Westerners value their own heritage and even Indian heritage which brings most of the tourists to places like Haridwar and other sites in India. However, Indians in general still lack similar interest in their heritage which needs to be cultivated.
The Surveyor General of India Dr Swarna Subba Rao said this while speaking at the inaugural function of the World Heritage Week commemoration organised by the Archaeological Survey of India, Science branch at Dehradun.
Addressing the gathering Dr Rao said, “We tend to forget the tangible signs of our heritage in our surroundings. I am from Hyderabad and though I must have passed many times in front of the Char Minar, I didn’t look at it carefully. We should feel proud of our heritage and work to preserve it. Foreigners come to visit India to see its cultural heritage.
The Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple at Kerala has many beautiful paintings about 400 years old outside the sanctum sanctorum. Inspite of being out in the open for centuries, these paintings make one wonder about the skill and knowledge of the artists who painted them at a time when the present preservation technologies were not known.
Such heritage has to be preserved but as in the case of the Red Fort and Taj Mahal, the people have removed the coloured stones from these monuments and many people still etch their names and signs on the walls of monuments which are part of our rich heritage.
Contrast this with the western mentality, for example, at the louvre Museum in Paris where people spend money and days on learning about and appreciating the exhibits.
“In India, we rarely visit museums to appreciate our cultural heritage,” he said. Speaking as the guest of honour, Associate Professor and Head of History Department in DAV (PG) College, Dr Vineet K Dikshit exhorted the school present present on the occasion to look at their heritage carefully.