Public apathy, govt neglect

Culture is an embodiment of the natural environment, the man-made space and the skills that are generated from need and created for life and living. When bastardised, they die. In circa 2005, mainstream India, which is rural and small-town India, lives with her many skills that have been diluted by marginal India, the rootless city dwellers, who are today becoming increasingly disconnected with the special multi-dimensional culture and ethos of this country. The more ‘‘privileged’’ but alas alien.

It is those who have been educated, and not the ‘‘illiterates’, who etch their names on the walls of ancient monuments and deface them. They are the ones who have neither pride nor respect for history, tradition or culture, call it what you may, as they pursue growth and wealth.

Unfortunately, the overriding ‘‘authority’’ responsible for the protection, conservation, enhancement of the multiple strengths of this ancient civilisation, are equally dismissive of our collective inheritance. They too seem to assume that change and growth means to radically shun the fundamentals, the cultural values and ethics of this society. They do not see culture as the bedrock for stability as we traverse the exciting journey of metamorphosis, transformation and growth.

To encroach has become a national character trait. Politicians and the administration lead the pack as they encroach upon our minds, our lives, enveloping our natural freedoms in yards and yards of redundant soiled red tape. They lead by breaking the rules that they themselves set.

Municipalities destroy the urban space by allowing what is not permitted, all for self aggrandisement, often, in Lutyens Delhi particularly, using the security bogie as the flimsy explanation. Thereafter, it becomes a free for all. Why then should anyone at all adhere to any rule, regulation or law. When will the authority at the pinnacle understand this truth and order the process of cleansing by first setting the standards themselves? Or, do they not want to disrupt the conservation of corruption at the cost of all else?

Major monuments are in a holy mess, badly maintained, short of funds, decrepit and falling apart. Encroachments are rampant, defacing exteriors continues unabated. For those who visit, there are no signages, there are no facilities, but there are these crumbling and uncared for symbols of the inherent strengths of Bharat. Lesser monuments have been embedded in quagmire, lost for all time.

Where the rest of the world is conserving whatever little remains of their cultures, we are blind to the destruction that has overwhelmed us here. Our museums are like lifeless morgues run by dull babus who are marking time, waiting to be posted to a lucrative position. Most could not give a hoot. What should have been the repositories of national pride have become examples of mismanagement and national shame.

The suffocating example of mindless anarchy we see and experience around us at all levels, day in and day out, is a direct result of this lack of understanding, pride and respect for what is our heritage. We have forgotten, in our greedy pursuit of material growth, that it is our responsibility to hold and protect, in trust, this dynamic and potent legacy for the future generation of Indians. We will be cursed if we betray the trust.

Every country showcases its strengths with pride laced with care and affection. Why do we destruct? Why do we spit at and urinate on all that belongs to us, the public, thereby polluting national space? What has gone wrong with urban India? Why has ‘‘rape’’ — human rape, material rape, every form of rape, become the national pastime? And yet, there is a special quality, intrinsic to the people of this country, which lives and blooms, despite the horrors, the corruption and the exploitation by the ‘‘authority’’. We have to contend with it, to be patient. Citizens, as the true and legitimate stakeholders, must now make real and concrete demands on their rulers.

As this government continues to cry hoarse about wanting to right many wrongs, maybe it should consider righting this wrong as well. Conservation of the man-made heritage and urban landscape means re-writing the rule card of the ASI and the municipalities to ensure the dignity of our public spaces. That should be the mandate of the ‘‘authority’’. Mohallas should be roped in and made responsible for the rehabilitation and renewal of their areas through public/ private initiatives, drawing their constituents to participate in the exercise. At this point in time, governments have to be blamed for the dismal state of this key sector.

Governments will also have to carry the guilt of diminishing and diluting the human resource of India by arbitrarily superimposing alien and unacceptable policies that have forced the fraying and fragmentation of the creative industries sector. Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer recently christened this sector as the ‘‘legacy industries’’ of India, and how right he is. That is the mindset and thinking we need if we are to stall the decline and put our skills back on the pedestal where they belong.

In a desperate attempt to ‘‘re-structure’’ and ‘‘liberalise’’ our economy, the men and women in charge of that shift have not comprehended the reality of India, nor seen where the future of growth lies. Yet again, an alien model was superimposed on us and no one bothered to create a fresh model that would integrate the many levels and layers of this nation. Therefore the pace will, inevitably, be slow but not necessarily steady.

A sensitive and committed corrective measure needs to be pioneered to stem the rot and re-vitalise this crucial economic sector, one that affects the majority of skilled workers in this country. Additionally, it is this same stratum that will secure a sense of belonging which will, in turn, regenerate pride.

The writer is the publisher of the monthly magazine, Seminar