourning the hearing of the case for such period as he deems sufficient, to allow of a suit being instituted in the Civil Court by the claimant, to establish his right.

9. When treasure may be declared ownerless.—If upon such enquiry the Collector sees no reason to believe that the treasure was so hidden; or

if, where a period is fixed under section 8, no suit is instituted as aforesaid within such period to the knowledge of the Collector; or

If such suit is instituted within such period, and the plaintiff’s claim is finally rejected,

1 These words were substituted for the words “Local Government” by the Government of India (Adaptation of Indian Laws) Order, 1937. 151 The collector may declare the treasure to be ownerless.

Appeal against such declaration- Any person aggrieved by a declaration made under this section may appeal against the same within two months from the date thereof to the Chief Controlling Revenue-authority.

Subject to such appeal, every such declaration shall be final and conclusive.

10. Proceedings subsequent to declaration.—When a declaration has been made in respect of any treasure under section 9, such treasure shall, in accordance with the provisions hereinafter contained, either be delivered to the finder thereof, or be divided between him and the owner of the place in which it has been found in manner hereinafter provided.

11. When no other person claims as owner of place, treasure to be given to finder.—When a declaration has been made in respect of any treasure as aforesaid, and no person other than the finder of such treasure has appeared as required by the notification published under section 5 and claimed a share of the treasure as owner of the place in which it has been found, the Collector shall deliver such treasure to the finder thereof.

12. When only one such person claims and his claim is not disputed, treasure to be divided, and shares to be delivered to parties.—When a declaration has been made as aforesaid in respect of any treasure, and only one person other than the finder of such treasure has so appeared and claimed, and the claim of such person is not disputed by the finder, the Collector shall proceed to divide the treasure between the finder and the person so claiming according to the following rule (namely):—

If the finder and the person so claiming have not entered into any agreement then in force as to the disposal of the treasure, three-fourths of the treasure shall be allotted to such finder and the residue to such person. If which finder and such person have entered into any such agreement, the treasure shall be disposed of in accordance therewith:

Provided that the Collector may, in any case, if he thinks fit, instead of dividing any treasure as directed by this section.—

(a) allot to either party the whole or more than his share of such treasure, on such party paying to the Collector for the other party such sum of money as the Collector may fix as the equivalent of the share of such other party, or of the excess so allotted, as the case may be; or

(b) sell such treasure or any portion thereof by public auction and divide the sale-proceeds between the parties according to the rule hereinbefore prescribed:

Provided also that, when the Collector has by his declaration under section 9 rejected any claim made under this Act by any person other than the said finder or person claiming as owner of the place in which the treasure was found, such division shall not be made until after the expiration of two months without an appeal having been presented under section 9 by the person whose claim has been so rejected, or when an appeal has been so presented, after such appeal has been dismissed.

When the Collector has made a division under this section, he shall deliver to the parties the portions of such treasure, or the money in lieu thereof, to which they are respectively entitled under such division.

152 13. In case of dispute as to ownership, proceeding to be stayed.—When a declaration has been made as aforesaid in respect of any treasure and two or more persons have appeared as aforesaid and each of them claimed as owner of the place where such treasure was found, or the right of any person who has so appeared and claimed is disputed by the finder of such treasure, the Collector shall retain such treasure and shall make an order staying his proceedings with a view to the matter being enquired into and determined by a Civil Court.

14. Settlement of such dispute.—Any person who has so appeared and claimed may, within one month from the date of such order, institute a suit in the Civil Court to obtain a decree declaring his right; and in every such suit the finder of the treasure and all persons disputing such claim before the Collector shall be made defendants.

15. and division thereupon.—If any such suit is instituted and the plaintiff’s claim is finally established therein, the Collector shall, subject to the provisions of section 12, divide the treasure between him and the finder.

If no such suit is instituted as aforesaid, or if the claims of the plaintiffs in all such suits are finally rejected, the Collector shall deliver the treasure to the finder.

16. Power to acquire the treasure on behalf of the Government.—The Collector, may, at any time after making a declaration under section 9, and before delivering or dividing the treasure as hereinbefore provided, declare by writing under his hand his intention to acquire on behalf of the Government the treasure or any specified portion thereof, by payment to the persons entitled thereto of a sum equal to the value of the materials of such treasure of portion, together with one-fifth of such value, and may place such sum in deposit in his treasury to the credit of such persons; and thereupon such treasure or portion shall be deemed to the property of the Government, and the money so deposited shall be dealt with, as far as may be, as if it were such treasure or portion.

17. Decision of Collector final, and no suit to lie against him for acts done bona fide.—No decision passed or act done by the Collector under this Act shall be called in question by any Civil Court, and no suit or other proceeding shall lie against him for anything done in good faith in exercise of the powers hereby conferred.

18. Collector to exercise powers of Civil Court.—A Collector making any enquiry under this Act may exercise any power conferred by the Code of Civil Procedure1 on a Civil Court for the trial of suits.

19. Power to make rules.—The 2[Provincial Government] may from time to time, make rules consistent with this Act to regulate proceeding hereunder.

Such rules shall, on being published in the 3{Official Gazette], have the force of law. PENALTIES

20. Penalty on finder failing to give notice, etc.—If the finder of any treasure fails to give the notice or does not either make the deposit or give the security required by section 4, or alters or attempts to alter such treasure so as to conceal its identity, the

1 See now the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Act 5 of 1908). 2 These words were substituted for the words “Local Government”by the Government of India (Adaptation of Indian Laws) Order, 1937. 3 These words were substituted for the words “Local Gazette”, ibid. 153 share of such treasure, or the money in lieu thereof to which he would otherwise be entitled, shall vest in Her Majesty.

And he shall, on conviction before a Magistrate be punished with imprisonment for a term, which may extent to one year, or with fine, or with both.

21. Penalty on owner abetting offense under section 20.—If the owner of the place in which any treasure is found abets, within the meaning of the Indian Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860), any offense under section 20, the share of such treasure or the money in lieu thereof to which he would otherwise be entitled, shall vest in Her Majesty, and he shall, on conviction before a Magistrate, be punished with imprisonment which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.

SCHEDULE [Repealed by the Amending Act, 1891 (XII of 1891)]

154

THE ANCIENT MONUMENTS PRESERVATION ACT 1904 (VII OF 1904)

[AS MODIFIED UPTO THE 1ST SEPTEMBER 1949]

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED

A.O. 1937 For Government of India (Adaptation of Indian Laws) Order, 1937, as modified by the Government of India (Adaptation of Indian Laws) Supplementary Order, 1937

A.O. 1948 For Indian Independence (Adaptation of Central Acts and Ordinances) Order, 1948.

Govt. For Government

L.G. For Local Government

G.G. in C. For Governor General in Council

Mad. For Madras.

C.P. For Central Provinces

Subs. For Substituted.

Rep. For Repealed.

S. For Section.

155

THE ANCIENT MONUMENTS PRESERVATION ACT 1904 CONTENTS

SECTIONS

1. Short title and extent. 2. Definitions. 3. Protected Monuments.

Ancient Monuments

4. Acquisition of rights in or guardianship of an ancient monument. 5. Preservation of ancient monument by agreement. 6. Owners under disability or not in possession. 7. Enforcement of agreement. 8. Purchasers at certain sales and persons claiming through owner bound by instrument executed by owner. 9. Application of endowment to repair of an ancient monument. 10. Compulsory purchase of ancient monument. 10A. Power of Central Government to control mining, etc., near ancient monument. 11. Maintenance of certain protected monuments. 12. Voluntary contributions. 13. Protection of place of worship from misuse, pollution or desecration. 14. Relinquishment of Government rights in a monument. 15. Right of access to certain protected monuments. 16. Penalties. Traffic in Antiquities

17. Power to Central Government to control traffic in antiquities.

Protection of Sculptures, Carvings, Images, Bas-Reliefs, Inscriptions or like objects

18. Power to Central Government to control moving of sculptures, carvings or like objects. 19. Purchase of sculptures, carvings or like objects by the Government.

Archaeological Excavation

20. Power of Central Government to notify areas as protected. 20A. Power to enter upon and make excavations in a protected area. 20B. Power of Central government to make rules regulating archaeological excavation in protected areas.

156 20C. Power to acquire a protected area.

General

21. Assessment of market value or compensation. 22. Jurisdiction. 23. Power to make rules. 24. Protection to public servants acting under Act.

Act No. VII of 19041 [18th March, 1904]

An Act to provide for the preservation of Ancient Monuments and objects of archaeological, historical, or artistic interest.

(As modified upto 1st September, 1949)

WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for the preservation of ancient monuments, for the exercise of control over traffic in antiquities and over excavation in certain places, and for the protection and acquisition in certain cases of ancient monuments and of objects of archaeological, historical or artistic interest; it is hereby enacted as follows:--

1. Short title and extent.—(1) This Act may be called the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904.

(2) It extends to 2[all the Provinces of India], inclusive of 3* * *, the Santhal Parganas and the Pargana of Spiti.

2. Definitions.— In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context.—

(1) “ancient monument” means any structure, erection or monument, or any tumulus or place of interment, or any cave, rock-sculpture, inscription or monolith, which is of historical, archaeological or artistic interest, or any remains thereof, and includes—

(a) the site of an ancient monument;

(b) such portion of land adjoining the site of an ancient monument as may be required for fencing or covering in or otherwise preserving such monument; and

(c) the means of access to and convenient inspection of an ancient

1 For Statement of Objects and Reasons, see Gazetteer of India, 1903, Pt. V, p.513; for Report of the Select Committee, see ibid., 1904, Pt. V, page 57; and for Proceedings in Council, see ibid., 1903, Pt. VI, pp. 166, 191, Pt. VI, pp. 20 and 76.

This Act has been declared to be in force in the Khondmals District by the Khondmals Laws Regulation, 1936 (4 of 1936), s. 3 and Sch.; and in the Angul District by the Angul Laws Regulation, 1936 (5 of 1936), s.3 and Sch.

It has been extended to Berar by the Berar Laws Act, 1941 (4 of 1941).

2 Subs. by the A.O. 1948, for “the whole of British India”. 3 The words “British Baluchistan” were rep. By the A.O. 1948. 4 Subs, by the A.O. 1937, for “the Govt.” 5 Subs, by the A. O. 1937, for “L.G.”

157 monument:

(2) “antiquities” include any moveable objects which 4(the Central Government), by reason of their historical or archaeological associations, may think it necessary to protect against injury, removal or dispersion:

(3) “Commissioner” includes any officer authorized by 5[the Central Government] to perform the duties of a Commissioner under this Act:

(4) “Maintain” and “Maintenance” include the fencing covering in, repairing, resorting and cleansing of a protected monument, and the doing of any act which may be necessary for the purpose of maintaining a protected monument or of securing convenient access thereto:

(5) “Land” includes a revenue-free estate, a revenue-paying estate, and a permanent transferable tenure, whether such a estate or tenure be subject to incumbrances or not: and

(6) “owner” includes a joint owner invested with powers of management on behalf of himself and other joint owners, and any manager or trustee exercising powers of management over an ancient monument, and the successor in title of any such owner and the successor in office of any such manager or trustee:

Provided that nothing in this Act shall be deemed to extend the powers, which may lawfully be exercised by such manager or trustee.

3. Protected monuments.—(1) The 1[Central Government] may, by notification in the 2[Official Gazette], declare an ancient monument to be a protected monument within the meaning of this Act.

(2) A copy of every notification published under sub-section (1) shall be fixed up in a conspicuous place on or near the monument, together with an intimation that any objections to the issue of the notification received by 1[Central Government] within one month from the date when it is so fixed up will be taken into consideration.

(3) On the expiry of the said period of one month, the 1[Central Government], after considering the objections, if any, shall confirm or withdraw the notification.

(4) A notification published under this section shall, unless and until it is withdrawn, be conclusive evidence of the fact that the monument to which it relates is an ancient monument within the meaning of this Act.

ANCIENT MONUMENTS

4. Acquisition of rights in or guardianship of an ancient monument.—(1) The Collector, with the sanction of the 1[Central Government], may purchase or take a lease of any protected monument.

(2) The Collector, with the like sanction, may accept a gift or bequest of any protected monument.

(3) The owner of any protected monument may, by written instrument,

1 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “L.G.”. 2 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “local official Gazette”. 158 constitute the Commissioner the guardian of the monument, and the Commissioner may, with the sanction of the 1[Central Government], accept such guardianship.

(4) When the Commissioner has accepted the guardianship of a monument under sub-section (3), the owner shall, except as expressly provided in this Act, have the same estate, right, title and interest in and to the monument as if the Commissioner had not been constituted guardian thereof.

(5) When the Commissioner has accepted the guardianship of a monument under sub-section (3), the provisions of this Act relating to agreements executed under section 5 shall apply to the written instrument executed under the said sub-section. Where a protected monument is without an owner, the Commissioner may assume the guardianship of the monument.

5. Preservation of ancient monument by agreement.—

(1) The Collector may, with the previous sanction of 1[the Central Government], propose to the owner to enter into an agreement with 2[the Central Government] for the preservation of any protected monument in his district.

