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    Demolishing statues to renaming roads, here's Bangaluru's politics of uncomfortable history

    Synopsis

    Mark Cubbon was the longest-serving commissioner of the erstwhile Mysore State and arguably the most-remembered British administrator in Bengaluru.

    idolAgencies
    Moving colonial statues, breaking down historical structures or renaming roads is not new in Bengaluru.
    Moving colonial statues, demolishing structures, subverting legacies of ‘controversial’ rulers, renaming roads... Bengaluru has witnessed various attempts at imposing the dominant narrative by way of cultural appropriation and selective erasure of history. Divya J Shekhar explores how legislation and education can preserve the city’s colourful, diverse and layered past

    Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel is an honoured name world over. The Kew Gardens in England carries articles about him in its journals. Germany held a large public exhibition on his 150th birth anniversary recently. In Bengaluru, however, where the horticulturist spent close to five decades of his life creating Lalbagh and planning the city’s treelined avenues, the lecture hall attributed to his memory was razed overnight.

    Similarly, a week before the birth anniversary of Sir Mark Cubbon, which falls on August 23, advocates wrote to the Chief Justice of Karnataka, asking for the removal of his statue from the high court’s entrance from the Cubbon Park side. They want it be transferred to a “less prominent location” and replaced with something “projecting the Indian judicial system.”

    Mark Cubbon was the longest-serving commissioner of the erstwhile Mysore State and arguably the most-remembered British administrator in Bengaluru. He is credited for making Kannada an official language apart from constructing thousands of miles of roads and hundreds of dams, laying the first railway line between Bengaluru and Jolarpettai and improving the state’s tax and revenue systems. More importantly, he is a part of the city’s history.

    Moving colonial statues, breaking down historical structures or renaming roads is not new in Bengaluru. After South Parade was officially called MG Road in February 1948, Bengaluru has seen the names of over 45 streets or localities being ‘Indianised’.

    Structures such as the Cenotaph near Hudson Circle, dedicated to the soldiers who died in the Anglo-Mysore wars, was demolished in 1964. Other war memorials across the city continue to languish in neglect. On the other hand, institutions such as the Bangalore Urban Arts Commission, which regulated real estate development and worked exclusively to preserve heritage buildings, was wound up in 2002 because of vested interests. Since then, there has neither been a strong heritage law nor a body with statutory powers that can hold officials accountable for safeguarding the city’s history.

    MISSING: LEGISLATION AND EDUCATION
    “Many villages pre-date Kempe Gowda. They became part of a Bengaluru that exploded since he founded it in 1537,” said Poornima Dasharathi, founder, Unhurried.in, a heritage-walk group. “While they use Kempe Gowda’s name for political mileage, many local MLAs, corporators or ministers may not be aware that there was more than one Kempe Gowda or that there is no documented evidence of how he looked.”

    Experts point to a lacuna in awareness mechanisms that result in people being ignorant of local history and thus not engaging with it or fighting to keep it safe. “Tipu Sultan has been in the grave for over 200 years but has been raised from the dead to go with the ebb and flow of communal tides since the 1980s. This has coincided with the rise of the political Right,” said historian Nidhin George Olikara, who specialises in Tipu’s history. According to him, while there is a section of people who feel strongly about Tipu Sultan as the tyrant who massacred dissenters or forced religious conversions, it is important to study historical figures in the context of the time when they were alive. “Fortunately, controversies around Tipu Sultan have encouraged more academicians and researchers worldwide to study him and his contributions more closely. This should gradually have a positive impact.”

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    Cultural heritage should be the fourth pillar of sustainability (after social, economical and environmental), believes Meera Iyer, convenor, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Bengaluru. “We need a policy by which our administrators are introduced to the importance of the past. Just like IAS officers are trained about environment issues and micro-credit, why not introduce the importance of heritage too?” she said.

    The Heritage Regulation Bill, conceptualised in 2002 and drafted in 2010, remains buried with the urban development department. Mahendra Jain, additional chief secretary, urban development department, told ET that the new committee comprising government officials, conservationists and historians that was supposed to study the bill and form new guidelines “is yet to be formally constituted”. Some others, who were selected to be on this committee, confirmed that there has been no communication from the government on taking the legislation forward.

    Along with a strong regulatory framework, it is also crucial to start educating children at a young age. Activate stakeholders and ensure that teachers are aware of local histories on priority, said SK Aruni of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR). According to him, community leaders like Kempe Gowda or Devaraj Urs have become larger-than-life largely because of public ignorance. “At every step, Bengalureans must be reminded of the various layers of history that have built the city. Otherwise, who knows, the ones appropriating colonial history today will tomorrow protest against the photographs of Nehru and Ambedkar in the Vidhana Soudha.”

    HAVE HISTORY? FLAUNT IT
    How many cities in India can boast of links to Lord Cornwallis, who lost the American War of Independence; or Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who famously defeated Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo and who began his military career with the Anglo-Mysore war here; or Tipu Sultan who famously invented war rockets and sent diplomats to Turkey and France; or of ancient trade links with the Romans? These facets of history give Bengaluru immense tourism potential if marketed properly, said Meera Iyer. “And they can be marketed only if they have been preserved.”

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    However, tourism initiatives around Bengaluru’s heritage are often the last priority. Urban planner Naresh Narasimhan’s Suvarna Valaya project, which intended to create a zone of special control for over 2,500 acres of land in the city centre covering more than 60 heritage buildings, is still lying in cold storage. It was first presented to then tourism minister RV Deshpande in 2015.

    Advocate Siddharth Raja believes that while the legacy of almost every historical figure is debated, cultural appropriation often disregards the fact that heritage structures are cultural, emotional and social markers in the city. “They say that history is often written by the victor and that every dominant person would like the past to align with her / his will. But where does this end?” Conservation of the past with all its shades of grey is important, he explained, so that future generations are aware of and can learn from the past.

    INTACH’s Iyer said that markers from the past give people a sense of identity and rootedness. “They help citizens and newcomers alike to identify with a place and its past. Razing them is like cutting off some of your own roots, isn’t it?”


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