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PARTIAL REVITALIZATION OF HERITAGE, THE DISTORTION OF AN EXISTING ECOSYSTEM:

THE CASE OF BHADRA, AHMEDABAD.

Elizabeth Thomas
Meanings in Built Environment
Dr. Gauri Bharat and Prof. Jigna Desai
20th November, 2015
“Heritage is a significant quality of life issue that directly affects the health and well-being of the community and its citizens.” (Source - Because Heritage Matters, Heritage Toronto, 1997.)
In this Paper the issue is taken that how the precincts of Heritage (Bhadra fort) is being sieved out from Revitalization of the Heritage. The Bhadra fort and surrounds has been a vital site for a recent urban renewal mission, which mainly focused on restoring the pristine glory of the monuments in the precinct. It is an icon in the city’s efforts towards boosting tourism and attaining the world heritage city status.

The local ecosystems around the heritage structure are representative of a certain way of life and reflect communal organization, but unfortunately these living connections and networks are sieved out of the process heritage revamping and restoration. These ecosystems form the undercurrent of the old city centre’s fabric and other similar heritage precincts.
The conflicting territories of influence between the stakeholders and the right holders (the hawkers and other local population) form the realities of such projects. It is really a question of occupations of the right holders versus the imaginations of the stakeholders.

The legacy of the monument seems to overshadow the day to day aspects and working of the fabric, subverting the living and the intangible aspects of heritage.Such a partial revitalization is a consequence of filtered interests and power dynamics.
Urban conservation projects like Bhadra are a symbol of power play, restricted and selected accessibility and constantly developed according to the viewpoints and influences of the strongest stakeholders. The prestigious Bhadra precinct revitalization project in the walled city area of Ahmedabad has won the ‘HUDCO Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment’.The HUDCO committee had gone into the details of the design of the precinct and the AMC’s plans of revitalizing and conserving heritage buildings around the Bhadra square.(Source – HUDCO website.)
It will be among the first Heritage and pedestrianization project  to be assisted under JNNURM.
“The linking of the Bhadra project with the Sabarmati riverfront was an inclusive planning technique “ adds the official.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/18602836.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst Heritage does not merely entail buildings and spaces alone, but also includes people, homes and their livelihoods. Renovation and beautification are just the tangible aspects of the process, reflecting the city’s motives towards boosting heritage tourism.
Intangible cultural heritage includes the ways and means of behavior in a society, and the often formal rules for operating in a particular cultural climate. These include social values and traditions, customs and practices, aesthetic and spiritual beliefs, artistic expression, language and other aspects of human activity.
Coexistence of vendors, suppliers, care takers and shoppers has been disturbed with the recent developments, with cases of mass relocations.Urban renewal and revitalization projects have erased connections and memories and sense of associations.Heritage values are a product of time and cannot be newly generated to produce popular meanings. The underlying concern here is not an individual inheritance of heritage, rather a realization for a collective advocacy effort towards revitalization of the precincts.Developing a framework that provides opportunities to utilize community skills along with participatory volunteer resources, can serve as a significant point of departure from existing conventional heritage conservation models.

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