If we do not ourselves care about our past, why would anyone care about our future?
Protecting Heritage
Shakeel-ur-Rehman
Heritage is endless in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, but year after year even the best is disappearing.
Take the Maharaja Palace of Gulmarg. Built by the Dogra’s in the 1920s the palace is in ruins. Many reasons can be attributed to it; lack of maintenance is chief among them. Gulmarg’s Maharaja Palace is not the only historic rich that is at risk, other monuments of historic importance too are under threat. Take the historic Hariparbat fort. Originally built by the Mughals, the palace was given its present shape by the Afghans. Like other monuments of Kashmir, the fort is at risk. The tragedy of the monument is that it remained under forces’ occupation for nearly 17 years. And it was only in 2006 that the fort was vacated by the forces and was subsequently handed over to the state authorities for promotion of tourism who subsequently threw it open for general public. The fort which till the 90s was in a comparatively good condition had been defaced drastically. Such was the condition of the fort that it had to be renovated by the state tourism authorities before it was thrown up for the general public.
Hariparbat fort is not the only historic asset that suffered because of neglect; a sizeable chunk of other historic riches are also at risk due to official carelessness. Going by the condition of the Hariparbat fort, it is safe to say that almost all historic riches of Kashmir are either under threat or have disappeared. The tragedy of Kashmir is that though it is rich in terms of historic riches, heritage is seldom taken seriously. That is why though history in Kashmir is endless; year by year even the best is disappearing. It’s a crisis, a scandal. Kashmir is a great heritage site, a wonder of ancient temples, royal tombs and colonial mansions, but many of them are at risk. And if we don’t act in time, we would lose them completely. At history’s crossroads for more than 2,000 years, Kashmir is the place where great rulers arrived with empires that ruled the valley for centuries. All left their monumental marks from temples to palaces. Irony is that Kashmir’s main heritage body, the department of archives, archaeology and museums is ill equipped and financially constrained.
Currently it looks after a small number of monuments and, even for these, worries remain. From Hariparbat to Pari Mahal to Gulmarg’s Maharaja Palace our history is in ruins. The reason for the pathetic condition of historic relics is that we have forgotten that this is our history. And this is who we are. What in fact has led to the present state of our history is lack of resources; manpower and financial, both of which are crucial for the management of historic riches. It is an open fact that the state archives department employs no qualified architects or conservationists, and monument care is split between a confusing cluster of local and national authorities like the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Concentration of authority in two different bodies with different set ups has led to confusion. But history being who we are we have got to protect it. And the best way to do so would be to invest the state archives department with the needed resources and authority so that state’s history could be protected.