(2) An agreement under this section may provide for the following matters, or for such of them as it may be found expedient to include in the agreement:--

(a) the maintenance of the monument;

(b) the custody of the monument, and the duties of any person who may be employed to watch it;

(c) the restriction of the owner’s right to destroy, remove, alter or deface the monument or to build on or near the site of the monument;

(d) the facilities of access to be permitted to the public or to any portion of the public and to persons deputed by the owner or the Collector to inspect or maintain the monument;

(e) the notice to be given to 3[the Central Government] in case the land on which the monument is situated is offered for sale by the owner, and the right to be reserved to 1[the Central Government] to purchase such land, or any specified portion of such land, at its market-value;

(f) the payment of any expenses incurred by the owner or by 1[the Central Government] in connection with the preservation of the monument;

(g) the proprietary or other rights which are to vest in His Majesty in respect of the monument when any expenses are incurred by 1[the Central Government] in connection with the preservation of the monument;

(h) the appointment of an authority to decide any dispute arising out of the agreement; and

any matter connected with the preservation of the monument which is a proper subject of agreement between the owner and 1[the Central Government].

1 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “the L.G.”. 2 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “the Secretary of State for India in Council”.

3 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “the Govt.” 159

1[* * * *]

(4) The terms of an agreement under this section may be altered from time to time with the sanction of 2[the Central Government], and with the consent of the owner.

(5) With the previous sanction of 3[the Central Government], the Collector may terminate an agreement under this section on giving six months notice in writing to the owner.

(6) The owner may terminate an agreement under this section on giving six months’ notice to the Collector.

(7) An agreement under this section shall be binding on any person claiming to be owner of the monument to which it relates, through or under a party by whom or on whose behalf the agreement was executed.

(8) Any rights acquired by 3[the Central Government] in respect of expenses incurred in protecting or preserving a monument shall not be affected by the termination of an agreement under this section.

6. Owners under disability or not in possession.—

(1) if the owner is unable, by reason of infancy or other disability, to act for himself, the person legally competent to act on his behalf may exercise the powers conferred upon an owner by section 5.

(2) In the case of village-property, the headman or other village officer exercising powers of management over such property may exercise the powers conferred upon an owner by section 5.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to empower any person not being of the same religion as the persons on whose behalf he is acting to make or execute an agreement relating to a protected monument which or any part of which is periodically used for the religious worship or observances of that religion.

7. Enforcement of agreement.—

(1) If the Collector apprehends that the owner or occupier of a monument intends to destroy, remove, alter, deface, or imperil the monument or to build on or near the site thereof in contravention of the terms of an agreement for its preservation under section 5, the Collector may make an order prohibiting any such contravention of the agreement.

(2) If an owner or other person who is bound by an agreement for the preservation or maintenance of a monument under section 5 refuses to do any act which is in the opinion of the Collector necessary to such preservation or maintenance, or neglects to do any such act within such reasonable time as may be fixed by the Collector, the Collector may authorise any person to do any such act, and the expense of doing any such act or such portion of the expense as the owner may be liable to pay under the agreement may be recovered from the owner as if it were in arrears of land-revenue.

1 Sub-section (3) was rep. by the A.O. 1937 2 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “the L.G.” 3 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “Govt.” 160

(3) A person aggrieved by an order made under this section may appeal to the Commissioner, who may cancel or modify it and who decision shall be final.

8. Purchasers at certain sales and persons claiming though owner bound by instrument executed by owner.—

Every person who purchases, at a sale for arrears of land revenue or any other public demand, or at a sale made under the Bengal Patni Taluks Regulation, 1819 (Ben. Reg. VIII of 1819) an estate or tenure in which is situated a monument in respect of which any instrument has been executed by the owner for the time being, under section 4 or section 5, and every person claiming any title to a monument from, through or under an owner who executed any such instrument, shall be bound by such instrument.

9. Application of endowment to repair of an ancient monument.—

(1) If any owner or other person competent to enter into an agreement under section 5 for the preservation of a protected monument, refuses or fails to enter into such an agreement when proposed to him by the Collector, and if any endowment has been created for the purpose of keeping such monument in repair, or for that purpose among others, the Collector may institute a suit in the Court of the District Judge, or, if the estimated cost of repairing the monument does not exceed one thousand rupees, may make an application to the District Judge for the proper application of such endowment or part thereof.

(2) On the hearing of an application under sub-section (1), the District Judge may summon and examine the owner and any person whose evidence appears to him necessary, and may pass an order for the proper application of the endowment or of any part thereof and any such order may be executed as if it were the decree of a Civil Court.

10 Compulsory purchase of ancient monument.— . (1) If the 1[Central Government] apprehends that a protected monument is in danger of being destroyed, injured or allowed to fall into decay, 2[the Central Government may direct the Provincial Government to acquire it] under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (I of 1894), as if the preservation of a protected monument were a “public purpose” within the meaning of that Act.

(2) The powers of compulsory purchase conferred by sub-section (1) shall not be exercised in the case of—3

(a) any monument which or any part of which is periodically used for religious observances; or

(b) any monument which is the subject of a subsisting agreement executed under section 5.

(3) In any case other than the cases referred to in sub-section (2) the said powers of compulsory purchase shall not be exercised unless the owner or other person competent to enter into an agreement under section 5 has failed, within such reasonable period as the Collector may fix in this behalf, to enter into an agreement proposed to him under the said section or has terminated or given notice of his intention to terminate such an agreement.

1 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “L.G.” 2 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “the L.G. may proceed to acquire it”. 161

1[10A Power of Central Government to control mining, etc., near ancient monument.—

(1) If the 2[Central Government] is of opinion that mining, quarrying, excavating, blasting and other operations of a like nature should be restricted or regulated for the purpose of protecting or preserving any ancient monument; the 3[Central Government] may, by notification in the 2[Official Gazette], make rules—

(a) fixing the boundaries of the area to which the rules are to apply,

(b) forbidding the carrying on of mining, quarrying, excavating, blasting or any operation of a like nature except in accordance with the rules and with the terms of a licence, and

(c) prescribing the authority by which, and the terms on which, licences may be granted to carry on any of the said operations.

(2) The power to make rules given by this section is subject to the condition of the rules being made after previous publication.

(3) A rule made under this section may provide that any person committing a breach thereof shall be punishable with fine, which may extend to two hundred rupees.

(4) If any owner or occupier of land included in a notification under sub-section (1) proves to the satisfaction of the 2[Central Government] that he has sustained loss by reason of such land being so included, the 2[Central Government] shall pay compensation in respect of such loss.]

11 Maintenance of certain protected monuments.— . (1) The Commissioner shall maintain every monument in respect of which the Government has acquired any of the rights mentioned in section 4 or which the Government has acquired under section 10.

(2) When the Commissioner has accepted the guardianship of a monument under section 4, he shall, for the purpose of maintaining such monument, have access to the monument at all reasonable times, by himself and by his agents, subordinates and workmen, for the purpose of inspecting the monument, and for the purpose of bringing such materials and doing such acts as be may consider necessary or desirable for the maintenance thereof.

12 Voluntary contributions.— . The Commissioner may receive voluntary contributions towards the cost of maintaining a protected monument and may give orders as to the management and application of any funds so received by him:

Provided that no contribution received under this section shall be applied to any purpose other than the purpose for which it was contributed.

13 Protection of place of worship from misuse, pollution or desecration.— .

1 S. 10A ins. by the Ancient Monuments Preservation (Amendment)Act, 1932 (18 of 1932), s.2. 2 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “L.G”. 3 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “local official Gazette”. 162 (1) A place of worship or shrine maintained by the Government under this Act shall not be used for any purpose inconsistent with its character.

(2) Where the Collector has, under section 4, purchased or taken a lease of any protected monument or has accepted a gift or bequest, or the Commissioner has, under the same section accepted the guardianship thereof, and such monument, or any part thereof, is periodically used for religious worship or observances by any community, the Collector shall make due provision for the protection such monument, or such part thereof, from pollution or desecration-

(a) by prohibiting the entry therein, except in accordance with condition prescribed with the concurrence of the persons in religious charge of the said monument or part thereof, of any person not entitled so to enter by the religious usages of the community by which the monument or part thereof is used, or

(b) by taking such other action as he may think necessary in this behalf.

14 Relinquishment of Government rights in a monument- With the sanction . of 1[the Central Government], the Commissioner may-

(a) where rights have been acquired by 2[the Central Government] in respect of any monument under this Act by virtue of any sale, lease, gift or will, relinquish the right so acquired to the person who would for the time being be the owner of the monument if such rights had not been acquired; or

(b) relinquish any guardianship of a monument which he has accepted under this act.

15 Right of access to certain monuments.- (1) Subject to such rules as may . after previous publication be made by 1[the Central Government], the public shall have a right of access to any monument maintained by 3[the Central Government ] under this Act.

(2) In making any rule under sub-section (1) 1[the Central Government], may provide that a breach of it shall be punishable with fine which may extend to twenty rupees.

16 Penalties.- Any person other than the owner who destroys, removes, injuries, . alters, defaces or imperils a protected monument, and any owner who destroys, removes, injures, alters, defaces or imperils a monument maintained by 4[the Central Government] under this Act or in respect of which an agreement has been executed under section 5, and any owner or occupier who contravenes an order made under section 7, sub-section (1), shall be punishable with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with imprisonment which may extend to three months, or with both.

Traffic in Antiquities

1 Subs by the A.O. 1937, for “the L.G”. 2 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “the Govt.” 3 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “the Govt.” 4 Subs. by the A. O. 1937, for “Govt.” 163 17 Power to Central Government to control traffic in antiquities.- (1) If the . 1[Central Government] apprehends that antiquities are being sold or removed to the detriment of India or of any neighboring country, 2(It) may, by 3(notification in the 4(Official Gazette), prohibit or restrict the bringing or taking by sea or by land of any antiquities or class of antiquities described in the notification into or out of 5(the provinces) or any specified part of 5(the Provinces).

(2) Any person who brings or takes or attempts to bring or take any such antiquities into or out of 5(the provinces) or any part of 5(the provinces) in contravention of a notification issued under sub-section (1), shall be punishable with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees.

(3) Antiquities in respect of which an offense referred to in sub-section (2) has been committed shall be liable to confiscation.

(4) An officer of Customs, or an officer of Police of a grade not lower than Sub- Inspector, duly empowered by the 6[Central Government) in this behalf, may search any vessel, cart or other means of conveyance and may open any baggage or package of goods, if he has reason to believe that goods in respect of which an offense has been committed under sub-section (2) are contained therein.

(5) A person who complains that the power of search mentioned in sub-section (4) has been vexatiously or improperly exercised may address his complaint to the 6(Central Government), and the 6[Central Government] shall pass such order and may award such compensation, if any as appears to it to be just.

Protection of Sculptures, Carvings, Images, Bas-reliefs, Inscriptions or like objects.

18. Power to Central Government to control moving of sculptures, carvings or like objects. —

(1) If 7[the Central Government] considers that any sculptures, carvings, images, bas-reliefs, inscriptions or other like objects ought not to be moved from the place where they are without the sanction of 8[the Central Government], 9[the Central Government] may by notification10 in the 11[Official Gazette], direct that any such object or any class of such objects shall not be moved unless with the written permission of the Collector.

(2) A person applying for the permission mentioned in sub-section (1) shall specify the object or objects, which he proposes to move, and shall furnish in regard to such object or objects, any information, which the collector may require.

(3) If the Collector refuses to grant such permission, the applicant may appeal

1 Subs. by the A. O. 1937, for “G.G. in C.” 2 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “he” 3 See notification no. 110 dated 28th May, 1917, Part-I, p. 989, and notification No. 1385, dated 8th July 1924, Gazette of India, 1924, Pt. I, P.614; Gen. R. & O., Vol.-III. 4 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “Gazette of India” 5 Subs. by the A. O. 1948, for “British India” 6 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “L.G.” 7 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “the L.G.” 8 Subs. by the A.O. 1937 for “the Govt,” 9 Subs. by the A.O. 1937 for “the L.G.” 10 For notification under this section, issued before the 1st April, 1937, by the Government of— 1. Bengal, see Calcutta Gazette, 1908, Pt. I, p. 1248, and ibid., 1909, Pt. I, p.23; and p.957 as to Gaya District. 2. Central Provinces, see C.P. Gazette, 1906, Pt. III, p. 616. 11 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “local official Gazette”.

164 to the Commissioner, whose decision shall be final.

(4) Any person who moves an object in contravention of a notification issued under sub-section (1), shall be punishable with fine, which may extend to five hundred rupees.

(5) If the owner of any property proves to the satisfaction of 1[the Central Government] that he has suffered any loss or damage by reason of the inclusion of such property in a notification published under sub-section (1), 1[the Central Government] shall either—

(a) exempt such property from the said notification;

(b) purchase such property, if it to be moveable, at its market value; or

(c) pay compensation for any loss or damage sustained by the owner of such property, if it to be immoveable.

19. Purchase of sculptures, carvings or like objects by the Government.—

(1) If 1[the Central Government] apprehends that any object mentioned in a notification issued under section 18, sub-section (1), is in danger of being destroyed, removed, injured or allowed to fall into decay, 1[the Central Government] may pass orders for the compulsory purchase of such object at its market-value and the Collector shall thereupon give notice to the owner of the object to be purchased.

(2) The power of compulsory purchase given by this section shall not extend to—

(a) any image or symbol actually used for the purpose of any religious observance; or

(b) anything which the owner desires to retain on any reasonable ground personal to himself or to any of his ancestors or to any member of his family.

