Heritage Conservation, Need for people’s involvement

What the presentation covers

Heritage Conservation, Need for people’s involvement explains why conservation cannot succeed without public cooperation. Dr. S. Suresh uses historical examples to show that rulers, communities and voluntary organisations have all played roles in preserving monuments and older architectural features.

The presentation is an awareness and discussion paper. It does not contain a government order number, an issue date, land use controls, building restrictions, fees or procedures for property owners.

Historical examples

The presentation describes several examples of conservation and public action:

• Chola inscriptions record instructions to preserve older writing when temple stones were removed or replaced. The writing was to remain on the original stone or be copied onto a new stone before the old one was destroyed.
• Epigraphical evidence from the Pandias in Tenkasi and other places is cited as showing similar conservation efforts.
• Raja Raja made endowments for the upkeep of the Brihadheeswarar Temple at Thanjavur, although later rulers did not always preserve those arrangements.
• The Thanjavur Marathas restored older temples. The presentation also describes a stone Nataraja shrine designed to harmonise with the other stone buildings in the temple complex.
• During construction of the lower anaicut in the 1870s, stones from the dilapidated Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple were used despite public agitation.
• Public opposition to a government decision concerning Queen Mary’s College is given as a more recent example.
• Local agitation is credited with preventing a proposal to dismantle the Taj Mahal and sell its marble in the early nineteenth century.

Public participation

Heritage Conservation, Need for people’s involvement says that public participation existed for centuries but was not organised until more recent times. It discusses the development of national trusts outside government systems, including the British National Trust, the National Trust for Heritage Preservation in the United States, and INTACH, which began in 1984.

The presentation describes public awareness programmes, children’s and students’ programmes, workshops, and training for non-professionals as ways to involve people and other stakeholders in conservation.

Relevance to property owners and buyers

Heritage Conservation, Need for people’s involvement does not state that any particular property is protected or restricted. A buyer or owner cannot use it alone to determine a site’s heritage status, development rights or approval requirements.