Stand up against the demolition of historical and heritage buildings in the name of Central Vista

“The state has been conquered! But not yet the universities! The intellectual paramilitaries are coming in. Raise your flags!” announced the Germany’s fascist student group after the Nazis took power in January 1933. Following this they went around organising public events to burn books, ransacked libraries and attacked teachers.

On 24 May, the day after Modi won a second term in 2019, a BJP General Secretary wrote in an op-ed in the Indian Express: “Under Modi-II, the remnants of the pseudo-secular/liberal cartel need to be discarded from the country’s academic, cultural and intellectual landscape.” The eerie similarities of what is unfolding in India today with Nazi Germany can hardly be missed.

The government is going to pull down three historically significant buildings

The National Archives, National Museum and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, right at the heart of the national capital to make way for the Central Vista project. This Central Vista Project which is going to cost 20,000 Crores has been thoroughly criticised by all the people of India. Intellectuals, activists and the academic community has raised the question behind the motive, reason and the timing in which this project has been taken up. When the country is going through a crisis in this pandemic, people are dying without hospital beds, this astronomical and extravagant project is criticised by all.

The National Archives is one of the most crucial repositories of primary resources of contemporary history. It was transferred from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911 and shifted to the new building in 1926. Today it houses nearly 4.5 million files, 25,000 rare manuscripts and more than 100,000 maps, treaties, 280,000 pre-modern documents and several thousand private documents. These documents date back hundreds of years. Some of these materials are brittle and fragile, which demands expert handling. Even historians who use these documents for their research have to deal with them very carefully.

According to the current plan, all the archived materials would be shifted to another site, before they are restored to their new address. This is extremely dangerous and may have damaging consequences. Any possible loss of these precious materials would be an irreversible loss to the academic community.

This concern is even more true for the materials preserved in the National Museum. The National Museum began functioning inside the Rashtrapati Bhawan on 15 August 1949 and inaugurated the Governor-General of Independent India, R.C Rajagopalachari. The foundation of the present NM was laid by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru on May 12, 1955. It was built in phases and was completed in 1989. It houses approximately two lakh artefacts, sculptures, paintings, and objects of diverse nature. The museum has objects that date back to the Harappan Civilisation. These materials are fragile and sensitive. Repeated shifting of such delicate items is extremely vulnerable.

Unavailability of materials for researchers

It is clear that the NAI and NM are going to remain closed for a considerable period, for now, as shifting an archive or museum is a time consuming and elaborate process. It means that historians and academic researchers would not be able to access the materials preserved in these institutions for some time. The lockdown had already caused these institutions to remain closed for almost a year by now. We know, that there are long queues of researchers in their institutions every day. Under the current condition, this situation would get further worse. The researchers, PhD scholars are going to suffer very badly, as this is going to procrastinate their already delayed research process.

The incompetence of the current regime forces us to question how these materials will be handled and stored. This regime has shown an exemplary track record of administrative incompetence and sloppy management. Given this background, the apprehension about a possible loss further intensifies. It is important to note that this regime has time and again shown sinister attempts to manipulate historical facts. Based on their track record, there is a very strong reason for apprehensions of foul play regarding these artefacts.

Who wants this project at all?

The entire country is reeling under a pandemic right now. Thousands of people are dying every day because of the dilapidated healthcare facilities in the country. There can hardly be any argument that can justify the twenty thousand crore Central Vista Project at the peak of a pandemic. It exposes the mislocated priorities of a megalomaniac government for which extravagant show of unnecessary and fancy buildings are more important than the life of its citizens.

The fact that the government chose to funnel resources to build a new capital city when people were dying on the streets because of lack of oxygen. Not a single citizen ever demanded a new capital with a cluster of expensive buildings. And the decision the destroying these three historical buildings cannot be seen in isolation.

Delhi’s history is quite unique. Every ruler who ruled from Delhi, created a new capital. Nobody destroyed an old capital. Instead, they added to the historical landscape and the cultural diversity. What is the need for this government to destroy a part of the history and what is this new India built on? This India is being built on the pyres of the people. This is nothing but a vanity project of this government which is a huge displacement of resources and money and it is a clear destruction of history.