Redefining the Relationship Between Heritage and Its Community for Sustainable Development: Taking Temples as Case Example

Abstract

Conservation in a broad sense refers to the protection of resources which are important for the future generation; let it be natural resources, energy, or heritage. When it comes to Heritage Conservation, the term Heritage has been defined and redefined by various organizations to broaden its scope; first, it was defined as Historic Monument in 1964 (Venice charter), got reinterpreted by ICOMOS in 1965 as Monument and Site, and again, by UNESCO in 1968 as “Cultural Property.” The word cultural property implies its geographical setting as well as the people around, by which it recognizes the fact that every heritage shares an inseparable relationship with their immediate neighborhood, which in its true sense forms the soul of the chosen property. In modern India, identification and protection of these cultural properties have been carried out since the colonial times, in which the property is being viewed as only a monument. Indeed, its protection and continuity of the property at a skin level is important and must be ensured, but it should also be made sure that the process of protection does not uproot the property from its immediate context. Putting up a protective fence all around the monument for the sake of protection (a typical measure taken up by the government bodies in India) not only creates a physical barrier between the building and its context, but also alienates the people living around since ages; the direct/indirect association of the people with the monument gets broken and then dies gradually, leading to a complete disconnect. This paper focuses on critically analyzing this relationship, which is an essential understanding required for developing a holistic/integrated heritage management plan for cultural properties, which in turn will lead to a sustainable development. Temples are one of the best examples in India, which explains and exhibits the level of interdependency that exists between a cultural property and its people. Taking Indian temple heritage as case example, the paper tries to understand the idea of Heritage in Indian context and the association these cultural properties have with the context. It also examines the disconnect caused between these cultural properties and their context by means of insensitive interventions, and the economic disparity created within the context as a result of the myopic policy/proposals created for development and management of these cultural properties.