NEW DELHI, July 24: India’s recent past has been full of confidence in consonance with ‘Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi’ and the country’s attention to preservation and conservation of its rich cultural heritage has “entered a new dimension,” chairperson of the World Heritage Committee Vishal V Sharma said.
In an exclusive interview to PTI Videos on the sidelines of the ongoing 46th session of the World Heritage Committee here, he also said it took “four years of hard work” to bring the World Heritage Committee (WHC) session to India.
India is hosting this key UNESCO event for the first time from July 21-31 at the Bharat Mandapam.
Sharma is the current chairperson of the WHC and ambassador and permanent representative of India to UNESCO.
“Organising a World Heritage Committee meeting requires considerable efforts. But, this displays India’s organisational capabilities, infrastructural capacities, global leadership and international collaboration. Today, when it comes to heritage, the whole world is in India,” he told PTI.
The World Heritage Convention has been signed by 195 countries of the world.
“We are a global superpower when it comes to heritage. From that perspective, the future is very bright because we are seeking two things — to inspire younger generations and raising awareness in the mind of every Indian towards heritage,” Sharma said.
The permanent representative of India to UNESCO also cited the famous dialogue from Bollywood superhit film ‘Deewar’ and said, “Mere paas sanskriti hai, Sanskrit hai, sanskar hai and sanskar dham hain. This is where India’s sanskar is taught.”
India has 42 sites in the UNESCO World Heritage List and Assam’s ‘Moidam’ is India’s nomination this year for the 2023-24 cycle.
With ICOMOS, an advisory body “favourably” recommending inclusion of the ‘Moidams’, India is hopeful of getting its 43rd inscription on the coveted list which currently has 1,199 properties from around the world.
Sharma is also hopeful that ‘Moidams’ — a mound-burial system of the Ahom dynasty in Assam — will make it to the list.
“India’s recent past has been full of confidence, full of ‘Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi’, and our attention to the preservation and conservation of our rich cultural heritage has entered a new dimension,” he said.
India has been nominating sites and has been successful in getting them inscribed on the World Heritage List, because “we have developed considerable expertise to such an extent that countries are asking help from us now”.
Prime Minster Narendra Modi on Sunday announced USD 1 million contribution to the World Heritage Centre to help other countries in capacity building.
“India is known for technology, engineering, mathematics and science. But heritage and expertise in heritage is what we should also be known for,” he added.
India’s 42 properties inscribed on the World Heritage List include 34 cultural sites, seven natural sites and one mixed heritage site.
Twelve sites have been added in the last 10 years. They include last year’s inscriptions of the Santiniketan (West Bengal) and Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas (Karnataka) during the Extended 45th Session of the WHC held in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).
India is the sixth country on the list and second in the Asia Pacific Region based on the numbers of the World Heritage List. In addition, India has 57 sites on the Tentative List of the World Heritage.
It takes about “10 years of hard work” and preparation of a voluminous dossier for a property to get inscribed on the list. The process of getting a property on the Tentative List is a “sort of a win”, Sharma said.
Asked if 42 UNESCO heritage sites are disproportionately less compared to the huge number of monuments and historic sites in India, he said, “It is not in our hand as it is one nomination per member state per year.”
“We have 42 sites. Hopefully it will become 43… so why we didn’t accelerate our nominations earlier in those years, it’s a question we leave it to history,” Sharma said.
The ambassador and permanent representative of India to UNESCO explained how it took four years to host the WHC in India.
“You cannot host the World Heritage Committee (session) unless you are a member of the WHC. And, you get to be in a WHC only once in 10 years, which means four years of tenure and six years of cooling off period. So, every 10 years we get that opportunity, so that opportunity is also contested,” he said.
“Our first effort was to get elected in that committee. India got elected for the tenure 2021-2025.
“That was the first obstacle. And we got elected by the highest number of votes in that election from the Asia-Pacific region,” the diplomat said.
He shared that India made the 2022 bid and the country wanted to host it in 2023. However, it went to Riyadh, but India “seized the moment next year”, he said.
“So, there is a competition. Every country wants it to be hosted in their country. It is a matter of great honour and prestige,” Sharma said.
The Indian diplomat said the message that will emanate from the current session of the WHC in India is that “heritage belongs to all of humanity”. The message would be that whether it’s natural disaster, medical emergency or cultural heritage protection, “India will always help the Global South”.
The second message is that culture unites, and of ‘Vishwa Bandhutwa’. At a time of global events unfolding, what better place to give a message of peace and harmony than India, and what better platform than cultural heritage, he said. (PTI)
