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Our unloved heritage Mumbaikars are casual about structures ranging from the 1st to the 21st century Heritage has been in the news recently. The fate of Crawford Market still hangs in jeopardy while the municipal administration and corporators are locked in a fight over what to do with the beautiful, but crumbling market. Last week, the Bombay High Court asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to demolish all encroachments from the vicinity of the cave shrines inside the city's boundaries. Mumbai must be one of the few cities in the world to boast an architectural heritage spanning over two millennia within its municipal boundaries. In which other city would you find 1st century cave temples like the Kanheri caves, 17th century churches, urban villages like Khotachiwadi, Gothic monuments, art deco masterpieces and the latest glass and steel-fronted buildings of Bandra-Kurla Complex? Yet we seem to be so casual about our building heritage that we have let this inheritance go to rot. The cave temples of Jogeshwari, Mandapeshwar, Mahakali and Kanheri are the worst examples of this apathetic behaviour. The Mandapeshwar caves once defaced by Portuguese colonialists, stand next to a busy and polluted road in Borivli with little security from new vandals. The Mahakali caves in Andheri and Jogeshwari caves are in the most precarious condition. The caves that once sheltered monks, are now in the midst of bustling slum colonies, the inhabitants of which use it as sleeping quarters and occasionally as toilets. The Kanheri caves seem to be in a better condition since they are inside the boundaries of the Borivli national park. The cave shrines are not the only pieces of the city's architectural heritage that are in danger of vanishing. The string of forts that once stood sentinel against pillaging pirates are crumbling on the hill tops on which they had been built. Several forts like the one at Riwa (called Kala Killa) and Dongri have almost been obliterated. Though these forts were never known for their architectural styles, they are significant because they are remnants of an important chapter in the city's maritime history. One of the best preserved, the Bandra fort is besieged daily by thousands of visitors who troop up and down its surviving ramparts and it is in imminent danger of falling apart. If you look carefully through the festering slums on Mahim beach, you can spot traces of the yellow basalt walls of the Mahim fort in the middle of plastic and brick shanties. The remnants of churches and monasteries inside the Vasai fort are in ruins and though the ASI has lately started repairing one of the important churches inside the sprawling fort, most of the other buildings are beyond redemption. The site is an important historical area because it was the headquarters of the Portuguese in India, before they moved to Goa. Another group of buildings that are in danger of disappearing, are the East Indian villages with their mix of Indian and Portuguese cottage architecture. The most prominent of these settlements, Khotachiwadi in Girgaum and Old Bandra now lie in neighbourhoods that have become huge construction sites. To look at how other cities cherish their preurban heritage, one has to look at the way Singapore has converted its old villages into tourist and shopping destinations while preserving the precincts. Mumbai is full of examples of the excesses committed on urban heritage in the name of development. Only an insensitive administration would have allowed towering monstrosities like the Stock Exchange building, the new Reserve Bank of India office or the Haj House to come up in the middle of an area that is full of beautiful 19th and early 20th century buildings. If you look through the festering slums on Mahim beach, you can spot traces of the yellow basalt walls of the Mahim fort in the middle of plastic and brick shanties Manoj R Nair writes on the multiple communities in Mumbai Publication:Mumbai Mirror ; Date:Oct 9, 2007; Section:Views; Page Number:31 URL : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=TU1JUi8yMDA3LzEwLzA5I0FyMDMwMDA=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom |
| Also see : Mumbai Projects by Government, Tourism |
