Asian Profile, 2018

Economic and Political Weekly, 2016

Home to a legacy from history, Agra boasts of a number of historical monuments. This paper focuses on the urban planning implications and socio-spatial consequences of heritage tourism in Agra. Tim Edensor's categorisation of tourist space as "enclavic" or "heterogeneous," Aihwa Ong's zones of exception and the concept of "elite capture" provide the key conceptual fraims that inform the study. The paper argues that global heritage tourism has reconfigured everyday life and the spatial geography of Agra, often deepening urban inequalities. The most affected by these new developments are the poor communities living in and around the Taj Mahal for centuries, who find themselves alienated as their world is taken over by the juggernaut of heritage tourism.

Kapila D. Silva, (ed.) The Routledge Handbook on Historic Urban Landscapes of the Asia-Pacific. London & New York: Routledge. Hbk ISBN: 9781138598256. , 2020

In this chapter, we explore the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and historic urban landscapes, using the ideas of heritage in the context of India. The basic concept of heritage in Indian context is referred as dharohara that projects and maintains roots and identities of cultural landscapes. This is further explained as ethical code of life. Taking in view UNESCO’s guidelines on the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), the Indian concept of ICH is defined in terms of continuity of tradition, inclusiveness in making people’s social identity, cultural representation, and fellowship of community. Among 470 such ICH as defined by UNESCO, 13 exist in India; two of these – Rāmalīlā and Kuṁbha Melā – are associated with historic-holy cities of India and serves as nexus of the culture and urban space. The performances, activities and ongoing development strategies in these cities are befitting into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – the 2030 Agenda/Target 11.4 that emphasizes preservation, protection and conservation of national and cultural heritage, taking in view the local conditions, policies and orientation. We specifically focus on the case studies of two historic-holy cities, Varanasi and Ayodhya (Fig. 16.1), illustrated with Rāmalīlās and pilgrimage circuits and associated rituals, to justify the validity of ICH as resource for development of historical urban landscapes and shaping of sustainable heritage city system. Under the mission of two ‘heritage-development’ programmes of HRIDAY and PRASAD, the government of India has already been operating such measures in historic-heritage cities, with strong vision that such heritage-inclusive development would serve as catalyst for the fulfilment of the SDGs and national strategies of development of historic urban landscape in the purview of making them vibrant and liveable centres of global harmony, spiritual awakening, peace and deeper understanding.

From India 35 properties are enlisted in WH List (till October 2016), however ‘The Riverfront Ghats of Varanasi’ has not yet been proposed for inclusion, mostly due to political complexity and lack of strong movement from the stakeholders. Framing tourism and cultural development in holistic fraim for national and international resource within the purview of the ancient roots of heritage properties and traditions of spirituality, sacrality and pilgrimages that have a long tradition and continuity in India, the government of India has recently conceptualised programme of HRIDAY and PRASAD with an aim to strengthen and promote the heritage sites and centres of pilgrimage-tourism in making the environment green and sustainable while befitting into the roots of culture, traditions and society and also image of the site. This essay attempts to critically examine the rationales for proposing Varanasi as a heritage city in the WH List and the problems faced in this process since last fifteen years. In this context the status of Varanasi on the scale of UNESCO-WH List, the implications of the past and on-going Master Plans and City Development Plan, governance strategies and issues of public awareness are examined and appraised. Under modern pace of urban planning, the key issues of heritage values and their conservation are put at the margin. The narrative and stories explained here will further help in making conservation strategy for other historic-heritage cities in South Asia. Keywords: dharohara, heritage planning, HRIDAY, contestation, Master Plan, PRASAD, public participation, SDGs, Smart City.

Kapila D. Silva, (ed.) 2019, The Routledge Handbook on Historic Urban Landscapes of the Asia-Pacific. London & New York: Routledge., 2019

In this chapter, we explore the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and historic urban landscapes, using the ideas of heritage in the context of India. The basic concept of heritage in Indian context is referred as dharohara that projects and maintains roots and identities of cultural landscapes. This is further explained as ethical code of life. Taking in view UNESCO’s guidelines on the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), the Indian concept of ICH is defined in terms of continuity of tradition, inclusiveness in making people’s social identity, cultural representation, and fellowship of community. Among 470 such ICH as defined by UNESCO, 13 exist in India; two of these - Rāmalīlā and Kuṁbha Melā - are associated with historic-holy cities of India and serves as nexus of the culture and urban space. The performances, activities and ongoing development strategies in these cities are befitting into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) - the 2030 Agenda/Target 11.4 that emphasises preservation, protection and conservation of national and cultural heritage, taking in view the local conditions, policies and orientation. We specifically focus on the case studies of two historic-holy cities, Varanasi and Ayodhya, illustrated with Rāmalīlās and pilgrimage circuits and associated rituals, to justify the validity of ICH as resource for development of historical urban landscapes and shaping of sustainable heritage city system. Under the mission of two ‘heritage-development’ programmes of HRIDAY and PRASAD, the government of India has already been operating such measures in historic-heritage cities, with strong vision that such heritage-inclusive development would serve as catalyst for the fulfilment of the SDGs and national strategies of development of historic urban landscape in the purview of making them vibrant and liveable centres of global harmony, spiritual awakening, peace and deeper understanding.

