Celebrating Heritage

RK News
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26 Nov 2025

People have been sensitized with the imperative of preserving heritage and keeping alive the legacy that has come down from generations and traveled from centuries till date and has enriched societies worldwide. The celebration that has been going for World Heritage Week must be seen in this context. In Jammu and Kashmir too we witnessed many activities meant to indulge government and NGOs in public sensitization campaigns to have a capacity building so that a society well versed in heritage values is nurtured. Over the decades there is a consistent effort to organize the human resource that can act in the times of heritage emergency. Grave challenges have been witnessed by heritage at all levels. Be it tangible or intangible. Heritage education is emerging as an area that needs to be well placed in the curriculum so that the awareness about heritage percolates down the line at all levels of the education system, starting from the primary level to the higher education and creates a critical mass for future work. Various international agencies that work with an inclusive framework to safeguard heritage have laid down guidelines for the well-being of heritage must be incorporated in the national heritage policy framework. Otherwise, the lack of professional expertise has already damaged the conservation and preservation of the heritage assets in the absence of quality techniques and professionals who can guide and monitor the restoration. An interesting development that has emerged is that the experts with an international exposure have been advocating the use of compatible material that is available locally for the heritage restoration. The manuals like that of international heritage conservation experts, Herb Stovel- “Risk Preparedness: A Management Manual for World Cultural Heritage must be used as reference points to devise policies with an attempt to situate these manuals in the local context by adopting the scientific techniques but adapting the local values so that heritage restoration and heritage management is exercised in a professional manner. The main thrust in safeguarding the heritage must include the cultural heritage, monuments, archaeological sites, historical settlements, cultural.Things don’t stop here but there is an urgent need to add the policy measures that cater to damage to buildings and their other structures, damage to urban historic city areas like the Mubarak Mandi Complex located in the heart of Jammu city, damage to cultural landscapes and archaeological sites. This must ultimately lead to the framing of strategies that can define responsibility for safety measures. The main thrust has to be on the risk mitigation, be that natural or man-made. It should lead to developing the fire retardation and heritage property protection plans for the sites with a provision for fire detection and warning systems blended with response plans. With this the response and recovery plans have to be well in place. This must include structure stabilization, condition assessment. Natural calamities like earthquakes too have been the primary threats in the vulnerable seismic zones like Jammu and Kashmir. This makes it clear that there is a dire need for earthquake resistance to be well in place.The recent spate of floods that was witnessed must also be included in the policy measures so that an inclusive and comprehensive mechanism is well in place. In places like Jammu and Kashmir there has been an added challenge of the ethno-religious conflict imposed by terrorism that has led to multiple challenges to religious heritage leading to contested definitions of heritage due to radicalization. In that case the policy makers have an added responsibility that subversive forces are kept at bay while dealing with heritage issues.