by Tanya Chaturvedi Vegad
“ Heritage is a process – a technical process. But it is also a social construct. ” (Taylor K, 2021).
Lost somewhere in our professional association with the term ‘heritage,’ is the allusion of the term to personal inheritance. This feeling is echoed in Ken Taylor’s observation of heritage as a social construct, beyond its technicalities. My fascination with the old walled city of Jaipur began as a child, visiting relatives. I entered a small doorway, between a seemingly endless line of shops, and to my sheer surprise, it opened onto a day-lit courtyard with a tree, a well and a bevy of activities. Contemporary built form and building norms no longer reflect this traditional way of spatial structuring, but the joy of discovering layers of this ancient city keeps bringing me back to Jaipur, the city of crafts and folk arts, the city of World Heritage. But is my personal inheritance about the loss of built heritage? Or is my inheritance of transformation itself a valuable heritage resource, a richly layered palimpsest.
Through this blog, I look at three major transformations in the urban landscape of Jaipur’s Walled City over its three centuries long existence. Changes in the economic-political environment have led to spatial transformations and demographic shifts, some sudden, others gradual. These are among the few themes of HeriLand that I use to deconstruct the transformation in Jaipur’s Walled City, and advocate for contextualized democratization of the planning process. What I carry forward, as an architect and heritage planner, is a choice from a vast range of planning options. These range from high impact adaptive release, to low impact restoration and maintenance for this transforming, living heritage (Dore, 2023).
The Inheritance of Transformation
Transformation 1: The spatial turn
The story of Jaipur begins as a city of commerce in the plains, instead of the usual hill fortification, as a nod to the global influence along the Silk Route. Established in the early 1700s, the original Prastara layout of Jaipur sub-divided into a 3×3 grid of neighbourhood blocks called chowkris, with the royal precinct at the centre of the rectangular layout. There was no direct central avenue to the royal precinct, as typical of such layouts in Vastushastra. The first major transformation came in the late 18th Century, that led to the creation of Chaura Rasta (broad street), creating a grand central avenue, connecting the new Albert Hall to the royal palace, to mark the visit of British royalty to Jaipur. All the main bazaar streets were given a fresh coat of lime wash in one homogenous colour, a pale brick-red lime wash, that gave Jaipur its current nickname, the Pink city. In a report by an official of the Archaeological Survey of India (Garrick, 1887), the “modern” Jaipur walled city is criticised for its uninspiring homogenous pink paint and elements that smack of “hankering after European characteristics”. Another hundred and fifty years later, the Jaipur of today looks for its identity in the same heritage, and I grapple with a mix of pride and dismay in the heritage of my “Pink City.”
About this Blog
This is the 16th blog post of the series of 24 blogs prepared by graduate students and early career professionals who shared their views on the future of heritage and landscape planning.
The writers of these blogposts participated in the Heriland Blended Intensive Programme “Heritage and the Planning of Landscapes” in October 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Transformation 2: The demographic shift
In the late 1940s, when Jaipur was faced with a large influx of migrants from the newly partitioned Pakistan, there was a definite resistance from the established trader community to allow any new entrants. The moat along the southern edge of the Walled city was filled in, and a new market area was created. Gradually, fast fashion, consumables, dalda (hydrogenated vegetable fat) and chai (tea) infiltrated the Walled City that took pride in its crafts and purity.
Transformation 3: Gradual global influences on the economic environment
Jaipur was known for the 36 trades or Chattees Karkhane. The havelis here still carry the grandeur of scale and ornamentation that its prosperous owners brought. With globalization, the trades have gradually transformed.
Gemstone merchants recognised the incentives of value-addition and diversification, catapulting Jaipur to international fame in jewellery design. Similarly, textile trading diversified into the manufacturing and sale of custom-made costumes, stitching, embroidery, gota-patti laces and embellishments. Culinary heritage has seen a transformation from the Gokhana and Rasoda trades envisaged in the 1700s, to the present day eateries, tea stalls and ice cream shops. The hegemony of the humble chai (tea) is gradually being challenged by high-end cafes, that mimic the gentrified historic renewal projects of Europe.
Shrinking belongingness, expanding commerce
Altered demographic patterns
The walled city no longer houses administrators or wealthy merchants. However, the locational advantage of the market has helped the area retain its commercial prosperity. Today, havelis offer cheap rental accommodation for migrant jewellery makers, screen printers etc. The area witnesses changed lifestyles, shrinking walkability and a transformed third space.
“An intrinsic relationship exists between the morphology of the spaces in the settlements and the residents, in terms of their lives, livelihoods, and kinship networks,” (Chalana & Rishi, 2016).
Chalana & Rishi’s (2016) words find echo in the transformed daily lives of the Walled City’s residents. Before vehicular congestion usurped Jaipur’s roads (and planning priorities), a day in the life of the community in ChowkriVishveshwarji included morning strolls to gardens near Albert Hall, and to places of worship, before commencing work. Evenings saw informal community gatherings in the Chowks (plazas) shaded by trees and on built platforms outside havelis for seating. Women interacted during the day near temples, stepwells and wells. Today, heavy vehicular traffic with unregulated on-street parking have insulated the walled city from its greener surroundings. Gendered spaces have shrunk, as has the ‘third space’, and seems to increasingly move into the virtual realm of social media, or to tiny street-food outlets surrounded by disorganised parking.
