The Evolving Heritagescape in India’s Hindu Pilgrimage City of Varanasi: Contemporary Relevance and Contestations

ABSTRACT

The three-century-old city of Varanasi stands at crossroads between choosing to preserve its Heritagescape and generating a new-age urban landscape. The paper begins by exploring the concepts of Heritage and Heritagescape by taking a contextual stand, whereby it is constructed around the core argument that heritage is a tool in the hands of the powerful and what tangible and intangible aspects of the natural and human world shall be designated and retained as heritage is only a matter of power and power relations. The paper makes a conscious attempt to critically analyze the present-day urban transformations that the city is undergoing owing to its commitment toward a Smart City Mission and the resultant destructions and the contestations that emerge as a response to that. It concludes thereafter that the Smart City Mission in Varanasi has led to manipulative handling of heritage. Though it was launched with the promise of creating urban opportunities without having to pay up for the consequences, it seems unsuccessful in winning over the soul of the city and failing to the idea of sustainability in the process. The paper uses photographs and information from the field, digital and print media, and scholarly articles to substantiate the arguments made. It is more like an analytical essay, justified through evidence from the ground.

KEYWORDS:

• Varanasi
• heritagescape
• destructions
• contestations
• pilgrimage city
• cultural landscape
• urban transformations
• smart city mission

Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges the Indian Council for Social Science Research for awarding the Post Doctoral Fellowship, of which this research is a part. The author also extends gratitude to Banaras Hindu University for making its resources available and especially to the Department of Geography. Special words of acknowledgment must be written for Prof. Rana P.B. Singh for sharing his enormous knowledge of the Heritage of Varanasi most enthusiastically. The author also acknowledges Prof. Rana P.B. Singh for the term “Heritagescape” in the context of Varanasi. The author feels extremely grateful to Prof. B.S. Butola and Prof. Sarfaraz Alam for extending their selfless guidance and encouragement always. The author would also like to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments which have certainly improved the quality of this paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was a part of my Post Doctoral Fellowship Project awarded by the Indian Council for Social Science Research, New Delhi. The File Number (F.No.) for the same was 3-55/18-19/PDF/GEN.