‘Businesses can help citizens understand why monuments matter by earmarking CSR funds for grants for research, writing, and publishing quality textbooks, and developing effective methods of teaching history’ | Photo Credit: M. Murthy
Private companies, companies and public sector units can enter into agreements with the Union Ministry of Culture Adoption and maintenance of archaeological sites or monuments owned by the State, Businesses that enter into such agreements will be known as Memorial Friends. The central government is keen that 500 protected sites will be adopted by August 15, and another 500 sites soon after, under the scheme that began in February. This number represents a tenfold increase in the number of sites being brought under the controversial ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme from 2017.
danger ahead
Under the reportedly overhauled ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme, businesses can use their corporate social responsibility funds at select sites to build and maintain ticket offices, restaurants, museums, interpretation centres, toilets and walkways. They may dramatically light monuments, set up guided tours, organize cultural events and fix equipment for light and sound shows. Some of these activities appear to be progressive measures aimed at improving visitor services and facilities. However, the investigation establishes threats.
To begin with, just as allowing a watch company without expertise in bridge engineering to maintain a colonial-era bridge in Morbi, Gujarat, led to a potentially heart-wrenching tragedy, businesses rather than trained professionals also got the chance to build museums and interpretation centers and develop their contents as a threat to India’s understanding of its past. The current plan also sidesteps the mandate of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and leaves out the Sarnath initiative prepared by the ASI, the Getty Trust, the US, the British Museum and the National Culture Fund to safeguard the excavated objects and be presented to them. In an attractive way for the visitors.
Second, many of the monuments selected for the scheme – including the Stupa at Sanchi, the Brihadeeswarar Temple at Thanjavur and Akbar’s palace city at Fatehpur Sikri – already have tourist infrastructure. What is the need for new ticket offices and gift shops?
Furthermore, is it acceptable to allow businesses to occupy prime public land and build their own brands – another provision of the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme – at the expense of the dwindling base around iconic monuments? These grounds are valuable places. If they are excavated, they may lead to the discovery of antiquities that may provide clues to the historical context of the monuments. Mainly for this reason new construction has been banned in these areas until now.
Another danger of implementing the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme is that it will undermine local communities and their links with historical sites. Guided tours led by employees of large businesses that have received permission to own the monument may threaten the livelihoods of those who live near the site and earn their living by entertaining visitors with tales of its colorful past. We do. The prospect of big businesses having to outlaw a monument’s lighting is also troubling. Keeping these places open from dawn to dusk limits the number of visitors thus saving them from excessive wear and tear. Night tourism will also remove electricity from rural homes and hospitals.
Many of the monuments selected for the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme are on the ASI list and hence are protected by the nominated central agency only. Others selected for the scheme are protected by the Directorate of Archeology of the state where they are located. However, there are some monuments selected for the scheme which are not protected by the ASI and are in states without directorates of archeology. One fears that businesses signing agreements with the Union Ministry of Culture to adopt these monuments will be able to change their historical character without much opposition.
The implementation of the scheme has raised another danger: what will happen to the monuments adopted by Monument Mitra within the predetermined time limit? According to media reports, the Uttar Pradesh government has started handing over such monuments to the tourism department for converting them into hotels. These include the Chunar Fort, the citadel overlooking the Barwasagar Lake, and several residences built by the Nawabs of Awadh. The UP government’s decision confirms that despite now being placed under the Ministry of Culture instead of the Ministry of Tourism, the scheme continues to put tourism and corporate interests above historic preservation. These two ministries have been intertwined for a long time. Even today they are being headed by the same cabinet minister.
way to choose
What can Corporate India do to look after the built heritage of the nation? First, businesses can help citizens understand why monuments matter. This can be done by earmarking CSR funds for research, writing and publishing high quality textbooks and grants for developing imaginative and effective methods of teaching history. Merchants and shopkeepers can fund school libraries to collect archival material including books, maps and old photographs relating to the monuments around them which will inspire students to establish the value of the monuments.
May follow the lead taken by Sudha Murthy and NR Narayana Murthy in gifting organizations such as the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune to rationally coordinate the textual record and archaeological evidence to continue their mission of historiography Could Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, some universities are witnessing a recruitment freeze in humanities and social science departments. In other universities, these departments are being amalgamated. Corporates can give them a new lease of life by starting fellowships, awarding professorships and supporting research training programmes.
Second, industrial houses can contribute to meaningful conservation of historic buildings by looking inside. Their CSR funds can be used to buy new equipment that emit less harmful gases that blacken and corrode marble buildings and release less waste into rivers, thus making these water bodies less breeding grounds for microbes. They are less likely to act as forms that collect on the walls of ancient buildings. Standing on the banks of the river causes their decay.
In the past, Tata Sons, ONGC, and other companies have regularly contributed funds to organizations that train individuals in essential restoration skills and create jobs for them. Now is the time for corporations to support the Development and Research Organization for Nature, Art and Heritage (DRONAH) Foundation and the interdisciplinary teams at the Center for the Advancement of Traditional Building Technologies and Skills trying to protect monuments from emerging threats such as climate change have been , Due to rising sea level, water is leaking in the forts along the coast of Maharashtra. The salinity is eating into their foundations. High rainfall is causing plaster houses in Ladakh to crumble. The mural paintings of Shekhawati are peeling off due to high temperature fluctuations. The resources and expertise of the private sector can also help the ASI and state archeology directorates to protect monuments from dams, mining projects, defacement and looting.
Currently, India’s progress in various fields is being showcased at G-20 events across the country. By adopting forward-looking principles of historic preservation, businesses, government agencies and civil society groups can showcase India’s real progress in this area. May their efforts inspire more and more citizens to participate in the urgent task of safeguarding India’s pluralistic heritage.
Nachiket Chanchani is Associate Professor of South Asian Art and Visual Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, US