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Hope for Tranquebar
I was delighted to recently read that there might still be hope for Tranquebar/Tarangambadi. For several years now I’ve been writing about the need to preserve this heritage town and the possibilities its heritage held to attract European touri
sts, particularly Scandinavian, German and British. Now, it would appear that officialdom too has woken up to that possibility and is advocating the restoration of the seaside town’s heritage buildings.
For the last couple of years — and I have referred to it in the past in this column (Miscellany, July 30, 2007) — the Danish Natural Museum has been interested in helping the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, Tamil Nadu Chapter, to restore the Governor’s Bungalow in Tranquebar. This Tamil Nadu Tourism Department-owned property is in a sorry state, but both the Danish museum and INTACH see the possibilities it holds for a museum of Tranquebar history, a centre for Tranquebar Studies, and as an information centre for visitors. If only the paperwork that has been holding up the work is speeded up, INTACH-TN, together with INTACH chapters in the area, could implement the agreement they have with the Danish museum and get restoration started. This could later be extended to the Fort — which is under the protection of the Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology — and other buildings on King’s and Queen’s Streets.
But any master plan for the restoration of heritage buildings in Tranquebar must also take into consideration the contribution of Germany to the town in the 18th and early 19th Centuries. In fact, that contribution is in many ways of greater significance to Tamil Nadu, as it led to the introduction of printing and the beginnings of Tamilology, indeed of Indology. The Union Tourism Ministry and the Tamil Nadu tourism authorities should get the German Government also involved in the restoration of Tranquebar, particularly those parts of the town where the Halle links were closest. Indeed, the Germans have already sponsored the restoration of the house that Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg lived in, but an exhibition that was sent out for the 300th anniversary of Ziegenbalg’s arrival in India is languishing as is a proposal to link it with a museum of printing history.
Against this background, the Union government and State government organisations concerned should convene a planning group that would look at ALL aspects of Tranquebar and draw up an overall plan, instead of looking at things piecemeal, if they want to make the historic town the major heritage destination they wish it to be. That would call for a group with official Indian, Danish and German representation and the INTACH chapters that have been studying the area, not to mention Church and printing interests. I hope this will happen sooner than later; it’s been years since I first started talking about the attention that needs to be paid to the heritage of Tranquebar.
S. MUTHIAH
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