Heritage Conservation in Postcolonial India

Heritage Conservation in Post Colonial India: Approaches and Challenges is the first important publication on conservation as it is understood today since it emerged in 1984 with establishment of The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage to focus on unprotected heritage. This book has come out three-and-a-half-decades since the commencement of the Conservation Movement in India. It keeps in mind the paradoxes existing within the Indian context of a critical time especially when norms and systems continue to evolve. It is a must-read for its vast and wide-ranging effort covering important ground with contributions of young scholars. I congratulate the authors Manish Chalana and Ashima Krishna for its professional perspective. With its dynamism and contemporary focus, the book is bound to generate dialogue and discussion.

- Professor Nalini Thakur, Former Dean and Head of Architectural Conservation, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi

This book is timely and captures the ‘state of the art’ thinking around conservation issues in India. In a post-colonial context when the custodians of a built heritage are culturally different or distant from the creators of that environment, new narratives have to necessarily be constructed to facilitate conservation in the contemporary context. This collection of essays, from the most engaged thinkers about conservation in India, promises to do just that – offer insightful, multifaceted and critical ways of reimagining how we may evolve the culture of conservation practice in the future.

- Rahul Mehrotra, Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Manish has been a friend since the early 1990s and these 3 decades have also marked the growth of the field of heritage conservation and its maturity in India, as well as our growth and development as conservation professionals, one in academia and the other in practice. This period has perhaps been the most definitive in the evolution of the practice and profession of conservation in India. As an overview and evaluation of conservation in the Indian context, the book is a valuable addition to any library as an overview of the development and field of monument and urban conservation in India.

- Abha Narain Lambah, Conservation Architect & Historic Building Consultant

A collection of essays, this book, intends to bring to the fore a nuanced understanding of the complexities faced while approaching conservation of cultural heritage in postcolonial India. The editors have created four "thematic sections" to highlight the challenges associated with the field of heritage conservation at various scales of intervention, through a continuous process of evolution and located in highly diverse cultural milieus...The book, quite clearly, touches upon an appreciable range of concerns and complexities and no doubt is an important addition to the currently negligible amount of research available in the public domain on conservation practices in India.

-Saumya Sharma, Chandigarh College of Architecture, India