2[ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION.]

2 [20. Power of Central Government to notify areas as protected.—

(1) If the 3[Central Government] 4* * * * is of opinion that excavation for archaeological purposes in any area should be restricted and regulated in the interest of archaeological research, the 3[Central Government] may, by notification in the 5[Official Gazette] specifying the boundaries of the area, declare it to be a protected area.

(2) From the date of such notification all antiquities buried in the protected area shall be the property of 6[the Crown] and shall be deemed to be in the possession of 6[the Crown], and shall remain the property and in the possession of 6[the Crown] until ownership thereof is transferred; but in all other respects the rights of any owner or occupier of land in such area shall

1 Subs. by the A.O. 1937 for “the L.G.” 2 This heading and Ss. 20, 20A, 20B, and 20C were subs. by the Ancient Monuments Preservation (Amendment) Act, 1932 (18 of 1932), s.3, for the original heading and s.20 3 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “G.G. in C.” 4 The words “after consulting the L.G.” rep, by the A.O. 1937. 5 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “Gaszette of India”. 6 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “Govt.” 165 not be affected.]

2 Power to enter upon and make excavation in a protected area.— [20A (1) any officer of the Archaeological Deparment or any person holding a licence under section 20B may, with the written permission of the Collector, enter upon and make excavations in any protected area.

(2) Where, in the exercise of the power conferred by sub-section (1), the rights of any person are infringed by the occupation or disturbance of the surface of any land, 1[the Central Government] shall pay to that person compensation for the infringement.]

2[20B Power of Central Government to make rules regulating archaeological . excavation in protected areas.—

(1) The 3[Central Government] may make rules—

(a) prescribing the authorities by whom licences to excavate for archaeological purposes in a protected area may be granted;

(b) regulating the conditions on which such licences may be granted, the form of such licences, and the taking of security from licensees;

(c) prescribing the manner in which antiquities found by a licensee shall be divided between 4[the Central Government] and the licensee, and

(d) generally to carry out the purposes of section 20.

(2) The power to make rules given by this section is subject to the condition of the rules being made after previous publication.

(3) Such rules may be general for all protected areas for the time being or may be special for any particular protected area or areas.

Such rules may provide that any person committing a breach of any rule or of any condition of a licence shall be punishable with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, and may further provide that where the breach has been by the agent or servant of a licensee the licensee himself shall be punishable].

1[20C Power to acquire a protected area.— . If the 2[Central Government] is of opinion that a protected area contains an ancient monument or antiquities of national interest and value, 5[it] may direct the 6[Provincial Government] to acquire such area, or any part thereof, and the 5[Provincial Government] may thereupon acquire such area or part under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (I of 1894), as for a public purpose].

21. Assessment of market-value or compensation.—

1 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “the Govt.” 2 See footnote 2 on pre-page. 3 Subs. in the A.O. 1937 for “G.G. in C.” 4 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “Govt.”. 5 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “he”. 6 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “L.G.”. 166 (1) The market-value of any property which Government is empowered to purchase at such value under this Act, or the 1* *compensation to be paid by Government in respect of anything done under this Act, shall, where any dispute arises 2[in respect] of such market-value or compensation, be ascertained in the manner provided by the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, sections 3, 8 to 34, 45 to 47, 51 and 52 so far as they can be made applicable:

Provided that when making any inquiry under the said Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the Collector shall be assisted by two assessors, one of whom shall be a competent person nominated by the Collector, and one a person nominated by the owner or, in case the owner fails to nominate an assessor within such reasonable time as may be fixed by the Collector in this behalf, by the Collector.

22. Jurisdiction.—A Magistrate of the thirst class shall not have jurisdiction to try any person charged with an offense against this Act.

23. Power to make rules.—

(1) The 3[Central Government] 4* *may make rules5 for carrying out any of the purposes of this Act.

(2) The power to make rules given by this section is subject to the condition of the rules being made after previous publication.

24. Protection to public servants acting under Act.—No suit for compensation and no criminal proceeding shall lie against any public servant in respect of any act done, or in good faith intended to be done, in the exercise of any power conferred by this Act.

1 The words “amount of “ rep. by the Ancient Monuments Preservation (Amendment) Act, 1932 (18 of 1932), s.4. 2 Subs. by s.4, ibid., for “touching the amount”.

3 Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “G.G. in C.”. 4 The words “or the L.G.” rep. by the A.O. 1937. 5 For rules made by the Mad. Govt. before the 1st April 1937, for the decipherment, publication, and custody of Indian inscriptions on stone and copper, see Mad. R. and O. 167

The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological

Sites and Remains Act 1958 (ACT No. 24 of 1958)

168

ANCIENT MONUMENTS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND REMAINS ACT, 1958

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS PRELIMINARY

SECTIONS

1. Short title, extent and commencement 2. Definitions.

ANCIENT MONUMENTS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND REMAINS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE.

3. Certain ancient monuments, etc., deemed to be of national importance. 4. Power of Central Government to declare ancient monuments, etc., to be of national importance.

PROTECTED MONUMENTS.

5. Acquisition of rights in a protected monument. 6. Preservation of protected monument by agreement. 7. Owners under disability or not in possession. 8. Application of endowment to repair a protected monument. 9. Failure or refusal to enter into an agreement. 10. Power to make order-prohibiting contravention of agreement under section 6. 11. Enforcement of agreement. 12. Purchasers at certain sales and persons claiming through owner bound by instrument executed by owner. 13. Acquisition of protected monuments. 14. Maintenance of certain protected monuments. 15. voluntary contributions. 16. Protection of place of worship from misuse, pollution or desecration. 17. Relinquishment of government rights in a monument. 18. Right of access to protected monuments.

169

The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (No. 24 of 1958)

An Act to provide for the preservation of ancient and historical monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national importance, for the regulation of archaeological excavations and for the protection of sculptures, carvings and other like objects. [28th August 1958]

BE it enacted by Parliament in the Ninth Year of the Republic of India as follows:—

Preamble

Short title, extent 1. (1) This Act may be called as the Ancient Monuments and and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. commencement

1[(2) It extents to the whole of India]

(3) It shall come into force on such date2 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

Definitions 2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

(a) “Ancient Monument” means any structure, erection or monument, or any tumulus or place of interment, or any cave, rock-sculpture, inscription or monolith which is of historical, archaeological or artistic interest and which has been in existence for not less than 100 years and includes—

(i) remains of an ancient monument,

(ii) site of an ancient monument,

(iii) such portion of land adjoining the site of an ancient monument as may be required for fencing or covering in or otherwise preserving such monument, and

(iv) the means of access to, and convenient inspection of, an ancient monument;

1 Substituted by the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (52 of 1972), vide Section 33(i), w.e.f. 5.04.1976. 2 The Act came into force on 15.10.1959, vide Notification S.O. 2307, Gazette of India, Extraordinary Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii) 15.10.1959.

170 (b) “antiquity” includes.—

(i) any coin, sculpture, manuscript, epigraph, or other work of art of craftsmanship,

(ii) any article, object or thing detached from a building or cave,

(iii) any article, object or thing illustrative of science, art, crafts, literature, religion, customs, morals or politics in bygone ages,

(iv) any article, object or thing of historical interest, and

(v) any article, object or thing declared by the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette to be an antiquity for the purposes of this Act,

which has been in existence for not less than one hundred years;

(c) “archaeological officer” means an officer of the Department of Archaeology of the Government of India not lower in rank than Assistant Superintendent of Archaeology;

(d) “archaeological site and remains” means any area which contains or is reasonably believed to contain ruins or relics of historical or archaeological importance which have been in existence for not less than one hundred years, and includes—

(i) such portion of land adjoining the area as may be required for fencing or covering in or otherwise preserving it, and

(ii) the means of access to, and convenient inspection of the area;

(e) “Director-General” means the Director-General of Archaeology, and includes any officer authorised by the Central Government to perform the duties of the Director- General;

(f) “maintain”, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, includes the fencing, covering in, repairing, restoring and cleansing of a protected monument, and the doing of any act which may be necessary for the purpose of preserving a protected monument or of securing convenient access thereto;

(g) “Owner” includes—

(i) a joint owner invested with powers of management on behalf of himself and other joint owners and the successor-

171 in-title of any such owner; and

(ii) any manager or trustee exercising powers of management and the successor-in-office of any such manager or trustee;

(h) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(i) “protected area” means any archaeological site and remains which is declared to be of national importance by or under this Act;

(j) “protected monument” means an ancient monument which is declared to be of national importance by or under this Act.

Construction of 3[2A Any reference in this Act to any law which is not in force in the references to any State of Jammu and Kashmir shall, in relation to that State, be law not in force in the State of construed as a reference to the corresponding law, if any, in Jammu and force in that State]. Kashmir

ANCIENT MONUMENTS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND REMAINS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

Certain ancient 3. All ancient and historical monuments and all archaeological monuments, etc., sites and remains which have been declared by the Ancient and deemed to be of national Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains importance (Declaration of National Importance) Act, 1951, or by section 126 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, to be of national 71 of 1951 importance shall be deemed to be ancient and historical 37 of 1956 monument or archaeological sites and remains declared to be of national importance for the purposes of this Act.

Power of Central 4. (1) Where the Central Government is of opinion that Government to any ancient monument or archaeological site and remains not declare ancient monuments, etc., included in section 3 is of national importance, it may, by to be of national notification in the Official Gazette, give two months’ notice of importance its intention to declare such ancient monument or archaeological site and remains to be of national importance; and a copy of every such notification shall be affixed in a conspicuous place near the monument or site and remains, as the case may be.

(2) Any person interested in any such ancient monument or archaeological site and remains may, within two months after the issue of the notification, object to the declaration of the monument, or the archaeological site and remains, to be of national importance.

3 Ins. by Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (52 of 1972), vide Section 33(i), w.e.f. 5.04.1976.

172 (3) On the expiry of the said period of two months, the Central Government may, after considering the objections, if any, received by it, declare by notification in the Official Gazette, the ancient monument or the archaeological site and remains, as the case my be, to be of national importance.

(4) A notification published under sub-section (3) shall, unless and until it is withdrawn, be conclusive evidence of the fact that the ancient monument or the archaeological site and remains to which it relates is of national importance for the purposes of this Act.

PROTECTED MONUMENTS

Acquisition of 5. (1) The Director General may, with the sanction of the rights in a Central Government, purchase, or take a lease of, or accept a protected monument gift or bequest of, any protected monument.

(2) Where a protected monument is without an owner, the Director-General may, by notification in the Official Gazette, assume the guardianship of the monument.

(3) The owner of any protected monument may, by written instrument, constitute the Director-General the guardian o f the monument, and the Director-General may, with the sanction of the Central Government, accept such guardianship.

(4) When the Director-General has accepted the guardianship of a monument under sub-section (3), the owner shall, except as expressly provided in this Act, have the same estate, right, title and interest in and to the monument as if the Director-General had not been constituted a guardian thereof.

(5) When the Director-General has accepted the guardianship of a monument under sub-section (3), the provisions of this Act relating to agreements executed under section 6 shall apply to the written instrument executed under the said sub-section.

(6) Nothing in this section shall affect the use of any protected monument for customary religious observances.

Preservation of 6. (1) The Collector, when so directed by the Central Government, protected shall propose to the owner of a protected monument to enter monument by agreement into an agreement with the Central Government within a specified period for the maintenance of the monument.

(2) An agreement under this section may provide for all or any one of the following matters, namely;—

(a) the maintenance of the monument;

173

(b) the custody of the monument and the duties of any person who may be employed to watch it;

(c) the restriction of the owner’s right—

(i) to use the monument for any purpose,

(ii) to charge any fee for entry into, or inspection of, the monument,

(iii) to destroy, remove, alter or deface the monuments, or

(iv) to build on or near the site of the monument;

(d) The facilities of access to be permitted to the public or any section thereof or to archaeological officers or to persons deputed by the owner or any archaeological officer or the Collector to inspect or maintain the monument;

(e) The notice to be given to the Central Government in case the land on which the monument is situated or any adjoining land is offered for sale by the owner, and the right to be reserved to the Central Government to purchase such land, or any specified portion of such land, at its market value;

(f) The payment of any expenses incurred by the owner or by the Central Government in connection with the maintenance of the monument;

(g) The proprietary or other rights which are to vest in the Central Government in respect of the monument when any expenses are incurred by the Central Government in connection with the maintenance of the monument;

(h) The appointment of an authority to decide any dispute arising out of the agreement; and

(i) Any matter connected with the maintenance of the monument, which is a proper subject of agreement between the owner and the Central Government.

(3) The Central Government or the owner may, at any time after the expiration of three years from the date of execution of an agreement under this section, terminate it on giving six months notice in writing to the other party:

Provided that where the agreement is terminated by the owner, he shall pay to the Central government the expenses, if any, incurred by it on the maintenance of the monument during the five years immediately preceding the termination of

174 the agreement or, if the agreement has been if force for a shorter period, during the period the agreement was in force.

(4) An agreement under this section shall be binding on any person claiming to be the owner of the monument to which it relates, from, through or under a party by whom or on whose behalf the agreement was executed.

