In
a nation obsessed with medicine and engineering as career choices, archaeology
is nowhere in the picture. “If one wants to learn archaeology in India, they
have to first enrol for a Master of Arts and then study further in one of the
few colleges offering archaeology courses in the country,” said Professor
Narayani Gupta, one of the speakers at the 2019 edition of the Sandhya Sawant
Memorial Lecture, organised by the Urban Design Research Institute at the Sir
J. J. College of Architecture on Tuesday.
Dr.
Gupta also spoke about the negligible number of ‘interpretation centres’ in
India, with one of them being at Ellora Caves. “England and the U.S. have the
concept of interpretation centres, with visitors getting to know beforehand the
significance of what they will be seeing when they visit historic monuments. In
India, around 20,000 people visit the Red Fort every day without knowing the
significance of the place.”
She
also suggested that the tourism industry focus more on investment in permanent
structures and their maintenance than in exhibitions and festivals in
monuments.
Ms.
Gupta took the students through a chronological journey of the establishment of
the Archaeological Survey of India, National Monuments Authority, Indian
National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and also spoke about the relevant
laws and regulations.
Giving
solutions for integrating heritage with life, she said, “We need to be
sensitive about it. We can start by preparing information boards about domestic
architecture around the city.” According to Ms. Gupta, there is a need for
corporate social responsibility activities to be directed towards preservation
of monuments.
