Living and dead monuments
Mumbai's Victoria Terminus has been declared a World Heritage Site, joining the ranks of the Taj Mahal and Ajanta/Ellora. But VT as a monument has over 3 million commuters passing through it every day. That is a great danger, for unless people are aware of the heritage in their midst, it is hard to preserve it

- Darryl D'Monte

In his 1948 book, Jesting Pilate: India and Burma , Aldous Huxley wrote, quite scathingly, that “architecturally, Bombay is one of the most appalling cities of either hemisphere”. This would naturally upset very many conservationists and heritage-lovers who have been fighting a valiant, and often unsuccessful, battle to preserve the city's old buildings against their annihilation by developers. He singled out only the Town Hall, which houses the Asiatic Society library (which has very valuable first editions, including Dante's Inferno ), for praise. “Among so many architectural cads and pretentious bounders, it is almost the only gentleman. In Bombay, it is as good as the Parthenon,” he wrote.

Today, conservationists may wonder about the tendency of some brash contemporary architects to erect Doric columns in so many Mumbai buildings, which has been decried as an “edifice complex”. It is likely that these facades derive their inspiration from foreign coffee-table books, rather than the Town Hall. However, whatever the mix of East and West, a medley of architectural styles, art deco (or art dekko , as Salman Rushdie punned), there are buildings in the city like the original Taj Mahal Hotel and the Majestic Hotel on Colaba Causeway which are certainly worthy “gentlemen”, however much their attire draws upon varied, and often contradictory, traditions. At any rate, many Mumbaikars are fiercely proud of their architectural past. It is by no means accidental that the country as a whole has derived its heritage laws from Mumbai, thanks in no small part to Shyam Chainani of the Bombay Environmental Action Group.

Huxley's apprehensions, it would appear, have finally been laid to rest, now that UNESCO has agreed to list the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), better known as Victoria Terminus or its abbreviation, VT, as a World Heritage Site. However, it would be a great tragedy if the Central Railway authorities in Mumbai were to bask in such acknowledgement and allow this grand edifice to sink under the weight of the stress that it is exposed to. This is quite typical of the vast number of ancient sites that lie scattered through the length and breadth of the country. As a people, we pay lip-service to being proud about possessing such heritage rather than doing something to preserve it. We have not given another thought to the graffiti scribbled on the most exquisite edifices and the desecration of sites in even more obnoxious ways. Some ancient rock-cut caves in and around Mumbai serve as toilets as well.

Unlike the 25 other monuments or sites that have been singled out for UNESCO's honour in the country, the CST is in highly intensive, daily use. The 117-year-old terminus is frequented by something like 3 million commuters every day, which is surely the kind of human pressure that no railway terminus anywhere, with the possible exception of cities in China, has to cope with, much less a heritage structure. To clarify, it is the main administrative building, and not the adjoining railway stations, which has qualified for the listing. Indeed, UNESCO itself apparently was in two minds about granting the award, which carries no direct monetary benefits whatsoever, ever since the railways first applied for it in 2000. The request was turned down in 2002 but the railways persisted and had several meetings with the World Heritage Site committee, with the active assistance of the Mumbai chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH).

One of the conditions that UNESCO stipulated was that the authorities decongest the building. Thanks to the persistence of a few railway officials, this stipulation was finally met. The strength of the staff in the building has been reduced from 1,500 to just 700 by moving them to surrounding buildings in the huge complex. Along with this, the authorities also decided to give the building a facelift by removing not only the paan stains that mar every public building in the country but the ugly hoardings that obstructed a full view of what has alternately been described as a “unique” or excessive blend of Victorian, Italian and Gothic architectural styles. There is a dose of “Indiana” thrown in for good measure too, including Oriental domes, considering that the students of the JJ School of Art, then headed by Rudyard Kipling's father, added some touches like the gargoyles and other sculptural relief.

Given the tremendous crush of passengers at the terminus every day, it is not altogether surprising that they seldom stop to admire the features of a building which has now joined the ranks of the Taj Mahal, Khajuraho, Ajanta and Ellora and the Sun Temple at Konarak. That is the greatest danger, for none of these other sites are in functional use. Unless people are aware of the heritage in their midst, it is hard to preserve it. It will be increasingly difficult for this building, completed towards the fag end of the 19 th century, to deal with growing numbers. There are also plans to link CST and Churchgate, the two termini, by an underground railway in the not-too-distant future. That can only increase the load on the structure. There was a blueprint some years ago, fortunately scrapped, to pull down the entire structure and construct a new one, better designed to accommodate the strains and stresses of passenger traffic.

Unlike Churchgate, the CST also has cope with the pressure of long-distance passengers, who stream in and out for all hours of the day, although such trains will in future be halted at new termini in the suburbs. As conservation architects in Mumbai are now pointing out, it is not only the CST that deserves to be protected but also its entire surroundings. The long-distance terminus is besieged by hawkers and taxis and its environs are most unkempt. There is need for proper street furniture, like lighting, benches, trees and pavements around the building, which are conspicuous by their absence.