Owners under 7. (1) If the owner of a protected monument is unable, by reason of disability or not in infancy or other disability, to act for himself, the person legally possession, competent to act on his behalf may exercise the powers conferred upon an owner by section 6.

(2) In the case of village property, the headman or the village- officer exercising powers of management over such property may exercise the powers conferred upon any owner by section 6.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to empower any person not being of the same religion as the person on whose behalf he is acting to make or execute an agreement relating to a protected monument which or any part of which is periodically used for the religious worship or observances of that religion.

Application of 8. (1) If any owner or other person competent to enter into an endowment to agreement under section 6 for the maintenance of a protected repair a protected monument monument refuses or fails to enter into such an agreement, and if any endowment has been created for the purpose of keeping such monument in repair or for that purpose among others, the Central Government may institute a suit in the court of the district judge, or, if the estimated cost of repairing the monument does not exceed one thousand rupees, may make an application to the district judge, for the proper application of such endowment or part thereof.

(2) On the hearing of an application under sub-section (1), the district judge may summon and examine the owner and any person whose evidence appears to him necessary and may pass an order for the proper application of the endowment or of any part thereof, and any such order may be executed as if it were a decree of a civil court.

Failure or refusal to 9. (1) If any owner or other person competent to enter into an enter into an agreement under section 6 for the maintenance of a protected agreement, monument refuses or fails to enter into such an agreement, the Central Government may make an order providing for all or any of the matters specified in sub-section (2) of section 6 and such order shall be binding on the owner or such other person and on every person claiming title to the monument from, through or under, the owner or such other person.

(2) where an order made under sub-section (1) provides that the

175 monument shall be maintained by the owner or other person competent to enter into an agreement, all reasonable expenses for the maintenance of the monument shall be payable by the Central Government.

(3) no order under subsection (1) shall be made unless the owner or other person has been given an opportunity of making a representation in writing against the proposed order.

Power to make 10 (1) If the Director-General apprehends that the owner or occupier order prohibiting . of a protected monument intends to destroy, remove, alter, contravention of agreement under deface, imperil or misuse the monument or to build on or near section 6. the site thereof in contravention of the terms of an agreement under section 6, the Director-General may, after giving the owner or occupier an opportunity of making a representation in writing, make an order prohibiting any such contravention of the agreement:

Provided that no such opportunity may be given in any case where the Director-General, for reasons to be recorded, is satisfied that it is not expedient or practicable to do so.

(2) Any person aggrieved by an order under this section may appeal to the Central Government within such time and in such manner as may be prescribed and the decision of the Central government shall be final.

Enforcement of 11 (1) If an owner or other person who is bound by an agreement for agreement . the maintenance of a monument under section 6 refuses or fails within such reasonable time as the Director-General may fix, to do any act which in the opinion of the Director-General is necessary for the maintenance of the monument, the Director-General may authorise any person to do any such act, and the owner or other person shall be liable to pay the expenses of doing any such act or such portion of the expenses as the owner may be liable to pay under the agreement.

(2) If any dispute arises regarding the amount of expenses payable by the owner or other person under sub-section (1), it shall be referred to the Central Government whose decision shall be final.

Purchases at 12 Every person who purchases, at a sale for arrears of land certain sales and . revenue or any other public demand, any land on which is persons claiming through owner situated a monument in respect of which any instrument has bound by been executed by the owner for the time being under section 5 instrument or section 6, and every person claiming any title to a monument executed by owner from, through or under, an owner who executed any such instrument, shall be bound by such instrument.

Acquisition of 13 If the Central Government apprehends that a protected protected . monument is in danger of being destroyed, injured, misused, or monuments.

176 monuments. allowed to fall into decay, it may acquire the protected monument under provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 as 1 of 1894 if the maintenance of the protected monument were a public purpose within the meaning of that Act.

Maintenance of 14 (1) The Central Government shall maintain every monument certain protected . which has been acquired under section 13 or in respect of monuments which any of the rights mentioned in section 5 have been acquired.

(2) when the Director-General has assumed the guardianship of a monument under section 5, he shall, for the purpose of maintaining such monument, have access to the monument at all reasonable times, by himself and by his agents, subordinates and workmen, for the purpose of inspecting the monument and for the purpose of bringing such materials and doing such acts as he may consider necessary or desirable for the maintenance thereof.

Voluntary 15 The Director General may receive voluntary contributions contributions . towards the cost of maintaining a protected monument and may give orders as to the management and application of any funds so received by him:

Provided that no contribution received under this section shall be applied to any purpose other than the purpose for which it was contributed.

Protection of place 16 (1) A protected monument maintained by the Central Government of worship from . under this Act which is a place of worship or shrine shall not misuse, pollution or desecration be used for any purpose inconsistent with its character.

(2) Where the Central Government has acquired a protected monument under section 13, or where the Director-General has purchased, or taken a lease or accepted a gift or bequest or assumed guardianship of a protected monument under section 5, and such monument or any part thereof is used for religious worship or observances by any community, the Collector shall make due provisions for the protection of such monument or part thereof, from pollution or desecration—

(a) by prohibiting the entry therein except in accordance with the conditions prescribed with the concurrence of the persons, if any, in religious charge of the said monument or part thereof, of any person not entitled so to enter by the religious usages of the community by which the monument or part thereof is used, or

(b) by taking such other action as he may think necessary in this behalf.

Relinquishment of 17 With the sanction of the Central Government, the Director-General Government rights

177 Government rights . may— in a monument. (a) Where the rights have been acquired by the Director- General in respect of any monument under this Act by virtue of any sale, lease, gift or will, relinquish, by notification in the Official Gazette, the rights so acquired to the person who would for the time being be the owner of the monument if such rights had not been acquired; or

(b) relinquish any guardianship of a monument, which he has assumed under this Act.

Right of access to 18 Subject to any rules made under this Act, the public shall have a protected . right of access to any protected monument. monument

PROTECTED AREAS

Restrictions on 19 (1) No person, including the owner or occupier of a protected area, enjoyment of . shall construct any building within the protected area or carry property rights in protected areas. on any mining, quarrying, excavating, blasting or any operation of a like nature in such area, or utilise such area or any part thereof in any other manner without the permission of the Central Government:

Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall be deemed to prohibit the use of any such area or part thereof for purposes of cultivation if such cultivation does not involve the digging of not more than one foot of soil from the surface.

(2) The Central Government may, by order, direct that any building constructed by any person within a protected area in contravention of the provisions of sub-section (1) shall be removed within a specified period and, if the person refuses or fails to comply with the order, the Collector may cause the building to be removed and the person shall be liable to pay the cost of such removal.

Power to acquire a 20 If the Central Government is of opinion that any protected protected area . area contains an ancient monument or antiquities of national

1 of 1894 interest and value, it may acquire such area under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, as if the acquisition were for a public purpose within the making of that Act.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS

Excavations in 21 An archaeological officer or an officer authorised by him in protected areas . this behalf or any person holding a licence granted in this behalf under this Act (hereinafter referred to as the licensee) may, after giving notice in writing to the Collector and the owner, enter upon and make excavations in any protected area.

178 Excavations in 22 Where an archaeological officer has reason to believe that areas other than . any area not being a protected area contains ruins or relics of protected areas. historical or archaeological importance, he or an officer authorised by him in this behalf may, after giving notice in writing to the Collector and the owner, enter upon and make excavations in the area.

Compulsory 23 (1) Where, as a result of any excavations made in any area purchase of . under section 21 and section 22, any antiquities are antiquities, etc., discovered during discovered, the archaeological officer or the licensee, as the excavation case may be, shall— operations. (a) as soon as practicable, examine such antiquities and submit a report to the Central Government in such manner and containing such particulars as may be prescribed;

(b) at the conclusion of the excavation operations, give notice in writing to the owner of the land from which such antiquities have been discovered, of the nature of such antiquities.

(2) Until an order for the 4[compulsory acquisition] of any such antiquities is made under sub-section (3), the archaeological officer or the licensee, as the case may be, shall keep them in such safe custody as he may deem fit.

(3) On receipt of a report under sub-section (1), the Central Government may make an order for the 5[compulsory acquisition of any such antiquities].

(4) When an order for the 1[compulsory acquisition] of any antiquities is made under sub-section (3), such antiquities shall rest in the Central Government with effect from the date of the order.

Excavations, etc., 24 No State Government shall undertake or authorise any for archaeological . person to undertake any excavation or other like operation purposes. for archaeological purposes in any area which is not a protected area except with the previous approval of the Central Government and in accordance with such rules or directions, if any, as the Central Government may make or give in this behalf.

PROTECTION OF ANTIQUITIES

Power of Central 25 (1) If the Central Government considers that any antiquities or Government to . class of antiquities ought not to be moved from the place control moving of antiquities where they are without the sanction of the Central

4 Substituted for the words [compulsory purchase] by the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (52 of 1972), vide Section 33(iii) (a), w.e.f. 5.04.1976. 5 Substituted for the words “compulsory purchase of any such antiquities at their market value” by the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (52 of 1972), vide Section 33(iii) (b), w.e.f. 5.04.1976.

179 antiquities Government, the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, direct that any such antiquity or any class of such antiquities shall not be moved except with the written permission of the Director General.

(2) Every application for permission under sub-section (1) shall be in such form and contain such particulars as may be prescribed.

(3) Any person aggrieved by an order refusing permission may appeal to the Central Government whose decision shall be final.

Purchase of 26 (1) If the Central Government apprehends that any antiquity antiquities by . mentioned in a notification issued under sub-section (1) of Central Government section 25 is in danger of being destroyed, removed, injured, misused or allowed to fall into decay or is of opinion that, by reason of its historical or archaeological importance, it is desirable to preserve such antiquity in a public place, the Central Government may make an order for the 1[compulsory acquisition of such antiquity] and the Collector shall thereupon give notice to the owner of the antiquity 6[to be acquired].

(2) Where a notice of 7[compulsory acquisition] is issued under sub-section (1) in respect of any antiquity, such antiquity shall vest in the Central Government with effect from the date of the notice.

(3) The power of 2[compulsory acquisition] given by this section shall not extend to any image or symbol actually used for bona fide religious observances.

PRINCIPLES OF COMPENSATION

Compensation for 27 Any owner or occupier of land who has sustained any loss or loss or damage. . damage or any diminution of profits from the land by reason of any entry on, or excavations in, such land or the exercise of any other power conferred by this Act shall be paid compensation by the Central Government for such loss, damage or diminution of profits.

Assessment of 28 (1) The market value of any property which the Central market value of . Government is empowered to purchase at such value under compensation this Act or the compensation to be paid by the Central Government in respect of any thing done under this Act shall, where any dispute arises in respect of such market value or compensation, be ascertained in the manner

provided in sections 3, 5, 8 to 34, 45 to 47, 52 and 52 of the

6 Substituted for the words “compulsory purchase of any such antiquities at its market value” , and “to be purchased” by the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (52 of 1972), vide Section 33(iv) (a), w.e.f. 5.04.1976. 7 Substituted for the words “compulsory purchase”, by the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (52 of 1972), vide Section 33(iv) (b), w.e.f. 5.04.1976.

180 1 of 1894 Land Acquisition Act, 1894, so far as they can be made applicable:

Provided that, when making an enquiry under the said Land Acquisition Act, the Collector shall be assisted by two assessors, one of whom shall be a competent person

nominated by the Central Government and one a person nominated by the owner, or, in case the owner fails to nominate as assessor within such reasonable time as may be fixed by the Collector in this behalf, by the Collector.

8 [(2) For every antiquity in respect of which an order for compulsory acquisition has been made under sub-section (3) 52 of 1972 of section 23 or under sub-section (1) of section 26, there shall be paid compensation and the provisions of section 20 and 22 of the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, shall, so far as may be, apply in relation to the determination and payment of such compensation as they apply in relation to the determination and payment of compensation for any antiquity or art treasure compulsorily acquired under section 19 of that Act] MISCELLANEOUS

Delegation of 29 The Central Government may, by notification in the Official powers . Gazette, direct that any powers conferred on it by or under this Act shall, subject to such conditions as may be specified in the direction, be exercisable also by—

(a) such officer or authority subordinate to the Central Government, or

(b) such State Government or such officer or authority subordinate to the State Government,

as may be specified in the direction.

Penalties 30 (1) WHOEVER— . (i) destroys, removes, inquires, alters, defaces, imperils, or misuse a protected monument, or

(ii) being the owner or occupier of a protected monument, contravenes an order made under sub- section (1) of section 9 or under sub-section (1) of section 10, or

(iii) removes from a protected monument any sculpture, carving, image, bas-relief, inscription, or other like object, or

(iv) does any act in contravention of sub-section(1) of

8 Substituted for the words by the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (52 of 1972), vide Section 33(v), w.e.f. 5.04.1976.

181 section 19, shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both.

(2) Any person who moves any antiquity in contravention of a notification issued under sub-section (1) of section 25 shall be punishable with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees; and the court conviction a person of any such contravention may by order direct such person to restore the antiquity to the place from which it was moved.

Jurisdiction to try 31 No court inferior to that of a presidency magistrate or a offences. magistrate of the first class shall try any offence under this Act.

Certain offences to 32 Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal be cognizable . Procedure, 1898, an offence under clause (i) or clause (iii) of

5 of 1898 sub-section (1) of section 30, shall be deemed to be a cognizable offence within the meaning of that Code.

