Our Heritage – what does it do for us

today?

Eliza Hilton - Flow Indiawww.flowIndia.com

Flow India

London 2006 / New Delhi 2010

Connecting the rich material culture of India with the school curriculum.

7th Century BC – 14th Century AD 8,850 KM

Our Built Heritage Environment

• What role does built heritage have in our world today?

• What does it mean to us when we see monuments and ruins?

• How does is relate to the questions about disaster management, social integrity, and gender bias that have been explored in the conference so far?

• How and why do we preserve ruins?

Archaeological Survey of India

“So far only 3667 monuments and sites are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India and approximately 3500 monuments and sites are protected by the State Governments.”

ASI Website

UNESCO – Global Heritage

“Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration.”

The World Heritage List includes 981 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.

World Heritage Sites in India• Agra Fort• Ajanta Caves• Ellora Caves• Taj Mahal• Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram• Sun Temple, Konârak• Kaziranga • National Park• Keoladeo • National Park• Manas Wildlife Sanctuary• Churches and Convents of Goa• Fatehpur Sikri• Group of Monuments at Hampi• Khajuraho • Group of Monuments• Elephanta Caves• Great Living Chola Temples

• Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks

• Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi• Humayun's Tomb, Delhi• Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi• Mountain Railways of India• Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya• Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka• Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park• Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Vict

oria Terminus)• Red Fort Complex• The Jantar Mantar, • Jaipur• Western Ghats• Hill Forts of Rajasthan• Group of Monuments at Pattadakal• Sundarbans National Park

Change our view on heritage

Protection, care,

responsibility

A Resource for Living

A Resource for Living

Information

Identity

Livelihood

Well-being

Information

Identity

Livelihood

Well-being

Resilience

Gender

Social

integration

Disasters

How we treat heritage will naturally change

Protection, care,

responsibilityA Resource for Living

What are we going to do today?

• Look at Gwalior Fort and Scindia Jai Villas Palace Museum

• 2 different ways we are going to think about relevance and meaning of built heritage in today’s world.

Built in 8th century AD.

Strategically located on an isolated hillock, it is one of the most formidable fortifications in central India

Defence structure

The Kacchwaha Rajputs, the Tomars, the Mughals, the Marathas and finally the Scindias from late 1800s.

Witness to the rule of more than 5 dynasties over 13 centuries.

Symbol of power

Comprises of a number of structures- palaces, temples, water tanks.

Living space

Served as a political prison during the reign of the Mughals

Political prison

Jain sculptures cut into the rock

Representation of beliefs and practices

Shiva temple within the fort precinct

Music hall

Support for the arts

Intricately carved interiors

Enamel inlay on external facades

What we will be seeing today

Constructed by Maharaja Jayaji Rao Scindia in 1874

Centre of rule and administration

Seat of power

Place of grandeur

Meeting place

Living quarters

Hub of planning

Lending patronage:Chanderi textile, Shinde shahi pagdi, Gwalior

pottery

Housing different styles from across the world

Two places

• Source of information about the past – history and society and also architectural forms.

• Important for the identity of this place and time in different ways

• Economic livelihoods for the local guides etc.• Places that generate well-being – aesthetic

quality of the space and the view of it.

Tasks

• Creation of a passage of historical fiction at Gwalior Fort

• Creation of an artwork working in groups at the Jai Vilas Palace

KEYNOTE

Change our view on heritage

Protection, care,

responsibility

A Resource for Living

A Resource for Living

Information

Identity

Livelihood

Well-being

Information

Identity

Livelihood

Well-being

Resilience

Gender

Social

integration

Disasters

How we treat heritage will naturally change

Protection, care,

responsibilityA Resource for Living

Information

A ‘lost’ civilisation

Identity

Think about the house you grew up in.

• Goes to Mrs Price’s house in England is able to describe it perfectly, because when he was a child growing up in Calcutta, his cousin had talked about it with her child’s view. Entire novel about remembering and identity.

It’s incredible, Ila sighed, shaking her head. How does he do it?

And all the while, of course, it was she herself who had shown me.

She had taken my hand and pulled me under the table, and when I was sitting beside her, she had drawn a line in the dust and said: Now remember that’s the road outside, and that, over there is where they play cricket. Then boxing off as a small dusty square, she said: That’s the garden and that’s the cherry tree, and there’s the front door, and after you’ve rung the bell and wiped your feed on the doormat, you can come in.

Lord Byron 1788 - 1824

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes.

(Excerpt from She Walks in Beauty)

Building yourself into the identity of the place!

Livelihood

Old Delhi

Well-being

Resilience

”Traditional management techniques based on local capacities have proven to be efficient and cost-effective tools to mitigate environmental risks, including from climate change, reduce vulnerability and reinforce the resilience of communities and for a real sustainable heritage development.”

www.preventionweb.net

Gujari Bazaar – Ahmedabad597 year old trader-organized market

• Established in 1414, 3 years after the founding of the city by Ahmed Shah

• Democratically governed by the Ahmedabad Gujari Association (AGA), a secular membership-based organization

• Women traders comprise 40% of the association’s membership; half of these self-identify as Dalit

• Formally registered since 1944• A space of social and ethnic integration (membership has

always comprised of both Hindu and Muslim traders). • Microfinance regional traditional craftspersons and small

entrepreneurs.

“fundamental spiritual and psycho-social support and the sense of belonging it provides to communities during the disaster recovery phase, as well as the contribution it makes towards building resilience to the increasing frequency and intensity of disasters and adaptation to climate change”

Other examples

• Protecting the library in Cairo- Arab Spring 2011

• Moken people – a tribe of nomads in Thailand 26th December 2004

• Psycho-social recovery in Haiti

How we treat heritage will naturally change

Protection, care,

responsibilityA Resource for Living

Just as the universe is contained in the self, so is India contained in the villages- Mahatma Gandhi

Human Spirit

Resilience