Some inkling of the numbers that throng CST every day was evident in 1988, during the 150 th (“sesquicentennial”) celebrations of The Times of India , also a heritage structure, just opposite. Designers showcased contemporary Indian art within the portals of the terminus. Many initially dismissed the concept as a gimmick but, as it turned out, the artists themselves were enthralled to see such huge crowds gaping at the paintings and installations that decked the concourses. When the artists thought about it, they realised that there has probably been no occasion elsewhere in the world when so many thousands have viewed modern art – many for the first, and very likely last, time in their lives. The artists were understandably thrilled, not least because of the fresh and unsophisticated response to art, which otherwise attracts only the cognoscenti.

The railways will have to bear in mind that with the recognition of CST's World Heritage status comes a responsibility. It will have to ensure that the building is not allowed to deteriorate. This is by no means an idle threat. The only other World Heritage Site in Mumbai, the Elephanta Caves – more appropriately known after its local name, Gharapuri – came in for some scrutiny some years ago. The well-known restoration expert, Sir Bernard Feilden, from York in Britain , visited the caves and was astounded to see that there were no guards to prevent visitors from clambering all over the sculptures. One had even sat astride a figure to have his photograph taken! Feilden wrote to the venerable Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to warn that he would write to UNESCO to have Elephanta taken off the list, which upset the ASI immensely. The site is now better guarded.

In general, however, Elephanta suffers from exactly the opposite problem that CST does: it receives far too few people. Most visitors to the island take a ferry there to have a picnic and to get away from the congested confines of Mumbai. Only around a quarter actually visit the site! INTACH has been racking its brains how to attract more people to go there. It has built a simple, but well-designed, information centre, and seen to it that there are basic amenities there as well. The local islanders are also alienated from the ASI to a large extent and only view the caves as an opportunity to fleece visitors as much as they can. A few years ago, INTACH commissioned a study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to see how the needs of the islanders could be reconciled with the preservation of the monument. This is perennial dilemma in the conservation/development debate.

A second of the three Indian sites which were added to the UNESCO list this year is the Champaner-Pavagadh “archaeological park”, outside Vadodara (the third being two Chola temples in Thanjavur). This is an excellent example of the composite culture of this country, since Pavagadh is an ancient Hindu temple on top of a hill, which can be accessed by cable car as well as by foot, while Champaner is an intact Islamic, pre-Mughal city complex cheek by jowl with it. Champaner suffers a fate which is somewhat similar to that of Elephanta. Hordes of religious-minded people visit Pavagadh, especially on holy days, but very few venture into the ruins of Champaner. How to “divert” the pilgrims into Champaner is an issue which has been bothering conservationists for many years.

The recognition accorded to this complex of monuments is all the more noteworthy, given the current communalisation of Gujarat and an atmosphere where barriers are sought to be erected between communities. It is living proof that centuries ago, no such communal divisiveness existed. The site is spread over 6 km and as many as 120 monuments have been identified there, of which 36 are protected by the ASI. Several monuments are in fact still unexcavated. If the site has made it to the UNESCO list, it is purely due to the Heritage Trust in Vadodara, headed by the indefatigable architect, Karan Grover. For some two decades, he has fought an almost single-handed battle to draw national, and now worldwide, attention, to it. The very fact that Champaner-Pavagadh was the first site in India to be privately promoted for World Heritage status – the other monuments are under the ASI, government agencies or various forest authorities in the case of the national parks – speaks for itself.

At the first major workshop at the site in the mid-1980s, conservationists debated what was the best way to breathe life into a “dead” complex like Champaner. It was attended by Feilden, who made many valuable suggestions. A few experts said that the best way to preserve the ruins would be to bar the public from entering it. This would put an end to the graffiti and other malpractices, they argued. However, the majority view was quite the opposite: the sensible thing to do would be to charge a minimal entry fee and appoint guards to police the monument. Barring people from entering it would be the surest way of rendering the site sterile.

It would be facile to dismiss the concerns of conservationists as elitist and being divorced from the everyday reality that people who eke out a living in a desperately poor country seldom have the luxury of thinking about the monuments in their midst. On the contrary, it is only when the concerns of those living around ancient sites are addressed – rather like the dilemma of tribals who live in areas earmarked as national parks and sanctuaries – that both conservation and development can go hand in hand, rather than remain opposed to each other.

In that sense, the preservation of the CST will be a litmus test for the heritage movement in the country. In a city which bids to become one the most populated in the world in 15 years, the challenge will be how to ensure that one of the world's busiest railway terminals preserves its architectural features. It is most important to retain this link with the past as a way of remembering what made Mumbai what it is.

InfoChange News & Features, September 2004