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The H factor

What is heritage? GEETA PADMANABHAN tosses the question to a cross section of people and gets some interesting answers

There's heritage in everything in art, places, cinema and sport.

Every summer, around this time, a few good men and women get together to talk of heritage. They remind us of our "rich" past and point to ruins as proof. They plead for restoring period buildings that can still stand. Words that cannot be pronounced or spelt (Paleolithic? And what is it, cite, sight or site?) float around and photographs that look like bombed-out places go up in exhibitions. In the absence of film stars and free gifts, not many turn up to view them. People lived, ate, decorated themselves, worshipped and ruled. So? The only good those blokes did was building all those monuments. Gives us surfaces to scratch our names on.

Heritage hardsell

What we need is heritage hardsell. A promo of its value and its worth. Or a more inclusive view of the H thing.

Heritage is what passes from heir to heir. It is our inheritance, ours to keep. Like the institution of marriage or the concept of non-violence, as much as the flag flying over Fort St. George. It is stories of our heroes, I mean the real ones, our famed hospitality, khaddar that has become haute couture and grandma's best recipes. For Theodore Baskaran, the passionate conservationist, "rivers, hills, lakes, sea front and forests are precious heritage since they give a country its physical ID. Imagine how many eons it would have taken for the black buck or the Great Indian bustard to evolve. Both are exclusive to India. We exclude them when we discuss heritage and thereby discount them. Can we regain our rain forests? The local words to describe plants and animals of these habitats are also part of the heritage."

Spectacular pictures of this side of heritage should add colour to our exhibitions. And throw in Madagascar or Crocodile Hunter. Kids are bound to flock!

A wider sense of what they have will give Gen Next pride in their community and country. Heritage can entertain, educate and attract both tourists and immigrants alike. Heritage reflects the character and identity of entire populations, fuelling confidence in what can be achieved. It marks the major events of our time and helps fulfil our desire to be remembered; we were here and we mattered.

Va. Geeta of Tara Publishing defines the H factor as "a way of relating to the past, not the past itself." Even the past is shaped by our thoughts. What was built or happened may or may not be worthy of attention. What's valuable changes over time. So heritage is a dynamic process.

So her H-list is as long as it is interesting. In the 1950s, people thought Tamil was important enough to be put on the H directory. So, feelings shape thoughts about heritage, not caves and monuments alone. What is heritage is what is culturally valuable. "In music and dance, I'd consider Therukkoothu legitimate heritage," she argues. "In the northern districts of Tamil Nadu, this form of presenting stories followed the agricultural cycle. Why is it less of heritage than stage plays of today? The Kattiyangaran (sutradhar) bridges the past and the present with topical remarks. And why do we talk of Sadir in hushed tones? Isn't ancient Tamil music heritage music? A second look at the pictures of gods in your puja room will show you how Ravi Varma's pictures have been adapted to suit Tamil artistic traditions. The Sannidanam around the central deity is from South Indian temples."

Linguistic heritage

The 200 years of printing art in Tamil Nadu qualifies, too. Cutouts, banners and posters are public art forms. In the last 50-60 years, they have been in touch with public consciousness. Talking of cutouts, isn't public speech that has captive audiences everywhere linguistic heritage? Aren't MGR's songs, Sivaji's acting examples of a good society in Bhim Singh's movies, the social satire and critiques of M. R. Radha and Periyar calling for an egalitarian, democratic society part of our heritage? Mmm...

She wants a thorough debate on what heritage means to us. Accepting the validity of several arguments/definitions should be the condition of this debate. Let's take things other than the standard ones, queer the pitch as much as possible. We want to preserve Tudor houses, buildings that came up in the last 100 years. Why aren't we talking of Nayaka architecture? Where did Kattabomman live?

To Dr. Chalapathi, Tamil scholar, "whatever man creates in response to his life in society is heritage. It is a question of nature vs. culture. Painting, sculpture, food and behaviour would fall in this spectrum. What is created continues with time forming the cultural heritage. I am not attracted to things that are ossified, things that stay in a museum. Heritage should be alive to change without losing its aesthetic qualities. Raja Raja Cholan built the Tanjore temple, but the Nayaks added to it. Change cannot stop. People are the change agents.

Heritage is created when human possibility extends. After 1983, cricket has become heritage in India. There is the "discovered" heritage like the Brahmi script, and the "invented" part like the Bharatanatyam which is a sanitised version of Sadir. While Sadir is erotic and secular, Bharatanatyam is religious. One bit of heritage that has been restored to us is the city name Chennai."

Heritage encompasses everything about us. It tells us who we are, what we have and how we do things. How we choose to be as a nation is a product of our collective heritage. If we accept bribes, boorishly push our way into the Paris Metro and litter Sims Park, that's our heritage too.

Heritage is...