Col Satish Singh Lalotra

‘So much of our future lies in preserving our past’—Peter Westbrook.

The word ‘heritage’ in itself has connotations spanning a humongous array of traditions, cultures and such like issues dating back to centuries that are directly connected to the anthropogenic( man oriented) activities ; both having positive as well as negative effects on the conservation of such an important aspect of human evolution. The world over, man has been constantly evolving himself to a degree of perfection as per the changing environmental milieu and in the bargain leaving his footprints over the sand dunes of time in the form of ‘Heritage’. This heritage has been in certain places conserved at length with great painstaking efforts for the future generations to partake& peep into the times of yore and see with their own eyes the chain of human development down the ages. At other places it has been under a constant onslaught of human depredations, avarice and sheer force of conflicts and disasters, thus depriving a priceless heap of monuments and palaces from being explored and learnt by the younger generation of today. What can be a greater tragedy than the fact that it is human being again behind such depredations in the form of conflicts and wars that goes to destroy priceless monuments, architectural marvels which are in direct line of sight of these war mongers; only to fill in their own coffers with ill-gotten property? As if this is not enough, the intangibles in the form of various ‘Force Majeure’ actions like, earthquakes, Tsunamis and such like disasters drive the last nail in the coffin of conservation efforts for such heritage places around the world.

It has been a given thing without any shred of doubt, that in case of wars, conflicts, skirmishes and the like the first thing in the minds of enemy commanders is the capture of these iconic heritage sites , and make them part and parcel of their occupation strategy. Since these national heritage sites are the typical symbols representing the very sinews of a country’s existence , the same under occupation by the enemy during conflict sounds a death knell to the collective pride and prestige of a race. In other cases if these heritage sites are unable to be occupied, then raze them to ground, as happened with world famous Abbey of ‘Monte Cassino’ in Italy during the 2 WW. Though the world body of UN had come up way back in 1954 ,with international conventions like the ‘Hague convention’ to protect cultural property emphasizing its importance for humanity and the need to prevent its deliberate destruction ;there was a felt need to do more so by this world body in order to streamline and act as a ‘stabilizing factor’ against human being’s depredations in this regard. Hence dawned the day of 18 th April 1982, which was designated as ‘World heritage day’ for monuments and sites’ by the ‘International council for monuments and sites’ aka ‘ICOMOS’. This august organization was formed based on the principles outlined in the ‘Venice charter ‘created in 1964 to guide the conservation and restoration of monuments and sites. As on today almost all the continents of earth are raging with minor to major conflicts numbering from 70 to 100, and all having the potential of gobbling up the priceless monuments and sites to no end falling in their arc of influence.

Closer home, we have had the most infamous incident of Taliban militants in Afghanistan destroying the world famous ( UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE) ‘Bamiyan Buddha statues dating back to 618 CE with the help of artillery guns way back in 2001 under direct orders of Mullah Mohammed Omar who wanted the idol worshipping to be a thing of the past in that land locked country. Though the world bodies rose in a crescendo against this oddity, the damage had been done. In the similar vein in the Gilgit -Baltisthan area of POK due to the ongoing CPEC as well as the construction of famous DiamerBhasha dam , some of the oldest Buddhist sculptures , inscriptions , rock edicts & such like heritage icons are under the direct threat of extinction. Partly due to Pakistan’s complicity in joining hands with China riding high on expediencies of the times and more so due to sheer indifference regarding saving these priceless items .In our own Kashmir valley the world famous ‘Charar -e-Sharif ‘ mosque and shrine dedicated to 14 th century sufi saint ‘Sheikh Noor-ud-Din aka Nund Rishi was destroyed by the Pakistan based militant ‘Mast Gul’ way back in 1995 at the height of Kashmir militancy cum conflict between the security forces and the militants. Going a few centuries back the famous ‘Martand sun temple’ of Kashmir built during the reign of ‘LalitadityaMuktapida’ was razed to the ground by Sultan Sikander Shah Miri in the early 15 th century signaling a massive politico-religious churn that still has its reverberations felt even after more than 700 years . Actually India must be one of those unique countries of the world which has been feeling the heat of heritage destruction solely due to anthropogenic activities dating back to 8/9 th century AD. The country’s rich landscape and history is replete with examples when due to foreign armies invading the nation had world famous temples like Somnath on their radars of destruction. The Afghan ruler cum war lord Mohammed Gazni attacked this famous temple numerous times not only to pillage and ransack the entire area, but also took along with him bullock carts laden with gems and jewelry followed by carts full of women and children as slaves.