Special provision 33 Notwithstanding anything contained in section 32 of the Code of regarding fine . Criminal Procedure, 1898, it shall be lawful for nay magistrate of

5 of 1898 the first class specially empowered by the State Government in this behalf and for any presidency magistrate to pass a sentence of fine exceeding two thousand rupees on any person convicted of an offence which under this Act is punishable with fine exceeding two thousand rupees.

Recovery of 34 Any amount due to the Government from any person under this amounts due to the . Act, may on a certificate issued by the Director General or an Government archaeological officer authorised by him in this behalf be recovered in the same manner as an arrear of land revenue.

Ancient 35 If the Central Government is of opinion that any ancient and monuments, etc., . historical monument or archaeological site and remains declared which have ceased to be of national to be of national importance by or under this Act has ceased to importance be of national importance, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that the ancient and historical monument or archaeological site and remains, as the case may be, has ceased to be of national importance for the purposes of this Act.

Power to correct 36 Any clerical mistake, patent error or error arising from mistakes, etc. . accidental slip or omission in the description of any ancient monument or archaeological site and remains declared to be of national importance by or under this Act, may, at any time, be corrected by the Central Government by notification in the Official Gazette.

Protection of action 37 No suit for compensation and no criminal proceeding shall lie taken under the . against any public servant in respect of any act done or in good act. faith intended to be done in the exercise of any power conferred by this Act.

Power to make 38 (1) The Central Government may, by notification in the Official rules.

182 rules. . Gazette and subject to the condition of previous publication, make rules9 for carrying out the purposes of this Act.

(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:—

(a) the prohibition or regulation by licensing or otherwise of mining, quarrying, excavating, blasting or any operation of a like nature near a protected monument or the construction of buildings on land adjoining such monument and the removal of unauthorised buildings;

(b) the grant of licences and permissions to make excavations for archaeological purposes in protected areas, the authorities by whom, and the restrictions and conditions subject to which, such licences may be granted, the taking of securities from licensees and the fees that may be charged for such licences;

(c) the right of access of the public to a protected monument and the fee, if any, to be charged therefor;

(d) the form and contents of the report of an archaeological officer or a licensee under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 23;

(e) the form in which applications for permission under section 19 or section 25 may be made and the particulars which they should contain;

(f) the form and manner of preferring appeals under this Act and the time within which they may be preferred;

(g) the manner of service of any order or notice under this Act;

(h) the manner in which excavations and other like operations for archaeological purposes may be carried on;

(i) any other matter which is to be or may be prescribed.

(3) Any rule made under this section may provide that a breach thereof shall be punishable,—

9 Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules, 1959, published in Gazette of India, Extraordinary vide dated 15.10.1959 Part II, Section 3(ii).

183

(i) in the case of a rule made with reference to clause (a) of sub-section (2), with imprisonment which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both;

(ii) in the case of a rule made with reference to clause (b) of sub-section (2), with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees;

(iii) in the case of a rule made with reference to clause (c) of sub-section (2), with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees.

(4) All rules made under this section shall be laid for not less than thirty days before each House of Parliament as soon as possible after they are made, and shall be subject to such modifications as Parliament may make during the session in which they are so laid or the session immediately following.

Repeals and 39 (1) The Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological savings. . Sites and Remains (Declaration of National Importance) Act,

71 of 1951 1951, and section 126 of the States Reorganisation Act, 37 of 1956 1956, are hereby repealed. 7 0f 1904 (2) The Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904 shall cease to have effect in relation to ancient and historical monuments and archaeological sites and remains declared by or under this Act to be of national importance, except as respects things done or omitted to be done before the commencement of this Act.

184 INTACH Charter

Introduction Part 1: Principles Part 2: Guidelines Part 3: Management and Education Part 4: Professionalism Annexure 1

Introduction

CHARTER FOR THE CONSERVATION OF UNPROTECTED ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE AND SITES IN INDIA

Drawing upon the experience of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) in conserving the unprotected architectural heritage and sites of India within an institutional framework for two decades; Respecting the invaluable contributions of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and State Departments of Archaeology (SDA) in preserving the finest monuments of India; Valuing ASI's pioneering role in promoting scientific methods of practice and establishing highest standards of professionalism in preserving monuments; Acknowledging the importance and relevance of principles enunciated in the various international Charters adopted by UNESCO, ICOMOS, et al; Conscious, however, that a majority of architectural heritage properties and sites in India still remains unidentified, unclassified, and unprotected, thereby subject to attrition on account of neglect, vandalism and insensitive development; Recognising the unique resource of the ‘living’ heritage of Master Builders / Sthapatis / Sompuras / Raj Mistris who continue to build and care for buildings following traditions of their ancestors; Recognising, too, the concept of jeernodharanam, the symbiotic relationship binding the tangible and intangible architectural heritage of India as one of the traditional philosophies underpinning conservation practice; Noting the growing role of a trained cadre of conservation architects in India who are re-defining the meaning and boundaries of contemporary conservation practices; Convinced that it is necessary to value and conserve the unprotected architectural heritage and sites in India by formulating appropriate guidelines sympathetic to the contexts in which they are found; We, members of INTACH, gathered here in New Delhi on the 4th day of November 2004, adopt the following Charter for Conservation of Unprotected Architectural Heritage and Sites in India.

Part 1: PRINCIPLES

ARTICLE 1: Why Conserve? | ARTICLE 2: What to Conserve? | ARTICLE 3: Conservation Ethics

ARTICLE 1: Why Conserve? 1.1 The majority of India’s architectural heritage and sites are unprotected. They constitute a unique civilization legacy, as valuable as the monuments legally protected by ASI/ SDA and other governmental and non-governmental agencies. This legacy is being steadily eroded as a result of insensitive modernization and urbanization, and the fact that it does not command the same respect as legally protected monuments. Many unprotected heritage sites are still in use,

185 and the manner in which they continue to be kept in use represents the ‘living’ heritage of India. This heritage is manifest in both tangible and intangible forms (Article 2.2), and in its diversity defines the composite culture of the country. Beyond its role as a historic document, this unprotected heritage embodies values of enduring relevance to contemporary Indian society, thus making it worthy of conservation. 1.2 This ‘living’ heritage is not legally protected. The buildings and sites, which constitute it, are subject to demolition or unsympathetic interventions. The knowledge of traditional building skills with which it is associated is also in danger of being lost in the absence of patronage and official recognition. Conserving the ‘living’ heritage, therefore, offers the potential to conserve both traditional buildings and traditional ways of building. 1.3 Conserving the unprotected architectural heritage and sites ensures the survival of the country’s sense of place and its very character in a globalising environment. It offers the opportunity not only to conserve the past, but also to define the future. It provides alternate avenues for employment and a parallel market for local building materials and technologies, which needs to be taken into account when resources for development are severely constrained. 1.4 This ‘living’ heritage also has symbiotic relationships with the natural environments within which it originally evolved. Understanding this interdependent ecological network and conserving it can make a significant contribution to improving the quality of the environment.

ARTICLE 2: What to Conserve?

2.1 The objective of conservation is to maintain the significance of the architectural heritage or site. Significance is constituted in both the tangible and intangible forms. The process of Listing (Article 5) must determine the characteristics of significance and prioritise them. 2.2 The tangible heritage includes historic buildings of all periods, their setting in the historic precincts of cities and their relationship to the natural environment. It also includes culturally significant modern buildings and towns. The intangible heritage includes the extant culture of traditional building skills and knowledge, rites and rituals, social life and lifestyles of the inhabitants, which together with the tangible heritage constitutes the ‘living’ heritage. Both tangible and intangible heritage, and especially the link between them, should be conserved. 2.3 Conservation of architectural heritage and sites must retain meaning for the society in which it exists. This meaning may change over time, but taking it into consideration ensures that conservation will, at all times, have a contemporary logic underpinning its practice. This necessitates viewing conservation as a multi-disciplinary activity. 2.4 Where the evidence of the tangible or intangible architectural heritage exists in fragments, it is necessary to conserve it, even in part, as representative of a historic past. Such conservation must ideally be undertaken in-situ, but if this is not possible, then it should be relocated to a place where it would be safe for continued contemplation. 2.5 Conservation in India is heir not only to Western conservation theories and principles introduced through colonialism and, later, by the adoption of guidelines formulated by UNESCO, ICOMOS and international funding agencies, but also to pre-existing, indigenous knowledge systems and skills of building. These indigenous practices vary regionally and cannot be considered as a single system operating all over India. This necessitates viewing conservation practices as a multi-cultural activity. 2.6 While the Western ideology of conservation advocates minimal intervention, India’s

186 indigenous traditions idealise the opposite. Western ideology underpins official and legal conservation practice in India and is appropriate for conserving protected monuments. However, conserving unprotected architectural heritage offers the opportunity to use indigenous practices. This does not imply a hierarchy of either practice or site, but provides a rationale for encouraging indigenous practices and thus keeping them alive. Before undertaking conservation, therefore, it is necessary to identify where one system should be applied and where the other. For this purpose, it is necessary at the outset to make a comprehensive inventory (see Article 5) of extant heritage, both tangible and intangible, and separate it into two categories: A.i Buildings and sites protected by ASI, SDA and other government or non-government agencies. Only the official and legal instruments of conservation and internationally accepted principles should be adopted here; A.ii Other listed buildings and sites which, though not protected by ASI, SDA and other government or non-government agencies, possessing heritage value or significance equivalent to that of protected monuments. Here too, the official and legal instruments should be adopted for their conservation; B. The remaining listed buildings and sites both modern and historic, including those produced within the last hundred years. Here, the conservation strategy may adopt either the official and legal instruments of conservation or those rooted in indigenous building traditions. Hybrid strategies, inventively combining indigenous and official practices, can also be employed to conserve this heritage category. The decision to adopt indigenous practices should be based on the availability of skilled and knowledgeable raj mistris. In all cases a rationale for the decision taken to adopt one or another system of conservation must be recorded.

2.7 The overarching objective for undertaking conservation of unprotected architectural heritage and sites is to establish the efficacy of conservation as a development goal. What to conserve will, therefore, be determined by those strategies of conservation, which accommodate the imperatives of development and the welfare of the community while seeking economically to achieve maximum protection of the significant values of the architectural heritage and site.

ARTICLE 3: Conservation Ethics 3.1 Authenticity 3.1.1 The traditional knowledge systems and the cultural landscape in which it exists, particularly if these are ‘living’, should define the authenticity of the heritage value to be conserved. In the absence of such contexts, the official and legal guidelines, particularly as defined by the “Nara Document on Authenticity, 1994”, should determine the nature of the authenticity of the architectural heritage and site. 3.1.2 Traditional knowledge systems and cultural landscapes vary from one regional/cultural context to another or within the same region/culture. Thus, the values of ‘living’ architectural heritage can differ from one context to another, reflecting the cultural diversity of the country. In each case, however, conservation should faithfully reflect the significant values, which define the heritage.

3.2 Conjecture 3.2.1 Local master builders build, rebuild, restore, renew and make additions/alterations to historic buildings in response to contemporary exigencies or evolving local needs of the

187 community; they must be encouraged to follow their traditions even when there is no available evidence in the form of documentation, oral histories or physical remains of previous structures. Appropriate craftspeople for undertaking such works should be identified as described in Article 5.1.4. 3.2.2 An exact replacement, restoration or rebuilding must be valued when it ensures continuity of traditional building practices. 3.2.3 Conjectural restoration or rebuilding must nevertheless respect the overall spatial and volumetric composition of historic settings. The parameters of the historical setting should be defined through comprehensive urban design studies. These parameters should also guide new urban development in the vicinity of heritage buildings and sites. 3.2.4 The ASI / SDA rule prohibiting development within a 100-metre radius of a protected building restricts the practice of restoration or rebuilding of sites, conjectural or otherwise, and thereby may result in harming the welfare of society. This rule should not be applied to conserve unprotected architectural heritages and sites.

3.3 Integrity 3.3.1 The integrity of the heritage is to be defined and interpreted not only in terms of the physical fabric of the building, but also with respect to the collective knowledge systems and cultural landscape it represents. This knowledge system, where it exists, must mediate the process of conservation/ restoration/ rebuilding of the unprotected architectural heritage in order to reinforce an appreciation of the cultural landscape. This dynamic concept understands the integrity of the individual building as one which evolves in response to contemporary needs of local society. 3.3.2 The concept of an evolving integrity accepts the introduction of new architectonic elements, materials and technologies when local traditions are insufficient or unavailable. The introduction of new elements may reflect contemporary aesthetic ideals as modern additions to old buildings.

3.4 Patina 3.4.1 The patination of historic fabric due to age or natural decay should not compel the preservation of a ruin as it exists, frozen in time and space. In conformity with local aesthetic traditions, and for the well being of the heritage building or site, renewal, restoration, repair or rebuilding is acceptable. Patina may, where necessary, be considered as a sacrificial layer.

3.5 Rights of the indigenous community 3.5.1 Each community has its own distinctive culture constituted by its traditions, beliefs, rituals and practices - all intrinsic to defining the significance of the unprotected architectural heritage and site. The conservation strategy must respect the fact that local cultures are not static and, therefore, encourage active community involvement in the process of decision-making. This will ensure that the symbiotic relation between the indigenous community and its own heritage is strengthened through conservation.

