New Delhi: Heritage-walk-guide Moby Sara Zachariah has seen New Delhi’s historic monuments change more in the last two months than in the last 10 years.
It’s the G20 effect and monuments are getting a makeover like never before. But the hurry to make centuries-old fragile monuments pretty and welcoming, some historians say, is turning into a rush job. Literally.
In the run up to the G20 Summit, New Delhi has received a $120 million facelift. Civic agencies across the central and state government have been working for months to transform the capital city into a gleaming emblem of modern India — a fluorescent, flamboyant, fitting host to the world’s largest economies.
And in the middle of all this modernity and novelty, Delhi’s history is also receiving some much-needed care. Monuments and heritage buildings across the city are being restored and updated — but many experts worry that it is conservation in name only.
Monuments like the Quli Khan’s tomb in Mehrauli Archaeological Park and a late Mughal-period Mosque in Lodhi Garden have suddenly turned pink with plaster, and are sporting new fittings like lights. One unroofed circular monument built by a British officer in the early 19th century in Mehrauli Archaeological Park has also abruptly acquired a roof, and is going to become a cafe.
If you’re conservation-discipline oriented, you’d call this vandalism, said AGK Menon
“What they’re doing is more beautification than conservation,” said architect, urban planner and conservation consultant AGK Menon, who was also convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage’s (INTACH) Delhi chapter. “If you’re conservation-discipline oriented, you’d call this vandalism.”
Questions are being raised over whether the contractors and workers have been trained in historical preservation and if established conservationists have been consulted in this process.
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Quick restoration
A group of history enthusiasts on a heritage walk stop to stare at a small monument in Lodhi Gardens on a Sunday evening. The monument in question is a mosque from the late Mughal period by the rose garden, and workers were busy digging up parts of the ground to lay down electrical wiring. Zachariah, who is leading the group and has been conducting heritage walks across the city for 11 years, is aghast at what’s happened to it.
This small mosque by Lodhi Garden’s rose garden is known for having motifs and writings on its inside walls. Now, plaster has been applied across a crack in the wall, obscuring the calligraphic writing that should have been restored. When Zachariah had conducted the walk two weeks ago, no such work was being done.
“When I see things happening like this — like quick paint jobs that cover minute details, I’m sad to know that the people on the site have no awareness or idea about what they’re doing,” said Zachariah. “Or they boast about the fact that they’re cleaning up the monuments.”
She’s been tracking the changes that have been taking place while conducting her heritage walks with tour guide platform Unfold Delhi. Zachariah has also worked at INTACH and conducted walks for them in the past. She pointed to tomb of Mughal emperor Shah Quli Khan in Mehrauli, which has also received a fresh lick of paint and plaster — this has obfuscated certain parts of the facade, making it hard to tell which part of the monument’s stonework was done during the Mughal period and which parts have been added on later by the British.
You can’t restore a building in the name of conservation in just a few weeks, said Sara Zachariah
“This feels suspicious and not in tune with actual conservation,” said Zachariah. “I have seen monuments restored, and it takes time — you can’t restore a building in the name of conservation in just a few weeks.” Speed has come at the cost of painstaking care that the work of restoration calls for.
Labourers working on these specific monuments agree — restoration work takes time, but they don’t have much of it. They have no choice but to meet their deadline to get the monuments ready for the G20 Summit.
“Ask my workers, they’ve been working nonstop for the last few weeks!” said Radha Ranjan Mehta, who runs Knospe & Co LLP, a private construction company that also does heritage conservation and restoration. They have been tirelessly working through nights and weekends. “One year’s worth of work is happening in four months,” added Mehta. “This will also cost a lot to maintain after the work is done.”
Knospe & Co was given a tender to restore 11 monuments for G20 by the Delhi Tourism department. The work is also being overseen by the New Delhi’s Department of Archaeology. The department is headed by Sanjay Gard, head of office (Archaeology). Department of Archaeology has not yet responded to ThePrint’s request for a comment.