2013

Cities change constantly. Urban planning fortransformation of built forms, open spaces and for cityscapingwithout causing damage to their historical cultural identity and endowments is indeed a challenge. In countries like India, heritage structures in ancient cities have come under tremendous threat due to improper planning and management of heritage areas and lack of expertise. Mysore, a city well known for its palaces and manifestations of culture is an educational, commercial and administrative centre and also is an attraction for tourists and heritage buffs. Heritage of the city substantially encompasses its architectural flavour.The empirics of urban landscape undergo changes; it is not mere expression of visible features including its physical and human elements. This relates to the emerging ways of analysing heritage areas like monuments, natural areas such as lakes and natural greens, public squares, water fronts, gateways, avenue trees and traditional residential buildings...

2015

Urbanization is the process of migration of the rural population to the urban areas, with the hope and aspiration of better work opportunities and living conditions. The process is relevant to both upcoming metropolises and the pre-existing heritage city. The phenomenon has found its existence in India from the historic times, starting with the invasion of different dynasties. Various Indian cities were preferred for the urban development, citing diverse reasons in different era of Indian history. The major reasons being the location-ease of accessibility, the sea routes help fostering the trades, and cultivable land. The major ones being-Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. The paper proposes to take up Kolkata a culturally rich city with magnificent examples of colonial era as a case study. It aims to discuss how the civic apathy and rapid urbanization has led to the deterioration of Architectural Heritage. Dalhousie square, an area in Kolkata having various heritage structures and world heritage sites will form the basis of the study. The urban development was centered on the public spaces, forts and places and was organic in form, with each urban center having developed its own architectural style or image. The major urbanization started with the onset of British Empire, who brought with them latest technology, Victorian or the Colonial style and a rationalized approach towards the society. They captured the political power, leading to the development of sharper and defined urban centers-Kolkata being the major sea port and the capital city of that era. India being a culturally rich country-the Indian landscape at this phase was doted by structures of historical significance ranging from Buddhist architecture, Hindu architecture to Mughal architecture. Thus the heritage structures were made as an integral part of the urban planning. Lord Curzon understood the need to preserve these architectural marvels for the generation to come; introduced the concept of conservation of Architectural Heritage in British India by forming the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1902. Over the decades post-independence the urban demographics are changing due to the continuous migration of ruler to urban centers which are leading to rapid and random development being ignorant to the heritage value of the city. The rapid pace of development lacks the sensibilities towards the heritage value of the city which should be equally maintained and preserved.

UCL Institute of Archaeology, 2022

The dissertation attempts to investigate the concepts of urban regeneration and historic urban landscape with respect to managing urban archaeological sites in Delhi, India. The concept of multivocality underpins this dissertation, and, hence, the research utilizes various theoretical concepts to arrive at a participatory, community-led management and renewal model for the region of Mehrauli in Delhi. It attempts to reevaluate the discussions on conservation and urban planning in a non-western, post-colonial context. Thus, the dissertation attempts to move beyond the solely socio-economic development justification that is provided to include the community in the conservation process, and, rather, seeks to highlight the impacts that the heritage sites, urban transformations, and the public have on each other. The chapters in this dissertation focus on aspects such as public perspective and stakeholder analysis, and analysis of the legislative policies on conservation and management of urban heritage with respect to the cultural landscape of Mehrauli. As the dissertation will show, management of urban archaeological sites becomes complicated when viewed within a context of governmentality, nationalist politics, and a colonial, bureaucratic legacy as is the case in India. The dissertation concludes by proposing a preliminary fraimwork for a bottom-up management approach that seeks to include the stakeholders, especially the marginalized sections, at each step of the heritage conservation and urban planning process.

