The vandalisation of pillars at Hampi has made it clear that we, as a nation, have failed to safeguard whatever remains of our glorious monuments. We need a national campaign to protect our heritage
The first tactile impulse towards our past/history came to full-view recently when a video surfaced of miscreants vandalising and kicking the lone surviving pillar ruins to the ground, purportedly at Hampi, a Unesco World Heritage Site. This is a classic example of how we as a nation treat our past. Apparently, multiple agencies are responsible for protecting the site, yet it looked abandoned. Our historical monuments are more often ridden with bats, pigeons, monkeys and louts than fortified by a security apparatus. Every single historical monument is bludgeoned with graffiti.
Had Hampi not appeared in The New York Times annual list of 52 places to visit in 2019, the incident would not have caught the imagination of the public at large and remained a one-off incident only to be forgotten later.
In fact, this incident reflects the pedigree of socially-desensitised and decultured citizenry and the failure of our education and value system. It is disheartening to see that a section of visitors repeatedly prove themselves unfit and unworthy to even get closer to the ruins of our past. Apathy for our history and heritage is not limited to historical monuments alone. Look at our dodgy museums. They resemble more an orderly maintained warehouse of artefacts.
In contrast, museums abroad are lively social and cultural hubs. They command premium and broader appeal. Often, the demand is such that people have to book slots in advance. Their history and heritage are on spectacular display. Spaces are elegantly designed; technology and atmospherics create an immersive experience for a visitor. The museums have the visitor’s interests at the heart of their concept, design and communications efforts. No wonder, they leave remarkable impressions on tourists.
On the other hand, museums and their management in India are yet to awaken to these possibilities of creating rich and immersive experiences. They exist in splendid isolation with no community-centric engagement programmes whatsoever. In short, they look stuck in a time-warp, are not socially integrated and need an overhaul. Look at the interpretation of the exhibits on display. It is beyond common man’s comprehension. Tablets are typically written in an academic language. The galleries created seem largely meant for the experts, by the experts and of the experts. If museums fail to talk to the common man on the street, then they are self-defeating.
If one were to pay a visit to any of our museums, the lingering impression would be one of uncaring execution and a basement quality effort. Right from the merchandise sold to the banners and brochures — all are of shoddy quality, poorly packaged and presented. To provide the visitors’ better experience, why not have a showreel or official guide imparting information about the place, its historical significance, relevance of the artefacts and rules governing the place?
Strikingly, many museums and historical sites do not even have a contemporary website or social media presence. Social media platforms like Instagram are becoming cultural forces in attracting a huge global audience for sampling and experiencing the culture of the places. Many visitors upload photos of the places and museums they visit and indirectly become cultural ambassadors and contribute to attracting more tourists. It is mystifying that our museums remain stuck in a bygone era and are not conversant with times. It is a tragedy that inter-disciplinary solutions are lacking in planning and execution in this domain.
Unless we, as a nation, respect our past, the world will not view us with the respect that we deserve. We need to evolve a national campaign to revive our history and monumental heritage. We need to make our history and heritage cool again. We have reduced the subject to mind-numbingly rote learning of names, years and wars fought in a unidimensional way, robbing it of creativity, imagination or contextualisation. Schools must impart the subject through outings and excursions and visual and multimedia aids. Local communities around historical sites are important stakeholders and they need to be productively engaged. They can be employed in various roles, can act as moral guardians and caretakers safeguarding the precincts.
Desecrating historical monuments needs to be a punishable offence with maximum sentence to deter people from such mindless acts of adventurism. Web booking must be encouraged to reduce the merely meandering and casual sightseers. There are no performance metrics for the agencies concerned either. Introducing community engagement, visitor-friendly communication, ticket sales could be some of the key metrics for evaluation. The sheer treasures around the country and those that are still being discovered need a thorough audit and restoration plan.
Above all, our history has hundreds of stories to tell, yet our heritage monuments and museums do such a shoddy job when it comes to inspiring visitors. Today, all we see in the name of storytelling is the “sound and light” shows at such venues. The venue is blighted with ubiquitous green light boxes mounted on the ground, loudspeakers assaulting the senses and garish and rainbow colour lights hitting the ruins and walls, in the name of exhibiting our creativity.
The common refrain of fund crunch would be partially solved if efforts initiated are visitor-friendly, information-rich and engagement-driven, leading to more footfalls and revenue. The private sector can play a promising role through CSR initiatives and actively adopt and contribute to art, culture and historical restoration activities. The Hampi incident should shake our collective conscience. A country without its history has no identity. Let us not be so hopeless that we fail to even safeguard whatever remains of our civilisational wealth. Else, it would be the biggest tragedy of our times.
(The writer is a communications and management professional)