All these 11 monuments were last restored by INTACH in 2010, according to Menon and the current convenor of its Delhi chapter, Arun Kumar. The process of restoration follows a protocol — a thorough investigation needs to be done first, and the way in which the monument reacts to the materials used for restoration has to be observed. Layers of lime are plastered on in multiple rounds, giving each layer the breathing time to dry.
It took INTACH a year to restore the Quli Khan tomb. The current round of restoration has been going on for three weeks — the inside of the tomb is sparkling white, and delicate dark blue designs have been painted across the walls. The domed roof of the structure remains as is because Knospe & Co couldn’t find a reference photo for the original dome. INTACH confirmed that they were not asked to consult on this round of restoration.
“It didn’t look like this earlier. It looked all old. Now it’s clean and shining,” grins Mehrauli resident Harilal Yadav, who has also been a security guard at the Quli Khan tomb for 10 years — he joined right after the last round of restoration. “I think this is what it must have looked like when it was built. The Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games, and now G20. These are the three events that have made Delhi beautiful again!”
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Conservation vs ‘prettification’
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is also hard at work for the G20 summit.
“For G20, our ‘highlight monuments’ are getting special attention — like Lal Quila, Qutb Minar, and Humayun’s Tomb. We started preparing in July, and we’re doing special cleaning, better illumination, etc.,” said TJ Alone, Joint Director General (Archaeology) at the ASI.
Besides INTACH and the Delhi government’s agencies, the ASI is the other major player overseeing the wellbeing of Delhi’s heritage monuments. The city has over 2,000 monuments and heritage buildings, and their maintenance is split between the ASI and Delhi agencies such as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). For example, the ASI is responsible for the Qutb Minar, but the adjoining Mehrauli Archaeological Park is cared for by the Delhi state archaeological department and the DDA.
Flowers have been planted, streetlights have been installed, walls have been painted, roadside stalls demolished, and any potentially unsavoury sights for G20 delegates — like night shelters for the homeless — have been turned into parks. Nearly 50 new statues and over 100 new fountains have been positioned at various vantage points, and metro stations have been spruced up with murals. Incoming air travellers can now marvel at 6-ft-tall lion statues, fountains with horses and shivlings, and a brand-new artificial rock waterfall as they drive into the city.
“With an international event, if Delhi’s monuments get proper maintenance and restoration work done, the attraction of the city changes,” said Kumar. “It’s a fantastic idea that it’s happening, and all the work going on in preparation for the G20 Summit has improved the civic situation of Delhi. With the monuments, at least some maintenance work has been initiated.”
The last global event in the capital city— coinciding with the last makeover of Delhi’s monuments under INTACH’s guidance— were the Commonwealth Games in 2010.
https://twitter.com/RakhshandaJalil/status/1695793073866043712
“In the process of ‘prettification’, we want clean looking facades — and this effaces our past,” said Rakshanda Jalil, literary historian and author of Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments of India. “A monument or building without its original character is just a shell. No effort is made to retain the calligraphy and incise plasterwork on the facades of these buildings. This is clearly wilful,” she added.
But the question of historical preservation pales before the globally amorphous aesthetics of a modern city. In the rush to appear shiny, urban, and cultured, the actual conservation of Delhi’s deeply-layered and syncretic history has taken a backseat.
It might still look like a ruin, and that’s perfectly fine-because it is a ruin. And value lies in it, said AGK Menon.
At the heart of it is the culture of how the past is viewed – not just as something beautiful but as something educational.
“The purpose of conservation is not to beautify a monument or recreate a past about which we can only conjecture and ‘invent’: this is unacceptable in conserving authenticity,” said Menon. “The idea of conservation is to save the authenticity of the monument. At the end of the day, it might still look like a ruin, and that’s perfectly fine — because it is a ruin. And its value lies in that.”
(Edited by Ratan Priya)