INTACH Delhi Chapter honours its warriors with Heritage Awards 2022

Hashmi’s award was accepted by his daughter Sania. In his note, Hashmi shared his initiation into understanding heritage and his experience of starting walks for students, to help them know their city better, and soon there were parents joining in. Then came a breakfast show on TV and many walks and talks later, he realised his activities were pushing him in a certain direction. In his note, he said, heritage will survive only when school and college students see beyond the “cobwebs of myth and half-truths” and claim the tangible and intangible heritage of the city as their own.

Another recipient of the Heritage Award 2022 was Talent Group, a collective that works in Old Delhi in areas of heritage, health, education and the performing arts. Led by Isha Bhargava and Irshad Alam Khubi, they have been reimagining Qissa Goi, an oral tradition of Shahjahanabad. Young storytellers, Humreen and Samiya, regaled the audience with a delightful story of how the streets of Old Delhi got their names, told through the “purring” of an affable “cat”, as they played various roles.

KT Ravindran, Delhi State Chapter Convenor. (Prachi Sardana & Mahak Bhalla/INTACH Delhi Chapter)

The NGO Friends of Heritage Society, helmed by Samegh Batra, was the other recipient of the Heritage Award 2022, for its initiatives towards adaptive reuse of the Qutub Sarai, which has triggered a cultural movement around the Qutub Minar. “If heritage is not reused, it falls into disuse and dissipates,” said Batra.

The welcome address and opening talk by architect-urban designer and present convenor, Delhi Chapter, KT Ravindran mapped the genesis of the unit. It began with author Malvika (Mala) Singh who took the initiative, followed by School and Planning and Architecture Director EFN Rebeiro, who brought his town-planner mind to INTACH’s Delhi Chapter, and later OP Jain, Founder-President Sanskriti Pratishthan, took over the reins. Subsequently, AGK Menon and author-historian Swapna Liddle too, have played their part.

While Menon, architect and past convenor, Delhi Chapter, shared insights into how listings of monuments and heritage structures grew to be integral to policy making, chief guest Ashok Vajpeyi emphasised about the irony of the evening. He said that while heritage initiatives were being awarded here, not far away from the venue, heritage was being demolished in the name of development. The writer-poet listed the challenges of preserving heritage in the present cultural and political situation.

The closing talk was by Liddle on ‘The Aura of Delhi’, on being the centre of power throughout history and how it garnered that reputation under different regimes and dynasties.

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