Unlike many ‘geopolitical’ countries, India stands out as a ‘geo-cultural’ civilisation with a glorious legacy of thousands of years
From the astonishing Martanda Sun Temple in Kashmir to the Mahabalipuram wonders in Tamil Nadu and from the gigantic forts in Maharashtra to the vibrant city of Sibasagar in Assam, the jaw-dropping heritage of India spread in all four directions is a timeless classic. This is primarily because unlike many ‘geopolitical’ countries, India stands out as a ‘geo-cultural’ civilization with a glorious legacy of thousands of years.
The cultural richness is evident through the availability of the built heritage despite many destructive attempts of invaders. Conserving this heritage for future generations so as to continue the storytelling of India’s legacy is one humongous task where a range of stakeholders from government to society have a significant role to play.
This task, has been carefully laid down by our forefathers in the Constitution of India through Article 49, Article 51 A (f). Be it the various regulations passed in early 1800s or the recent constitutional provisions towards regularizing heritage conservation, India has a well-sought legal framework for protecting the monuments, symbols and sites of cultural importance.
Apart from a prudent legal framework, champions like Ahilyadevi Holkar, who were phenomenal in conservation and restoration of heritage sites, show that India has a different history of historic conservations itself. The constitutional articles and historic figures are a constant reminder for an efficient and effective heritage conservation, that will not only ensure cultural integration but will also contribute to economy and welfare in contemporary times.
Given such a vast background of heritage, the current government’s efforts such as announcing the establishment of Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation through budget 2020, the HRIDAY scheme, the Kashi Corridor development and bringing back the stolen ancient artefacts are truly appreciable.
However, despite these constructive steps, the built-heritage in India still suffers from under-funding. The Archeological Survey of India that looks after close to 3700 monuments has spent approximately `301.3 crore in 2016-17, `410.8 crore in 2017-18 and `405 crore in 2018-19, as per the data of Ministry of Culture. This expenditure, if seen as per capita cost, ,is only `8 lakh per annum per monument.
The story at the level of state governments is just the same, indicating how heritage is inadequately financed. Along with financial interventions towards heritage conservation, some city administrations, Mumbai and Pune in particularhave attempted to encourage restoration practices by incentivizing FSI, granting the Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs) and similar provisions in respective Development Control Regulations (DCRs). However, most have the provisions have been brilliant on paper and mediocre on ground because of implementation issues and lack of public awareness. The attempts of setting heritage markets and leasing/renting heritage sites,etc. have their own successes and limitations, as the heritage conservation and maintenance are complex tasks which put restrictions on government institutions to finance it with efficacy.
The requirement of skilled human resource against its limited availability which is required for accurate restoration, the availability of apt construction materials and the extent of sensitivity slows down the pace of the entire process. This reduces the viability and increases the risks involved in financing the heritage conservation projects. As a result, banks and financial institutions are reluctant in lending monetary support to such projects.
This entire scenario has been pushing the conservation sector to look for state-of-art financing solutions. One such solution lies in the benevolence of private sector. A fact that the companies that profit due to the society and the country, owe some share of their profit back for the welfare of society and country gave rise to devising the CSR mandate. As heritage conservation is also a kind of service to the society and its cultural, economic and social development, the CSR fund could be a pathbreaking tool to finance heritage conservation projects. Recently, a private member bill tabled by Dr. Vinay P. Sahasrabuddhe (President, Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha) that sought an amendment in the companies act for making it mandatory to the companies to dedicate minimum 25 per cent of their CSR funds compulsorily for heritage conservation and restoration. This amendment or a provision on the similar lines can be a rich nutrition for the heritage sector that is suffering from malnutrition at present. Such a provision enabling a portion of CSR to be spent (mandatorily) on heritage conservation will unleash the potential of Public-Private Partnership in India’s cultural, tourism and heritage sector. Further, properly financed conservation projects will attract more tourist footfall upon completion, thereby benefitting the portion of society economically dependent on heritage sites.
Today, the conservation sector has been subjected to state-of-art technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and other similar ‘proptech’ solutions. Utilising these technologies, with the due encouragement of public participation is extremely difficult for the bureaucratic nature of government sector. Such rigidity can very well be removed through ensuring a certain stakeof corporate sector which is much more flexible, open to accommodating ideas and competitive. Hence, CSR funding can prove to be an avenue that induces a sense of collective ownership of monuments while resonating with the modern-day technologies involved in conservation sector.
It is noteworthy that companies like Infosys have been already spending their CSR funds on temple restoration projects like the Somnatheshwaracomplex,the Lakshmeshwara temple and allied activities. However, the overall CSR expenditure incurred in heritage activities has been on a decline since the financial year 2016. This again underlines the fact that CSR funds, by making suitable amendments should be reserved for heritage conservation so as to ensure a constant stream of financial support is available for heritage projects.
Moreover, India’s built heritage is predominantly falling under the jurisdictions of urban areas being governed by respective urban local bodies. Given the trend of urbanization and densification of oururban areas, restoring and protecting heritage sites is bound become an even more complicated task, putting a massive pressure on government to finance it adequately. Easing off this pressure the fact that monuments have to be conserved This adequacy, to some extent, could be attained through mandatory CSR allocation in synergy with the amendment proposed by Dr. Sahasrabuddhe.
In the spirit of ‘Sabka Vikas’ that needs ‘Sabka Prayaas’, many appreciable restoration steps undertaken by the government like conserving the Samadhi of the great warrior Bajirao Peshve in Raverkhedi, Madhya Pradesh definitely require a substantial contribution from the private sector. Such public-private resonance shall go a long way in protecting India’s unique identity and ensuring betterment of the society on the move.
(The writer is Senior PS to Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on EWCY&S, Rajya Sabha Secretariat. The views expressed are personal.)
