both tangible and intangible heritage in the state. There is a need for this as they are interconnected. We need ways to give structure and value to the management of all heritage assets, not just our forts and historic landmarks. Too long have we defined heritage as monuments in the care of the underfunded ASI and departments of art and culture – backward looking and of historic relevance only! Perceived as integral to and inseparable from contemporary urban planning, rural development, and the management of the environment – heritage management is the management of an irreplaceable and highly diverse resource bank. While we develop and provide infrastructure, roads, water, housing, transport – all that we need to function as a modern society - we can at the same time nourish our roots, feed them and care for them. And what are these roots – our traditional peoples, their knowledge, skills and arts and the built evidences of earlier times.
7. RUDIP conservation work in progress on one of the city gates. 8 & 11. Anokhi UNESCO award winning Haveli before and after restoration. 9. Pabuji ka Phad expert workshop. 10. Folk artists perform during the Jaipur festival.
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For successful, sustainable heritage management, on the scale that India demands (given its extraordinary resources and urgent need for people centric development) conservation has to be the self-perpetuating outcome of culture-based economic activity, owned widely by the people. Equal to restoration and conservation, the focus has to be to catalyse income generating activities based in ‘heritage’ through local knowledge, skills, arts, crafts which vest with the local people. There are increasing numbers of specialised agencies working in these differing creative fields, both NGO and entrepreneurial who can be engaged to kick start such an approach all over India. The investment moreover may be seen as an effective development focussed interpretation of the community awareness and participation program usually planned as part of public conservation budgeting. The time is right for progressive, holistic and grand scale management of India’s heritage. If we don’t do it now, the odds are most of our heritage will be lost within the span of the next generation – hardly twenty years from today. The need is critical.
Faith Singh is the Founder Trustee of Jaipur Virasat Foundation, a charitable trust, started to catalyse heritage-based social and economic development in Rajasthan and co-founder of Anokhi, an alternative role model for good social entrepreneurship, and the ongoing revival of traditional textile skills in Jaipur.