The Hindu : Front Page : Red Fort on World Heritage List

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Friday, Jun 29, 2007
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Red Fort on World Heritage List

Staff Reporter

ASI now faces the challenge of managing the monument creditably

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Mughal majesty: The ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi, in a file picture.

NEW DELHI: Shah Jehan’s monumental symbol of love, the Taj Mahal, may be waiting to be listed as one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World,” but his majestic fort here has found a place in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The decision to include the Red Fort on the list was taken on Thursday in New Zealand by the World Heritage Committee. This puts the national capital on a par with Agra, each with three World Heritage Sites now.

Built by Shah Jehan in the 17th century, the Red Fort has much more to offer than the influence of his obsession with perfection. With its own special place in modern Indian history, the Red Fort is a collage of different periods from the Mughal to the British. The World Heritage Committee also inscribed three other cultural sites — the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape in Japan, the Parthian Fortresses of Nisa in Turkmenistan, and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

It was not the first time that the Red Fort was brought before the World Heritage Committee; the case for the site was earlier submitted in 1992. One of the things that went against the Red Fort at that point was the fact that the Committee did not feel that there was an adequate management plan for the site. “Ownership is not an issue for the World Heritage Committee, but they do take the management of the site seriously. The members had felt that this had not been defined well by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at that time,” said a UNESCO source.

The Army handing over the Red Fort to the ASI in December 2003 was an important step in enabling the nomination to the World Heritage List as that ensured that it was not a military target anymore – another aspect that is taken into consideration. The handing over also gave the ASI total control of the fort.

While the inscription of the Red Fort on the UNESCO list is a moment of pride for the country, for the ASI it is especially satisfying. It has been given a chance finally to put behind the bitter controversy that its “restoration” had stirred a few years ago, and the ASI will now be able to close that chapter with a sense of achievement. But it may be still too early for the Survey to get complacent: it will face the toughest challenge now.

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