3.6 Respect for the contributions of all periods 3.6.1 The contributions of earlier periods which produced the historic fabric and consequent interventions, including contemporary interventions, based on either traditional systems of building knowledge or modern practices, must be respected as constituting the integrity of the

188 heritage sought to be conserved. The objective of conserving the unprotected architectural heritage and site is not so much to reveal the authentic quality of the past or preserve its original integrity, but rather to mediate its evolving cultural significance to achieve beneficial results. 3.6.2 The holistic coherence of the heritage in terms of its urban design, architectural composition and the meaning it holds for the local community should determine any intervention in the process of conservation.

3.7 Inseparable bond with setting 3.7.1 An unprotected heritage building or site is inseparable from its physical and cultural context, and belongs to the local society as long as its members continue to value and nurture it. The conservation process must be sensitive to this relationship, and reinforce it. 3.7.2 If the unprotected heritage does not possess any bond with contemporary society, then its relevance for conservation may be questioned and modern re-development may be considered an option to meet the welfare needs of society. This decision must invariably be taken in consultation with INTACH’s Advisory Committees as described in Article 7.2.5.

3.8 Minimal intervention 3.8.1 Conservation may include additions and alterations of the physical fabric, in part or whole, in order to reinstate the meaning and coherence of the unprotected architectural heritage and site. In the first instance, however, conservation should attempt minimal intervention. 3.8.2 However, substantial additions and alterations may be acceptable provided the significance of the heritage is retained or enhanced.

3.9 Minimal loss of fabric 3.9.1 The nature and degree of intervention for repairing, restoring, rebuilding, reuse or introducing new use, should be determined on the basis of the intervention’s contribution to the continuity of cultural practices, including traditional building skills and knowledge, and the extent to which the changes envisaged meet the needs of the community.

3.10 Reversibility 3.10.1 The principle of reversibility of interventions needs not dictate conservation strategy. In order to use the unprotected heritage for the socio-economic regeneration of the local communities, the historic building and site can be suitably adapted and modified for an appropriate reuse. For this it is only essential that the process of intervention contributes to conserving the traditional context as far as possible in the modified form. This decision must invariably be taken in consultation with INTACH’s Advisory Committees as described in Article 7.2.5.

3.11 Legibility 3.11.1 The legibility of any intervention must be viewed in its own context. If traditional craftspeople are employed then it must be accepted that their pride derives from the fact that the new work is in complete harmony with the old and is not distinguishable from it. Thus, historic ways of building must be valued more than the imperative to put a contemporary stamp on any intervention in a historic building. 3.11.2 Where modern material or technology is used, it could be used to replicate the old or be distinguished from it, depending on the artistic intent governing the strategy of conservation.

189 3.12 Demolish/ Rebuild 3.12.1 The concept of jeernodharanam, or regeneration of what decays, must guide the nature of conservation. This belief is fundamental to conserving traditional ways of building and maintaining the continuity of local knowledge systems. 3.12.2 If, however, local conditions are such that all strategies to conserve the unprotected architectural heritage and site are found to be inadequate, then the option of replacing it should be examined. This process is also rooted in tradition because it recognises ‘cyclical’ perceptions of time, whereby buildings live, die and are rebuilt. This option must be discussed, debated and decided in consultation with all concerned stakeholders, including INTACH’s Advisory Committee as described in Article 7.2.5. 3.12.3 Where the existence of a cultural resource is under severe threat by natural calamities or man-made hazards, the building may be dismantled and reassembled at another appropriate site after undertaking thorough documentation of its extant condition. 3.12.4 If a historic structure has outlived its significance and its meanings to local people are lost, it may be preserved as a ruin or, if circumstances do not permit that, left undisturbed to meet its natural end. 3.12.5 If removal in whole or part from the original site or context is the only means of ensuring the security and preservation of a building, then a comprehensive documentation of all valuable and significant components of the cultural resource must be undertaken before it is dismantled.

3.13 Relationship between the conservation architect and the community 3.13.1 In dealing with the conservation of unprotected architectural heritage and sites, it may become necessary to temper the role of the conservation architect as an expert professional by taking into account the desires and aspirations of the local community and the traditional practices of raj mistris. This does not assume, a priori, that the interests of conservation architects and those of the community and traditional master builders are incompatible, but rather that there must be room in the process of conservation for dialogue and negotiated decision making. In order to achieve a more satisfying result for the community it may be necessary to override the professional imperative to adhere to the principles governing the conservation of legally protected monuments. This is acceptable when dealing with unprotected architectural heritage and sites provided, as stated in Article 2.7, that conservation strategies seek economically to achieve maximum protection of the significant values of the architectural heritage and site.

Part 2: GUIDELINES ARTICLE 4: Conservation Objectives | ARTICLE 5: Listing | ARTICLE 6: Guidelines for Conservation

ARTICLE 4: Conservation Objectives 4.1 Retain visual identity 4.1.1 In a globalising world, where visual spaces are rapidly becoming homogenised, it is necessary to retain the specific visual identity of a place created by the presence of unprotected architectural heritage and sites. Yet, this image should not be preserved in the manner of legally protected monuments, but must accommodate the imperatives of change in making the heritage relevant in contemporary society. The objective must be to integrate unprotected heritage and sites into daily social life by balancing their needs so that neither overshadows the other.

190 4.1.2 The visual cacophony created by advertisement boards, signage, hanging electric cables, air conditioning units, dish antennas, etc. must be carefully controlled to enhance the visual character of the architectural heritage and site. Additions of street furniture, pavement material, lighting, signage, etc. can add to the experience and appreciation of the heritage. 4.1.3 In this respect the objectives of conservation can mediate even new buildings or neighbourhoods by requiring them to make reference to the old by employing elements, methods and devices characterising the architectural heritage of the area so that the new is linked with the old.

4.2 Adaptive re-use 4.2.1 The re-use of historic buildings and neighbourhoods is economically sensible. It is an effective strategy to conserve architectural heritage, particularly by using traditional craftspeople in the process. Such re-use distinguishes between preservation as an ideal on the one hand and, on the other, the goal to prolong the useful life of architectural heritage by retaining as much (and not necessarily, all) of the surviving evidence as a vestigial presence. 4.2.2 Priority must be accorded to retaining the continuity of original functions. Any new use must be introduced only after studying its effect on the local context, and must conform to the carrying capacity and vulnerability of the architectural heritage. 4.2.3 All changes to the original fabric should be preceded and followed by comprehensive documentation. Additions and alterations must respect the coherence of the whole, and must, to the extent possible, engage traditional materials, skills and knowledge in the process. 4.2.4 When it becomes necessary to modernise and comprehensively alter the original internal functional characteristics of the building or site, its external image must be retained. 4.2.5 At the outset, the local community must be made aware of the changes envisaged and explained the benefits to be derived.

4.3 Restoration/ Replication/ Rebuilding 4.3.1 Restoration is an appropriate conservation strategy to reinstate the integrity or complete the fractured ‘whole’ of the architectural heritage/ site. It must aim to convey the meaning of the heritage in the most effective manner. It may include reassembling of displaced and dismembered components of the structure and conjectural building or replacement of missing or severely deteriorated parts of the fabric. Invariably, restoration work must be preceded and followed by comprehensive documentation in order to base interventions on informed understanding of the resource and its context, and in conformity with contemporary practices of local craftspeople. 4.3.2 In consonance with traditional ideals, replication can be accepted as an appropriate strategy not only to conserve unprotected historic buildings, but especially if such replication encourages historic ways of building. 4.3.3 At the urban level, the objective of rebuilding historic structures should be to enhance the visual and experiential quality of the built environment, thereby providing a local distinctiveness to contest the homogenising influence of globalisation. 4.3.4 In addition, reconstruction/ rebuilding can provide the impetus to develop a parallel market for local buildings materials and new opportunities for the use of alternative systems of building. 4.3.5 Reconstruction based on minimal physical evidence is appropriate where it is supported by the knowledge of local craftspeople, including folklore, beliefs, myths and legends, rituals, customs, oral traditions, etc. The objective of this practice must be to interpret the original

191 meanings of the resource in the contemporary context and reinforce its bond with society.

4.4 Employment generation 4.4.1 Conservation strategy must focus on the potential for employing local raj mistris, labour and materials because this will prolong the economic viability of traditional ways of building. In conditions of resource scarcity, the use of architectural heritage can provide an alternate and more economic strategy to meet contemporary needs as well.

4.5 Local material and traditional technology 4.5.1 The use of local materials and traditional technologies must invariably be preferred. Their choice must be based on the availability of traditional knowledge systems. Modern substitutes should be considered only after their use is proven efficient and judicious, and must not compromise the integrity and continuity of local building traditions. 4.5.2 It is necessary to recognise that the use of certain traditional building materials may be inadvisable on account of the damage this can cause to the natural ecological systems. Thus the use of shell lime in coastal areas and wood generally may need to be judicially substituted with alternate materials.

4.6 Integrated conservation 4.6.1 Conservation of architectural heritage and sites must be integrated with the social and economic aspirations of society. Conservation-oriented development must be the preferred strategy for social and economic progress. This necessitates the formation of multi-disciplinary teams to undertake integrated conservation projects. Since social aspirations are diverse and often at odds with each other, the conservation team must include social workers to facilitate dialogue and decision-making. 4.7 Sustainability 3.1 4.7.1 The objective of conservation should be to sustain the building and/or the traditional skill and knowledge system of building. In this context, continuity must be seen as evolving over time. The test of its validity must be the positive contribution it makes to the quality of life of the local community.

ARTICLE 5: Listing

5.1 Introduction 5.1.1 Through the ASI, the Central Government protects monuments more than 100 years old declared to be of national importance. Monuments of importance to States are protected by the respective SDAs. However, the existing legislation covers only about 5,000 monuments at the national level and approximately 3,500 at the state level. Considering India’s vast cultural heritage, these numbers are inadequate and their focus monument-centric. 5.1.2 INTACH has undertaken an inventory of built heritage in India which includes notable buildings aged 50 years or more which are deemed to be of architectural, historical, archaeological or aesthetic importance. 5.1.3 This inventory will become INTACH’s National Register of Historic Properties. It attempts to create a systematic, accessible and retrievable inventory of the built heritage of this country. It will serve as resource material for developing heritage conservation policies and regulations. In

192 due course, this database should be made more comprehensive and the information compiled should be available online. It should also be made compatible with similar registers of other countries to facilitate international research. 5.1.4 A similar Register of Craftspeople associated with the architectural heritage must be undertaken by specialist cultural organizations (Article 8.6.3). It is important to reiterate that both buildings being listed and associated activities that keep these building in use constitute the ‘living’ heritage. The Register of Craftspeople is, therefore, essential to viewing the architectural heritage in a holistic manner.

5.2 Inventory of properties / buildings 5.2.1 Since a large part of India’s cultural heritage has so far remained undocumented, preparing an inventory of heritage buildings worthy of preservation is the most important task with which to begin the process of conservation. 5.2.2 The primary aim of listing is to document the fast disappearing built heritage and then present it to scholars and the general public in a user-friendly format, which aids conservation by generating public awareness. Once a property/ building is included in such a list, it becomes justifiable to undertake necessary conservation activities by formulating special regulations for its conservation or according it due protection under Town Planning Acts. Ideally, the footprints of all listed buildings should be included in the Master Plan documents of cities. 5.2.3 Buildings protected by the ASI and SDA should also be included in the list prepared by INTACH.

5.3 Selection criteria 5.3.1 Although interrelated, the following three key attributes will determine whether a property is worthy of listing: i. Historic significance ii. Historic integrity iii. Historic context One or more of these attributes need to be present in a building to make it worthy of listing.

5.4 Historic significance 5.4.1 Historic significance refers to the importance of a property to the history, architecture, archaeology, engineering or culture of a community, region or nation. In selecting a building, particular attention should be paid to the following: i. Association with events, activities or patterns. ii. Association with important persons, including ordinary people who have made significant contribution to India’s living heritage. iii. Distinctive physical characteristics of design, construction or form, representing the work of a master craftsperson. iv. Potential to yield important information, such as socio-economic history. Railway stations, town halls, clubs, markets, water works etc. are examples of such sites v. Technological innovation represented. For example: dams, bridges, etc.

vi. Town planning features such as squares, streets, avenues, etc. For example: Rajpath in New Delhi.

193 5.5 Historic integrity 5.5.1 Historic integrity refers to the property’s historic identity, evidenced by the survival of physical characteristics and significant elements that existed during the property’s historic period. The “original” identity includes changes and additions over historic time. 5.5.2 Historic integrity enables a property to illustrate significant aspects of its past. Not only must a property resemble its historic appearance, but it must also retain original materials, design features and aspects of construction dating from the period when it attained significance. 5.5.3 Historic integrity also relates to intangible values such as the building or site’s cultural associations and traditions.

5.6 Historic context 5.6.1 Historic context refers to information about historic trends and properties grouped by an important theme in the history of a community, region or nation during a particular period of time. 5.6.2 Knowledge of historic context enables the public to understand a historic property as a product of its time.

5.7 Precincts or properties with multiple owners 5.7.1 A historic building complex may comprise of numerous ancillary structures besides the main structure. Each structure of the complex must be documented on individual proformas. For example, Jahangir Mahal, Diwan-i-Aam, Diwan-i-Khas and Moti Masjid all form part of the Agra Fort complex but are also individual buildings in their own right and, as such, must be documented individually.

