The Hindu : National : Heritage becoming platform for contestation: Ansari

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Heritage becoming platform for contestation: Ansari

Aarti Dhar

“It has been used to legitimise political agendas, stake claims to homelands and to assert antiquities of groupings”

Tangible and intangible heritage of humankind under threat, he says
“Museum has also emerged as an element for social change”

Hamid Ansari

NEW DELHI: Vice-President Hamid Ansari has expressed concern over cultural heritage becoming a platform for contestation between communities and ideologies. “It has been used to legitimise political agendas, stake claims to homelands and to assert the antiquities of groupings,” he said at the inauguration of the five-day 15th Triennial Conference of the Committee for Conservation of the International Council of Museums here on Monday.

Mr. Ansari said people lived in a world where tangible and intangible heritage of humankind were under threat. “Population growth, urbanisation and modernisation have made the task difficult; national and international strife and conflict have compounded it.”

Reaffirming identities

“In an increasingly globalised world, people look towards their cultural inheritance to reaffirm their identities and nurture the sense of belonging to their communities, social groups and nations.” He said restoration and conservation thus “preserve the very objects that serve as our link to the past and as a key to the structuring of our future.”

“It is evident that neither lamentation nor pious hope could save the heritage of civilisation. This requires awareness and a will to save and salvage as well as the tools and techniques for doing so. This, fortunately, is happening in our generation. Conservation has now become a worldwide movement and is propelled by a desire to share experience and learn from it,” Mr. Ansari added.

The Vice-President said it was significant that the conference would look into ways and means to allow participation of non-professionals, owners and users in heritage conservation decisions. This would widen the reach of heritage conservation to include common citizens and various non-professional sections of civil society, he said.

“Increasingly societies the world over are also seeing the value of conserving cultural property for the many associated economic benefits. Museums, libraries, national galleries and archives are a major contributor to the creative and tourist economy, are powerful places of social learning, promote creativity and innovation and immensely enrich our lives. It is significant that heritage conservation has transcended object-oriented museums to include innovative and thematic museums. The Parliament Museum in New Delhi has become a good example where a museum is not only for learning but has also emerged as an agent of social change,” he said.

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