Humanities Sem vi

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Heritage

Heritage:
Dictionary meaning:
Noun
1.something that is handed down from the past, as a tradition:
a national heritage of honor, pride, and courage.

2.something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth; an

inherited lot or portion: a heritage of poverty and suffering.

3. something reserved for one: the heritage of the righteous.

4.Law. something that has been or may be inherited by legal descent or

succession, any property, especially land, that devolves by right of inheritance

A legacy of a group or society that is inherited from past

generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the
benefit of future generations
Sem6 Humanities, prepared by Mary Thomas
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Heritage

Classification of Heritage:
•Tangible Cultural Heritage’ refers to physical artifacts produced,
maintained and transmitted intergenerationally in a society.

•Physical presence

•It includes artistic creations, built heritage such as buildings and

monuments, and other physical or tangible products of human creativity
that are invested with cultural significance in a society

• ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ indicates ‘the practices,

representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the
instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith
– that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize
as part of their Cultural Heritage’ (UNESCO, 2003).

•Examples of intangible heritage are oral traditions, performing arts,

local knowledge, medicines, stories, design and traditional skills.
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Heritage

Conservation of Tangible Heritage:

•Preservation
•Keeping things the way they are, on a as-is-where-is basis. In other
words, prevent further decay

•Restoration
•Restoring the heritage to pristine glory, without changing the use it was
originally designed for, even though that function no longer is relevant

•Revitalization
•Reviving the original function by restoration
•
•Adaptive Re-use
•Restoration with additional changes that do not take away from the
original character to make it a profitable proposition

Sem6 Humanities, prepared by Mary Thomas

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Heritage

Key agreements and bodies involved in heritage conservation:

International:
•Athens charter 1931
•Roerich pact 1935
•Hague convention 1954
•Venice charter 1969
•…
•…
•Barcelona charter 2002

•Indian bodies:

•Ministry of culture
•National archives
•Archaeological Survey of India
•Anthropological Survey of India
•Intach…. etc
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Heritage

Biggest hurdles in the field of conservation:

•Awareness of its importance

(The huge gulf that lies between the general public and the
cognoscenti)

• Commercial interests that go hand in hand with development

(The fence that eats the crop)

•Legal status
(The want of a stick to beat back the wolves)

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Heritage
Heritage conservation & legislation in Mumbai:

•January 1988:
•Earlier, there were no regulations in Bombay or any other city
•A letter was sent to various heritage groups
•A modification of the D C Rules was proposed
•Initial list covered 145 buildings, conservation areas & control zones
•Purpose was to form a Heritage Sub-committee for Greater Bombay,
that could advise on heritage conservation
•This would form the basis for future action
•August 1990:
•Formal constitution of HERITAGE COMMITTEE
•Greater validity, lesser chance of being overruled by the courts
•Set a precedent for similar committees in other cities as the GOI sent
this circular to all other cities to create a kind of ripple effect 7
Heritage

Heritage conservation & legislation in Mumbai:

•September 1999
•Preliminary Heritage list included in the Draft Development Plan

•February 1991:
•Draft Bombay Heritage Regulations published in the Gazette
•Kept for public objections and suggestions (A mandatory process)
•This included the Draft Heritage List
•Got sanction
•This was a historic move – till this point, only the buildings listed by the
ASI had been protected

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Heritage Heritage conservation & legislation in Mumbai:
•Teething trouble: 1991-95
•Sahyadri – The CM’s Residence was on the list
•CM (Sharad Pawar) wanted to demolish and reconstruct
•IHS threatened to file a writ petition
•State Govt threatened to scrap the entire list
•Jain Temple at Pydhonie – same issue
•Trustees wanted to demolish and rebuild
•HIS & Intach file a writ
•State Govt threatebned to take all religious buildings off the list
•935 objections were raised on the the Draft list
•Each was given a hearing
•Some buildings were deleted from the list
•Some regulations were deleted/modified
•Grade II was split into IIA & IIB 9
Heritage

Heritage conservation & legislation in Mumbai:

•Teething trouble: 1991-95 contd

•1995: New State Govt was sworn in… and surprise-surprise, it was the
BJP-Shiv Sena that won (And Bombay became Mumbai!)
•But the new Govt signed the document

•April 1995:
•D.C Regulation No.67: Heritage Regulations came into effect
•Heritage List was sanctioned
•Statutory Directives were issued:
•Heritage list to consider new additions
•Deletions to be re-examined
•Seven large precincts to be considered as possible additions
•These were: Marine Drive, Napean Sea Road, Old Cuffe
Parade, Coopergage, Khodadad circle, Gamdevi south & Five
Gardens, Matunga

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