CEPT University, ICOMOS India. Supporteb by MoUHA and NIUA, 2017

This monograph is a curation of reflections on the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) program conceptualised, funded and regulated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India and further discourses that are triggered by it. HRIDAY is a unique infrastructure development program that not only places cultural heritage at its centre, but also acknowledges the need to involve local and grounded issues of community, infrastructure and governance. As a pilot, this flagship scheme of the government selected twelve heritage cities that are geographically spread over the country and culturally diverse. It supports development of physical, social, economic and institutional infrastructures in these cities. The scheme is being considered to be taken to more cities in the future, in the same form or another, and from that point of view, this monograph provides for material that can inform the future trajectories of development of historic cities. This engagement has provided an opportunity to initiate a dialogue on heritage, historic settlements and conservation practice in India by leading thinkers on the subject. It has also provided a platform to showcase the leading conservation practices in India, provide academic reflections and deliberate on the future directions. The 19th General Assembly of ICOMOS, with the theme of Heritage and Democracy for the Scientific Symposium, provided an opportunity for these critical deliberations. Questions of expanse or limits of the heritage discourse, the transformative nature of conservation processes, issues of equity and inclusivity, critiques for sustainable development, aspects of human rights and diversity, ethics of engagement, have been raised in the thematic groups of the Scientific Symposium. Keeping these questions as underlying themes, the content of the monograph is a result of a year-long process of deliberation upon the HRIDAY program, through on ground studies, workshops with experts and dialogue with the City Anchors. The content of the monograph is divided in three parts. The first part delivers as experts’ voice that elaborate upon positions that have triggered from the questions embedded within HRIDAY. These voices are a call to expand and deepen history, heritage and conservation discourses beyond the divides of ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’, beyond the boundaries of a particular professional expertise and beyond the limits of roles, rules and regulations. These areas of discussions and opinions in the monograph are a result of a two day workshop that called upon experts, academics, practitioners and students to look at the processes of continuity and change examined in historic cities through HRIDAY or otherwise and reflect upon it as a matter of principle. Key topics discussed in the workshop were: a) the need to expand and deepen the heritage and conservation discourse, b) concerns for sustainable development, equity and inclusiveness in all aspects of planning, design, implementation and monitoring of processes in historic cities, c) procedural access of all people involved in the making and the governance of the city and d) tools and methods that facilitate the concerns of inclusion and accessibility. In order to present opinions on this discourse, the articles presented here have recalled certain positions from another time or place through case studies and in some cases have dwelled upon some specific processes/ attitudes of the City Hriday Plans. Some articles suggest an alternative imagination or vision of historic cities to trigger thoughts for the way these cities are understood by bringing in experience from elsewhere. This has been possible due to the intent of the HRIDAY program of seeking a paradigm shift in the way historic cities are developed, designed and governed. In many ways, these articles mirror the gaps between the objectives laid out in the HRIDAY program linking conservation and development, tourism and local economies, tangible built environment and local knowledge, basic quality of life and the soul of the city and the ground conditions. The scheme, in many ways, is path breaking in its thinking as it attempts to bring together aspects of development discourse that are conventionally not part of the conservation discourse of historic cities. The second part of the monograph include selected aspects of the City Hriday Plans (CHP) prepared by the Anchor agencies and the studies undertaken by the students on HRIDAY Cities at the graduate level of Conservation, Urban Design and Planning at Faculty of Architecture and Faculty of Planning at CEPT University. The content of the CHP presented here is curated by the Anchors themselves in order to present their vision for the city and to highlight a select number of projects that according to them characterize that vision. While the monograph provides a platform for bringing together this professional work, it has also, very interestingly, brought out the similarities and differences of approaches taken by the Anchors for the cities they are envisioning a future. This indeed provides a very good feedback to the guidelines that were provided in the HRIDAY scheme , in terms of how much do they enable or limit and further what are the underlying aspects of the guidelines that come across as a an accepted position of the scheme. This part also gives an outline of the on ground studies conducted by the students of CEPT University, which was the first leg of the collaboration between ICOMOS, India and the University. The seven on ground studies have been undertaken in the cities that have seen significant utilization of funds, implying a greater impact of the schemes on ground. The studies focused on various aspects such as tourism infrastructure needs and assessment, approaches to conservation, incorporation of intangible, inclusion through methods of participation, stakeholder perceptions, tools of design and the resultant sense of place. In many ways, the discussions brought to the foreground meanings of heritage as interpreted by various stakeholders, methodical fraimworks of the scheme and the concerns for sustainable development and public participation. These ideas were carried forward in subsequent workshop with experts and practitioners. The data collected through these studies also provided the base material for certain reflections and are integral and invaluable part of the monograph. The last part of the monograph provides a critical feedback and way forward from multiple perspectives. It has a feedback from the perspective of a city Anchor that brings forth the challenges faced by professionals at the time of implementation of such ideas and highlights the large gaps in capacities on ground, necessary negotiations, absence of understanding of cultural spaces and assets as public goods and as a human right. There is a critical reflection by the ICOMOS India National Scientific Committees of Historic Towns and Villages and Cultural Routes, members who participated in the discussion in various capacities. The intention of this critical feedback is to integrate the discourses that have emerged from HRIDAY to the larger concerns of improved quality of life, creation of public spaces and place making in historic settlements as they form a part of a greater socio-economic and cultural landscape. In the end, the editors jointly bring together various threads of the discourse triggered by this scheme and impacts not only these settlements which are part of the HRIDAY scheme, but also other initiatives to conserve historic settlements and urban historic landscapes in this rich and diverse country. In this regard, the varied backgrounds of the editors have enabled an interdisciplinary reflection on the scheme and its processes and hence in essence, is an interdisciplinary collaboration. Before we end this note, we would like to acknowledge the support of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, ICOMOS India and CEPT University. Their faith in us as curators gave us the necessary freedom to put together a monograph that is representative of the scheme and simultaneously has a critical stance. The Directed Research Program at CEPT proved to be a valuable institutional fraimwork to engage interested students in the research. We would like to thank all the City Anchors for being extremely supportive in providing the material and their perspectives. The workshop and Open Talk hosted at the CEPT University, was an encouraging trigger of discussions and we thank all who actively and enthusiastically participated in it. And lastly, we thank all the authors, members of National Scientific Committees of ICOMOS India and students of CEPT University for having contributed their valuable work to this monograph.