Heritage Conservation in Postcolonial India: Approaches and Challenges ed. by Manish Chalana and Ashima Krishna (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Heritage Conservation in Postcolonial India: Approaches and Challenges ed. by Manish Chalana and Ashima Krishna
• Ateya Khorakiwala (bio)

Heritage Conservation in Postcolonial India: Approaches and Challenges
Edited by Manish Chalana and Ashima Krishna
Routledge, 2020
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Ground-level plan of a shala (left); first-level plan (above right). The image (below right) shows a typical shala structure in a thatara tola construction in Chamba, with a badi and tulsi vedika in the front courtyard. The four concrete columns in the front veranda, and a small outdoor bathing area on the right of the entrance steps are more recent additions. Sketch generated in September 2014 as part of a studio project at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. Source: Sakriti Vishwakarma.

Manish Chalana’s and Ashima Krishna’s volume brings a chorus of divergent and complementary voices together to represent the major debates and directions in heritage conservation in India. The critical framing of the book is centered on the changing institutional and theoretical norms in the field of conservation, particularly in contrast to the approaches laid out by the colonial and governmental behemoth, the Archeological Society of India (ASI). Heritage conservation’s institutional landscape exceeds the ASI; it is also shaped by the different histories and organizational structures of the non-governmental Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and the global mandates and directions of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The book aims to complicate this institutional landscape by introducing the myriad institutional scaffolds that make conservation possible. It presents emerging definitions and trends of heritage in postcolonial India by bringing together essays from practitioners in the field that complicate both what heritage is and what its conservation should and does constitute. Positioned against the ASI’s monument-centric model of conservation, the book produces conservation as a textual production: lists, publications, status designations, vision plans, and even public interest litigations (PILs).

In the post-independence period, Chalana and Krishna argue, the ASI narrowly and uniformly enforced the prescriptions of a 1923 document, the conservation manual thus shaping postcolonial heritage as an archeological and bureaucratic endeavor. These two aspects—the uniformity of application and the power of a manual—have had an outsize impact on the field. The strength of the ASI is that it has produced a comprehensive record of monuments and artifacts; however, this reinforced a flaw. This textual and archival work of heritage, which stems from its archeological roots, has conversely limited what constitutes heritage or history to monumental buildings and thus limits models and methods of conservation to material processes. In the 1980s, as India’s economy liberalized, conservation shifted when the non-governmental INTACH entered the field, challenging ASI’s dominance and offering a different approach to conservation. This new approach decentered the monument-centric one with its three categories of heritage: built, natural, and intangible living heritage. Today, INTACH too [End Page 119] is a behemoth in the field. The central question of the volume is that, given the profound impact of the intertwined legacies of ASI and INTACH, how might conservation both challenge these formats and thrive in their wake?

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View of an ekshala dwelling in Surara Moholla with a modern, brick and concrete extension at right angle, to the left of the image. The debris in the foreground is the construction material for a demolished thatara tola construction that the new extension has replaced. Also seen along with the debris is galvanized roofing sheets that are fast replacing the traditional timber roofs with slate shingles. Source: Sakriti Vishwakarma.

Part I of the book begins with two chapters written by conservation professionals working in the ASI and INTACH. While these chapters provide insight into these two recognizable institutions, the function of part I is to underscore that conservation happens in myriad ways—local governments, municipalities, local activists, and other state and non–state actors play significant roles. Ashima Krishna’s fourth chapter, “Tools for Heritage Advocacy in Lucknow,” offers a critique of expertise—advocates become surrogates in conditions where institutional mechanisms are sparse. Krishna’s...