Many a time the heritage conservation cum protection which is a highly technical and painstaking job for a given area or monument gets stuck due to sheer apathy, lack of vision, and inertia among the stakeholders. The iconic ‘Mubarak Mandi palace’ the seat of Dogra rulers at Jammu is that typical example of heritage conservation having gone horribly wrong. With myriad interests working at cross purposes , is it any brainer that the project has not taken off in the right earnest with dime a dozen governments having come and gone? Same is the state of affairs with the famous ‘Jasrota palace’ at Jasrota, the Samba palace to name a few. As brought earlier heritage conservation is not only a painstaking job requiring latest technical knowhow in the related field, but also demands an unequivocal attention in both technical expertise as well as a free flow of funds to support such an exclusive field where not everybody may be on the same page. While ICOMOS ( International council of monuments & sites) will celebrate the theme-‘Disaster & conflict resilient heritage’ that is slated for this year of 2025, NGOs too are invited to acknowledge the IDMS under the overarching theme of ‘-Disaster and conflict resilient heritage , thereby encouraging them to share their experiences, events, and publications as also outcomes of discussions with ICOMOS members and the international secretariat.

Some of the activities that might include inventorying, collection of data on damage and losses and assessment of vulnerabilities ; understanding risks, and building corresponding capabilities ; collaboration between stakeholders, communication between relevant agencies in the heritage and disaster risk management may lead to successful tackling of this gigantic bundle of problems. Since its beginning,ICOMOS has grown to include more than 10,000 members from 150 countries worldwide. Among these members are 400 representatives from institutions, national committees and international scientific organisations , all working together to safeguard important sites and identify new ones that require attention. Just 2 years back, two new Indian sites were added to the world heritage list: sacred ensembles of the Hoysalas and Santiniketan. Now how do you celebrate this iconic ‘World heritage day’? As far as schools and organisations having a preponderance of younger work force are concerned, they can organize story telling sessions , trips to monuments and heritage sites in India , show movies that celebrate culture and traditions. On an individual scale, spread the word of ‘ World Heritage day’ in your area / neighbourhood by word of mouth or even on social media platforms for a quick and effective response . Join in and show your support for these crucial causes by finding local events by checking your community’s facebook group for details. Share a post or a photo of a notable international or even national site that might have been visited by you or hope to visit in the near future and ask your followers to share their favourites. As far as India is concerned the list is quite long with about 42 Indian sites that have earned a spot on the world heritage site. Some of the Indian sites with year of their inclusion having made up to the ‘World heritage list’ are as under—

* Agra fort( 1983)

* Ajanta &Ellora caves( 1983)

* TajMahal ( 1983)

* Group of monuments at Mahabalipuram( 1984)

* Konark sun temple( 1984)

* Kaziranga national park( 1985)

* Keoladeo national park( 1985)

* Manas wild life sanctuary ( 1985)

* Churches and convents of Goa( 1986)

* Fatehpursikri( 1986).

Though ideas abound in heritage conservation during disasters and conflicts, ICOMOS (International council on monuments and sites) has thrown across the spectrum of conservation activists the question — ‘How can its members, constituent committees and world heritage sites better prepare for these disasters? Some natural, but many man made. What role can everybody play collectively, and what does everyone need to be effective in that work per se? These are some of the questions that have the potential within them to put heritage conservationists uncomfortable if no concrete action, and that too time bound is not taken? If platitudinous actions are only the wont of those who are at the helm of such conservation efforts, time is not far away when the world over heritage items will quickly climb on to the bandwagon of ‘EXTINCT’ with no one to partake into the blame game at a later stage. As Peter Westbrook has rightly said- So much of our future lies in preserving our past’ unquote.

(The writer is a retired army officer.)