5.8 Methodology 5.8.1 The determination of significance is the key component of methodology. All conservation decisions follow from the level of significance that is assigned to a building or site. 5.8.2 Listing work is comprised of two phases: i. Background research ii. Field work

5.9 Background research 5.9.1 Before commencing actual fieldwork, the lister should gather basic information from various sources including gazetteers, travel books and other specialised books containing information about the architecture and history of the area to be listed and documented. This work could be done in university libraries, the ASI, the National Museum, the Central Secretariat, the respective State Secretariats, Institutes of Advanced Studies and Schools of Planning and Architecture. In a given area, local experts and university scholars are resource persons who could also provide required guidance and help. 5.9.2 Background research helps to ensure that no important structure or representative style of building is left out of the list. It enables the identification of historic areas, historic development of the area, significant events in the area and important persons associated with the area. In some well-documented areas, distinctive physical characteristics of design, construction or form of building resource can also be identified.

194 5.10 Field work 5.10.1 First and foremost it is necessary to carry out a field survey to identify the buildings and the areas to be listed. Following this, a detailed physical inspection of the property and dialogues with appropriate local people such as the owners of the property, area residents, local panchayats, etc. need to be undertaken. By physically inspecting the property the lister can gather information regarding the physical fabric of the building, such as physical characteristics, period of construction, etc. that need to be cross-checked with the literature survey. By conducting a dialogue with area residents, the lister can determine the changes to the property over time, ownership details, historic function and activities, association with events and persons and the role of the property in local, regional or national history. 5.10.2 When gathering information, the lister must be mindful of proforma requirements (Article 5.12). The proforma is, first of all, a record of the property at the time of listing and consists of current name; historic or other name(s), location, approach and accessibility, current ownership, historic usage, and present use. 5.10.3 Claims of historic significance and integrity should be supported with descriptions of special features, state of preservation, relevant dates, etc.

5.11 Mapping of vernacular architecture and historic settlements 5.11.1 The major shortcoming of the current list of legally protected architectural heritage is that it does not recognise vernacular architecture and historic settlements as categories of heritage worthy of being conserved. The listing of unprotected architectural heritage and sites must, therefore, include this category. An example of such an inclusive document is INTACH’s “Listing of Built Heritage of Delhi” published in 1999. 5.11.2 Sacred sites must be dealt with due sensitivity and knowledge of the local social and cultural imperatives governing their sanctity. Listing must record such characteristics associated with these sites.

5.12 Detailed format for all the structures 5.12.1 Information for each building or site should be recorded as per INTACH’s standard format as described below. 5.12.2 Each proforma must contain information about listers and reviewers. Listing must be carried out by or under the supervision of experienced conservation architects. 5.12.3 At least one photograph of the property/ building should be recorded for identification purposes. All significant elements of the property also need to be photographed. All photographs should be properly catalogued. 5.12.4 A conceptual plan (if available, a measured drawing) should be given for each building/ area listed. 5.12.5 Any additional information related to or affecting the built heritage of the city/town/region documented and its conservation should be included as appendices, for example: laws and regulations on planning and conservation, etc. 5.12.6 A glossary should be provided explaining the technical and the special words used must be provided. For example: “Imambara - a shrine/ religious structure of Shia Muslims”. 5.12.7 A bibliography of all books, publications, articles and unpublished work must be provided. The uniform format should be followed throughout.

195 5.13 Grading 5.13.1 The primary objective of listing is to record extant architectural heritage and sites. But the outcome of this process should invariably be to grade the listed heritage into a hierarchical series. This process must be undertaken in a rigorous and transparent manner by a multi-disciplinary team of experts whose recommendations should be available for public scrutiny. The importance of this process cannot be underestimated because its results determine subsequent conservation decisions. Such hierarchical categorisation facilitates the prioritisation of decisions relating to the future of architectural heritage and sites. 5.13.2 This Charter recommends that buildings and sites be classified as Grade I*, I, II and III in descending order of importance. 5.13.3 Buildings and sites classified as Grade I*, I and II should be conserved in accordance with the provisions of official and legal manuals of practice (for example, ASI’s Works Manual). Some Grade II buildings, however, and all other listed buildings and sites, i.e. Grade III, may be conserved in accordance with principles enunciated in this Charter (Article 2.6). The decision to apply the principles enunciated in this Charter to Grade II buildings must invariably be based on the concurrence of the Advisory Committees of INTACH (Article 7.2.5). 5.13.4 The process of listing should be constantly upgraded and the list updated in keeping with the availability of fresh information, financial and material resources, advances in technology and developments in the understanding of architectural heritage and its constituents.

ARTICLE 6: Guidelines for Conservation

6.1 Guidelines for Conservation 6.1.1 For the present, the latest edition of INTACH’s “Guidelines for Conservation” should be followed, unless otherwise indicated by the imperatives of this Charter. These Guidelines should be updated by conservation architects periodically. It may also be necessary to bring out region-specific guidelines so that conservation practices can be sensitive to regional material and cultural attributes.

6.2 Heritage zone 6.2.1 Conservation of architectural heritage sites can be undertaken in terms of the Heritage Zone concept propagated by INTACH. In general, Heritage Zones are sensitive development areas, which are a part of larger urban agglomeration possessing significant evidence of heritage. The Heritage Zone concept requires that the conservation of unprotected architectural heritage and sites must be sensitively planned, but also aligned with the imperatives of routine development process. 6.2.2 Urban conservation plans must be incorporated into the statutory Master Plan of cities. This necessitates undertaking a process of dialogue and negotiation with government town planning departments as part of the conservation strategy. Regulations to control or mediate development within the Heritage Zone, including new construction, demolition or modification to existing buildings around historic structures or within historic precincts can be formulated and incorporated within the “Special Area” provision of the respective Town Planning Acts of different States.

196 6.3 Role of conservation architects 6.3.1 The role of the conservation architect is to provide expert advice for conserving the architectural heritage and site. Conservation, however, is a multi-disciplinary activity and conservation architects must work closely with professionals of other disciplines in order to address its diverse objectives. Depending on circumstances, the conservation architect may either lead the project team or simply participate as a team member with specific expertise. In any event, the role of conservation architects must be clearly defined, either by conservation architects themselves or by the initiator of the project. 6.3.2 Conservation architects also have an important advocacy role to play in promoting the conservation of unprotected architectural heritage and sites. They need to catalyse awareness both among administrators and beneficiaries to achieve the objectives of conservation enunciated in this Charter.

Part 3: MANAGEMENT AND EDUCATION

ARTICLE 7: Management | ARTICLE 8: Education and Public Awareness

ARTICLE 7: Management 7.1 Role of local communities 7.1.1 Local communities or individuals must be entrusted with responsibilities to conserve their own heritage. Where outside expertise is necessary, local stakeholders must be made active participants at all stages of the conservation process. All decisions regarding the conservation and management of heritage must be taken in consultation with local communities in consonance with the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India.

7.2 Role of INTACH 7.2.1 The role of INTACH is to institutionalise the conservation of the unprotected architectural heritage all over India. It should accomplish this objective by establishing Local Chapters. 7.2.2 INTACH’s local Chapters should promote the culture of conservation (Article 8), and make an inventory of architectural heritage (Article 5). They should develop ways and means to conserve local architectural heritage in consultation with INTACH’s Regional and Central offices. 7.2.3 Each Local Chapter should compile an annual “State of the Architectural Heritage Report” for its area and submit annual and quinquennial plans for conservation works to be undertaken in its locality. 7.2.4 INTACH’s Regional and Central offices should compile this data to produce an annual national “State of the Architectural Heritage Report” which should highlight heritage in danger and formulate conservation strategies for its protection. 7.2.5 To further facilitate its goal of protecting architectural heritage, INTACH should establish inter-disciplinary Advisory Committees at the regional and national level. These Committees should act as clearing-houses for awarding grading for listed buildings and sites, conservation plans, assessment reports, scientific studies, funding proposals, legal and administrative measures for conserving the unprotected architectural heritage. 7.2.6 INTACH should facilitate and coordinate its activities with the Government and other interest groups, local, national and international, which are concerned with the conservation of architectural heritage.

197 7.2.7 INTACH should establish appropriate benchmarks for professional fees for conservation work and promote adherence to this scale in all conservation projects (see Article 9.1.8). 7.2.8 INTACH should review this Charter and if necessary, make amendments to it every five years.

7.3 Fiscal measures 7.3.1 Innovative financial schemes must be offered to individuals or communities in order to encourage their involvement and interest in the preservation of their own heritage. INTACH’s Advisory Committee should engage in dialogue with the Government to initiate the formulation of appropriate fiscal policies to promote conservation. 7.3.2 INTACH should lobby for the provision for a ‘Heritage Fund’ to be included in the annual or quinquennial budgetary allocations of Central and State governments. It should endeavour to ensure that local governing bodies have access to these funds through transparent mechanisms. 7.3.3 The policy of the ‘adoption’ of historic buildings/areas by competent and concerned community groups, trusts or private entrepreneurs of repute, that in no way harms the interests or well-being of the heritage or the society in which it exists, must be encouraged. 7.3.4 The owners or caretakers of listed heritage should be offered incentives by way of favourable tax rebates, grants, loans, transfer of development rights and so forth, in order to encourage and foster their interest in the conservation of their cultural property. 7.3.5 Public authorities, private companies, governmental bodies and non-governmental organisations should be encouraged to offer adequate financial assistance to traditional craftspeople and agencies involved in craft promotion and trade.

7.4 Tourism 7.4.1 The strong affinity between tourism and heritage should be leveraged to promote the conservation of unprotected architectural heritage and sites. 7.4.2 The potentials of domestic tourism, particularly pilgrimage tourism, need to be developed. 7.4.3 At the same time, however, there must be adequate safeguards to mitigate problems created by aggressive tourism promotion in areas where traditional communities are associated with unprotected architectural heritage and sites.

7.5 Punitive measures 7.5.1 Punitive measures as defined in the existing legislative framework concerning heritage protection; town planning acts and building byelaws must be extended to cover all listed buildings. In principle, permission must be sought for any intervention in listed buildings or precincts. Where the opportunity exists, a new set of regulations to deal specifically with unprotected heritage should be drafted. 7.5.2 Administrative or criminal prosecution must be considered in cases of deliberate damage to listed architectural heritage.

ARTICLE 8: Education and Public Awareness

8.1 Public responsibilities 8.1.1 The responsibility for care and maintenance of heritage must be entrusted to the local community, for the protection and conservation of any cultural resource is ensured only if it enjoys the love and respect of the local people.

198 8.1.2 In conformity with the intent of the Constitution of India, conservation of heritage must be the duty of every Indian citizen, and all administrative, legislative and financial assistance must be provided in this regard at all levels.

8.2 Public awareness 8.2.1 It is essential to create public interest, awareness and concern regarding the significance of cultural heritage, its protection, conservation and enhancement for the benefit of both present and future generations. This public education can be achieved by utilising communication and promotion techniques: thematic publications, print and electronic media, cultural programmes, educational fairs, heritage site visits and excursions, exhibitions, workshops, lectures, seminars and so on. 8.2.2 Regional, national or international historically significant days, festivals and similar occasions could provide opportunities for community celebrations sensitively designed to draw public attention. Such events can be organised in or around historic structures/areas thereby reinforcing the role of heritage in the well-being of society. 8.2.3 Heritage walks can be used as an effective tool to involve local people in the informed appreciation and protection of their historic surroundings and cultural context. Such small-scale activities could precipitate a chain reaction of localised conservation projects involving community participation and contribution. These collective efforts need to be publicised so that they can serve as models to be adopted and adapted by other communities. Cultural walks linking various historic nodes must also be tailored to promote tourism, thereby creating economic benefits for the local community. 8.2.4 The legislation and regulations laid down in the administrative system, building by-laws, town planning acts and other measures relevant to the protection and conservation of architectural heritage must be made accessible to the public through user-friendly manuals and publications. 8.2.5 Governments at all levels and their associates authorities should support and facilitate nongovernment organisations, registered charitable trusts, heritage cooperatives and private initiatives to organise awareness programmes highlighting various aspects of heritage conservation, consequently informing local people of the means to deal with the challenges involved therein.

8.3. Education in primary and secondary schools 8.3.1 Respect and affection for heritage - both natural and cultural - and concern for its protection and conservation should be inculcated in school children, and this must form a crucial aspect of education. Children must be encouraged to experience historic environs by engaging them in outdoor play activities, cultural events, picnics and extra-curricular subjects involving drawing or painting of cultural sites. 8.3.2 School teachers should be given specialised training in order to make them aware of the issues involved in the appreciation and preservation of heritage. 8.3.3 Education curricula should include subjects on India’s natural, cultural, and living heritage that highlight the multifaceted relationship between cultural resources and society, reinforcing their inseparable bond.

