"Preserving Buildings in the Punjab"
Gurmeet Kaur
Conservation architect and a managing trustee, Punjab Heritage Preservation
Trust
Gurmeet Kaur showed a slide show of photographs of architecture,
Gurduaara and other buildings of Sikh history. Many are being destroyed by
renovation or neglect. The time is just right she said, especially after the
celebration of Sikh heritage in terms of the exhibits that have been presented
worldwide, to have a global plan for our heritage using UNESCO conservation
practices.
Gurmeet showed photographs of water tanks built by Guru Arjan
Dev. They reveal a lot about the involvement of the Guru in the community.
With Guru Hargobind, we see a switch from the saintly Guru to
the soldier Guru. The Guru starts building cities such as Hargobindpur and
becomes a political leader. Plans for this city show an organic village enclosed
by walls with five gates. Only one of the original walls remains and can be
preserved. The Guru also built a mosque in Hargobindpur. Photographs of Gurduaara
Granthia built by Guru Hargobind to teach granthees show changes made to the
building in an effort to modernize. There are also many wall paintings inside.
A family associated with the army of Guru Hargobind owns the Gurduaara. The
buildings reveal a lot about the time and the tradition.
Unfortunately, none of these structures are protected monuments.
The old city of Anandpur Sahib features historical gates. Anandghar
Killa was a fort in with the Guru's entire army could fit comfortably - only
a small wall remains. Sikh communities themselves do not know which instructors
are authentic and end up giving representations of history that are completely
inaccurate.
There are also a lot of Sufi sites in the Punjab maintained
by the community. But there are no guidelines for the people using these buildings
on how they are supposed to maintain and preserve them.
Ram Bagh, the summer palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Amritsar,
is a monument protected by the state government, but only the interior buildings.
The surrounding wall is protected by the Government of India. The international
understanding of conservation is that buildings should not be removed from
their setting. They need to be conserved in a holistic way, not piecemeal.
"It's very easy to preserve the whole complex should there be a political
will to do so."
Gurmeet Kaur said that she is disturbed by the fact that what
is authentic is not preserved. These structures require immediate attention.
The effort cannot be put away even for another five or ten years.
UNESCO has a strategy for conservation worldwide. "The
diversity of cultural heritage in our world is an irreplaceable source of
spiritual and intellectual richness for all humankind. The protection and
enhancement of cultural heritage diversity in our world should be actively
promoted as an essential aspect of human development. It is important to underline
a fundamental principle of UNESCO to the effect that the cultural heritage
of each is the cultural heritage of all. Responsibility for cultural heritage
and the management of it belongs in the first place to the cultural community
that has generated it and subsequently that to which cares for it." We
need a vision that would address identification of heritage, documentation,
conservation, training of expertise from the skilled to the grassroots workers,
advocacy of education programs, and publications.
In terms of a mechanism by which we need to achieve this, one
model, which is very relevant for the Sikhs to look at, is assurance in the
conservation process that there is participation at the community level and
there is equity in the whole process. It is a community that has taken care
of these monuments without participation from the state. We need to look at
the cooperation of various stakeholders who are the owners of the properties
and at various levels of government institutions. It is an overall perspective
that is much needed and should be addressed in phases.
This is the challenge.