199 8.4 Undergraduate education 8.4.1 The institutes, colleges and universities for the education of architects, engineers, archaeologists, planners, administrative service officers, management professionals, material chemists and other professions relevant to heritage conservation and management should encourage inter-disciplinary interaction on shared issues and common concerns and inculcate a holistic understanding of heritage with reference to social, cultural and economic aspects of the society. 8.4.2 The education of conservation professionals must include short training periods when students work with master craftspeople in their own learning environment or at building/conservation sites. This would provide an opportunity for students to acquire practical experience in the application of skills and use of materials, thus strengthening their theoretical training. 8.4.3 In order to respond sensitively and constructively to India’s special conservation challenges, conservation professionals must be trained to appreciate and integrate both traditional and modern principles in their work.

8.5 Post-graduate education 8.5.1 In addition to history and theory of conservation, which will principally include the Western perspective, and a thorough understanding of UNESCO, ICOMOS and other recognised international conventions, recommendations, Charters and guidelines, the specialized education and training of conservation professionals must build upon traditional indigenous principles and practices of building and conservation. Professional must be trained to adopt a flexible stance most relevant to the specificity of their own context - which will frequently require using indigenous principles and practices - rather than adhere blindly to the conservation ideology advocated by UNESCO/ ICOMOS and other international aid giving agencies. Working with an inter-disciplinary team of professionals should be encouraged as an effective conservation and management mechanism. 8.5.2 It must be stressed that conservation architects acquire hands-on experience and practical understanding of indigenous materials and technologies through training or working with local master craftspeople. This will facilitate a healthy and sustained relationship amongst teachers, students and craftspeople, which can be mutually beneficial for future collaborative work on conservation projects, training workshops, awareness programmes and so forth.

8.6 Education and training of craftspeople 8.6.1 The ideal way to preserve a craft is to practice it. In order to ensure the continuity of craft traditions, it is essential that systematic education and training environments be provided and supported at all levels by the Government, non-governmental organisations and private entrepreneurs. In addition to individual initiatives of modest scale within limited resources, NGOs can support small to medium-sized schools, and Central and State governments can operate fully equipped training centres that specialise in traditional building and conservation crafts. 8.6.2 Building Centres set up by HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development Corporation of the Government of India) are important initiatives that can be leveraged to promote traditional conservation practices. These Centres train and upgrade the skills of various trades of builders, with a focus on the use of appropriate materials and technologies. Conservation architects should associate themselves with these Centres in order to systemise the dissemination of traditional

200 building principles and practices. 8.6.3 A comprehensive list of specialised crafts and craftspeople must be prepared that can serve as a resource base for owners, care-takers or managers of heritage properties, as also for professionals involved in the conservation and management of historic buildings/areas. 8.6.4 The monologue aspect of the modern ‘teaching’ system should be abandoned and a dialogue of mutual ‘learning’ must be adopted as a training principle, where both the instructor and the crafts person benefit from each other by exchanging ideas, ideologies and experiences. Training programmes must aim toward the sustainability of indigenous building system, and skills that are rooted in traditional knowledge bases and local cultures. 8.6.5 The education of crafts people seeking advanced skills or specialisation must reconcile the crucial aspects of both traditional texts and techniques and modern theories and technologies, consequently bridging the gap between indigenous and Western (glossed as ‘universal’) principles and practices of conservation.

Part 4: PROFESSIONALISM ARTICLE 9: Code of Professional Commitment and Practice

9.1 Conservation professionals shall: 9.1.1 Ensure that their professional activities do not conflict with their general responsibility to contribute positively to the quality of the environment and welfare of society. 9.1.2 Apply their knowledge and skills towards the creative, responsible and economical development of the nation and its heritage. 9.1.3 Provide professional services of a high standard, to the best of their ability. 9.1.4 Maintain a high standard of integrity. 9.1.5 Conduct themselves in a manner which is not derogatory to their professional character, nor likely to lessen the confidence of the public in the profession, nor likely to bring conservation professionals into disrepute. 9.1.6 Promote the profession of conservation, standards of conservation education, research, training and practice. 9.1.7 Act with fairness and impartiality when administering a conservation contract. 9.1.8 Observe and uphold INTACH’s conditions of engagement and scale of charges, which will be prepared in due course, in consultation with conservation professionals. 9.1.9 If in private practice, inform their client of the conditions of engagement and scale of consultancy fee, and agree that these conditions be the basis of their appointment. 9.1.10 Not sub-commission to other professional(s) the work for which they have been commissioned, without prior agreement of their client. 9.1.11 Not give or take discounts, commissions, gifts or other inducements for obtaining work. 9.1.12 Compete fairly with other professional colleagues. 9.1.13 Not supplant or attempt to supplant another conservation professional. 9.1.14 Not prepare project reports in competition with other professionals for a client without payment or for a reduced fee (except in a competition conducted in accordance with the competition guidelines approved by INTACH). 9.1.15 Not attempt to obtain, offer to undertake or accept a commission for which they know another professional has been selected or employed until they have evidence that the selection, employment or agreement has been terminated, and the client has given the previous professional

201 written notice to that effect. 9.1.16 Allow the client to consult as many professional as desired/ required provided that each professional so consulted is adequately compensated and that the project is in the preliminary stages. 9.1.17 Comply with guidelines for project competitions and inform INTACH of their appointment as assessor for a competition. 9.1.18 Not have or take as partner in their firm any person who is disqualified. 9.1.19 Provide their employees with a suitable working environment, compensate them fairly and facilitate their professional development. 9.1.20 Recognise and respect the professional contributions of their employees. 9.1.21 Provide their associates with a suitable working environment, compensate them fairly and facilitate their professional development. 9.1.22 Recognise and respect the professional contributions of their associates. 9.1.23 Recognise and respect the professional contributions of all consultants. 9.1.24 Enter into agreements with consultants defining the scope of their work, responsibilities, functions, fees and mode of payment. 9.1.25 Not advertise their professional services nor allow their name to be included in advertisements or be used for publicity purposes except under the following circumstances: i. Notice of change of address may be published on three occasions and correspondents may be informed by post. ii. Professionals may exhibit their name outside their office and on a conservation site, either under implementation or completed, for which they are or were consultant, provided that the lettering does not exceed 10 cm. in height and this in agreement with the client. iii. Advertisements including the name and address of professionals may be published in connection with calling of tenders, staff requirements and similar matters. iv. Professionals may allow their name to be associated with illustrations and/or descriptions of their work in the press or public media, provided that they neither give nor accept any compensation for such appearances. v. Professionals may allow their name to appear in advertisements inserted in the press by suppliers or manufacturers of materials used in a project they have undertaken, provided that their name is included in an unostentatious manner and they neither give nor accept any compensation for its use.

vi. Professionals may allow their name to appear in publications prepared by clients for the purpose of advertising or promoting projects for which they have been commissioned. vii. Professionals may produce or publish brochures, and pamphlets describing their experience and capabilities, for distribution to those potential clients whom they can identify by name and position. viii.Professionals may allow their name to appear in the classified columns of trade/ professional directories and/ or the telephone directory.

9.1.26 When working in other countries, comply with the codes of conduct applicable there.

9.2 If a conservation professional practices as a partner in a partnership firm or is in charge and responsible to a company registered under the Companies Act 1956 for the conduct of business of such company, he/she shall ensure that such partnership firm or company, as the case may be,

202 complies with the provisions of Article 9.1.

9.3 Violation of any of the provisions of Article 9.1 shall constitute professional misconduct

THE NARA DOCUMENT ON AUTHENTICITY

Preamble

1 We, the experts assembled in Nara (Japan), wish to acknowledge the generous spirit and intellectual courage of the Japanese authorities in providing a timely forum in which we could challenge conventional thinking in the conservation field, and debate ways and means of broadening our horizons to bring greater respect for cultural and heritage diversity to conservation practice. 2 We also wish to acknowledge the value of the framework for discussion provided by the World Heritage Committee's desire to apply the test of authenticity in ways which accord full respect to the social and cultural values of all societies, in examining the outstanding universal value of cultural properties proposed for the World Heritage List. 3 The Nara Document on Authenticity is conceived in the spirit of the Charter of Venice, 1964, and builds on it and extends it in response to the expanding scope of cultural heritage concerns and interests in our contemporary world. 4 In a world that is increasingly subject to the forces of globalization and homogenization, and in a world in which the search for cultural identity is sometimes pursued through aggressive nationalism and the suppression of the cultures of minorities, the essential contribution made by the consideration of authenticity in conservation practice is to clarify and illuminate the collective memory of humanity.

Cultural Diversity and Heritage Diversity

1 The diversity of cultures and heritage in our world is an irreplaceable source of spiritual and intellectual richness for all humankind. The protection and enhancement of cultural and heritage diversity in our world should be actively promoted as an essential aspect of human development. 2 Cultural heritage diversity exists in time and space, and demands respect for other cultures and all aspects of their belief systems. In cases where cultural values appear to be in conflict, respect for cultural diversity demands acknowledgment of the legitimacy of the cultural values of all parties. 3 All cultures and societies are rooted in the particular forms and means of tangible and intangible expression which constitute their heritage, and these should be respected. 4 It is important to underline a fundamental principle of UNESCO, to the effect that the cultural heritage of each is the cultural heritage of all. Responsibility for cultural heritage and the management of it belongs, in the first place, to the cultural community that has generated it, and subsequently to that which cares for it. However, in addition to these responsibilities, adherence to the international charters and conventions developed for conservation of cultural heritage also

203 obliges consideration of the principles and responsibilities flowing from them. Balancing their own requirements with those of other cultural communities is, for each community, highly desirable, provided achieving this balance does not undermine their fundamental cultural values.

Values and authenticity 1 Conservation of cultural heritage in all its forms and historical periods is rooted in the values attributed to the heritage. Our ability to understand these values depends, in part, on the degree to which information sources about these values may be understood as credible or truthful. Knowledge and understanding of these sources of information, in relation to original and subsequent characteristics of the cultural heritage, and their meaning, is a requisite basis for assessing all aspects of authenticity. 2 Authenticity, considered in this way and affirmed in the Charter of Venice, appears as the essential qualifying factor concerning values. The understanding of authenticity plays a fundamental role in all scientific studies of the cultural heritage, in conservation and restoration planning, as well as within the inscription procedures used for the World Heritage Convention and other cultural heritage inventories. 3 All judgements about values attributed to cultural properties as well as the credibility of related information sources may differ from culture to culture, and even within the same culture. It is thus not possible to base judgements of values and authenticity within fixed criteria. On the contrary, the respect due to all cultures requires that heritage properties must considered and judged within the cultural contexts to which they belong. 4 Therefore, it is of the highest importance and urgency that, within each culture, recognition be accorded to the specific nature of its heritage values and the credibility and truthfulness of related information sources. 5 Depending on the nature of the cultural heritage, its cultural context, and its evolution through time, authenticity judgements may be linked to the worth of a great variety of sources of information. Aspects of the sources may include form and design, materials and substance, use and function, traditions and techniques, location and setting, and spirit and feeling, and other internal and external factors. The use of these sources permits elaboration of the specific artistic, historic, social, and scientific dimensions of the cultural heritage being examined.

Appendix

Suggestions for follow-up (proposed by H. Stovel) 1 Respect for cultural and heritage diversity requires conscious efforts to avoid imposing mechanistic formulae or standardized procedures in attempting to define or determine authenticity of particular monuments and sites. 2. Efforts to determine authenticity in a manner respectful of cultures and heritage diversity requires approaches which encourage cultures to develop analytical processes and tools specific to their nature and needs. Such approaches may have several aspects in common: efforts to ensure assessment of authenticity involve multidisciplinary collaboration and the appropriate utilisation of all available expertise and knowledge; efforts to ensure attributed values are truly representative of a culture and the diversity of its interests, in particular monuments and sites; efforts to document clearly the particular nature of authenticity for monuments and sites

204 as a practical guide to future treatment and monitoring; efforts to update authenticity assessments in light of changing values and circumstances. 2 Particularly important are efforts to ensure that attributed values are respected, and that their determination included efforts to build, ad far as possible, a multidisciplinary and community consensus concerning these values. 3 Approaches should also build on and facilitate international co-operation among all those with an interest in conservation of cultural heritage, in order to improve global respect and understanding for the diverse expressions and values of each culture. 4 Continuation and extension of this dialogue to the various regions and cultures of the world is a prerequisite to increasing the practical value of consideration of authenticity in the conservation of the common heritage of humankind. 5 Increasing awareness within the public of this fundamental dimension of heritage is an absolute necessity in order to arrive at concrete measures for safeguarding the vestiges of the past. This means developing greater understanding of the values represented by the cultural properties themselves, as well as respecting the role such monuments and sites play in contemporary society.

Appendix II

Definitions Conservation: all efforts designed to understand cultural heritage, know its history and meaning, ensure its material safeguard and, as required, its presentation, restoration and enhancement. (Cultural heritage is understood to include monuments, groups of buildings and sites of cultural value as defined in article one of the World Heritage Convention). Information sources: all material, written, oral and figurative sources which make it possible to know the nature, specifications, meaning and history of the cultural heritage.

The Nara Document on Authenticity was drafted by the 45 participants at the Nara Conference on Authenticity in Relation to the World Heritage Convention, held at Nara, Japan, from 1-6 November 1994, at the invitation of the Agency for Cultural Affairs (Government of Japan) and the Nara Prefecture. The Agency organized the Nara Conference in cooperation with UNESCO, ICCROM and ICOMOS. This final version of the Nara Document has been edited by the general rapporteurs of the Nara Conference, Mr. Raymond Lemaire and Mr. Herb Stovel.

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