Tapped water supply has made the wells and tanks redundant. The government owned infrastructure systems of transport and basic amenities has led to a dissociation from streets as interactive, walkable, spaces of pause; and wells, stepwells as sacred sources of life’s essential water supply. Ornamentation of structures was indicative of the respect for their role in place-making and to the building crafts. Today’s infrastructure is deployed by government contractors working with horse blinders, without a sense of belonging and perhaps thus, with no respect for craft. (Figures 1,2).
Changing economic environment
Inner residential streets are now lined with shops and godowns. For example, one inner street, Gopalji ka rasta, has become a jewellery hub (Figures 3, 4). Though never originally intended for shops, the havelis on this inner street now house more than 2000 gems and jewellery offices and workshops along its 400m stretch. The strain is visible on the Walled City’s infrastructure capacity, ageing built form, and streets choked with vehicles, informal vendors and pedestrians.
Figure 3 & 4. The popularity of Jaipur’s markets encouraged transformation of inner residential streets into newer shopping streets.
The transformations together show how the best-made plans still need to cater for the unknown challenges of the future. In line with global efforts to “revive” the economy of heritage cities, Jaipur too, was subjected to several tourism-stimulation efforts. However, Jaipur’s Walled City markets still remain iconic centres of trade and commerce. Mass tourism is seen by the community as an unwanted threat. The increase in commerce and reduction in residents has led to a change in day and night time populations. This has changed the needs for infrastructure, parking and social amenities. Projecting these densification/desertification scenarios will help generate more reliable planning predictions.
What does one hold on to, while making place for the new?
“ Physical processes of creation, maintenance and decay are entangled with cultural and political processes of management, access and care. ” (Jones T, 2023)
These words of Tod Jones in his book ‘Heritage is Movement’, make the heritage planner in me question our planning priorities and heritage parameters. Is authenticity about Continuity or about Restoration? Is the community discourse of heritage given cognizance in deciding what is considered to be of value in the city? What about the value of transformation?
In restoration of a monument, erasing evidence of non-significant time periods may have been permissible, but in the contemporary heritage planning discourse, democratic, living historic urban landscape cannot be dealt with in the same way. The choice of appropriate heritage planning approaches should be based on how to define authenticity, looking through a living heritage lens, seeing transformation as an organic social process (Janssen, Luiten, Renes, & Stegmeijer, 2017) that is contextual, and thus, never directly imitable. A study of what worked better for each settlement, and how it can be carried forward, with improvements and adaptations to current needs is an essential starting point for heritage planning (Menon, 2017).
Why imitate an imitation
The desire to imitate has, time and again, proven to be a disaster. Established in the early 1700s, Jaipur was a futuristic design addition to the region. The havelis displayed richness and variety through their façade treatment, while maintaining certain elements of homogeneity, like scale, size and height. This was transformed by the pink lime washing that we have upheld for a hundred and fifty years, and are enforcing even today.
The heritage planning process needs an understanding of the existing spatial character in relation to the cultural practices, temporal adjustments and modifications, beyond a simplistic listing of commercial activities and cultural objectification. Upgradation of infrastructure needs to be sensitive and respectful of heritage and end-users. The first priority should be the needs of the residents, and then the floating population and tourists. The vast gamut of tools should be brought to the table for all stakeholders to democratically choose from, and negotiate the extent of heritage impact on the city.
Democratization of planning
The restrictions are in place, in response to “today,” but are they adequate in preparation for the many possible tomorrows? Are restrictive regulations to built form reflective of the true values that one wants to preserve? Does the community’s demand for planning get reflected in the plans supplied? The increasing dissociation with public spaces, ownership of community assets and the governmental responsibility of public infrastructure are reflected in the current state of disrepair and chaos. There is significant change in the cultural landscapes and lifestyles, which pressurises the transformation in the historic urban landscape as well. Our inheritance as citizens of Jaipur, our lifestyle aspirations, as well as the World Heritage perspectives of Jaipur’s Walled City, can together find a better future mirror in commingled perspectives of the many pasts, along with the present. As Kalman & Létourneau (2020) put it, for our future plans to be dynamic, we need to integrate the past with the present and future.
Bibliography
Dore, M. (2023). From Gone to Gain – Exploring the Scope of Historic Environment Compensation in Planning (Doctoral thesis). Gothenburg: Department of Conservation, Faculty of Science, University of Gothenburg.
Erkan, Y. (2018). The Way Forward with Historic Urban Landscape Approach Towards Sustainable Urban Development. Built Heritage Special Issue: Applying a landscape perspective to digital cultural heritage. Retrieved from https://built-heritage.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/BF03545686.pdf
Garrick, H. B. (1887). A Tour in the Panjab and Rajputana 1883-1884. Archaeological Survey of India. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Retrieved August 2022, from https://archive.org/details/tourinpanjabrajp00hbwg/page/n7/mode/2up
Janssen, J., Luiten, E., Renes, H., & Stegmeijer, E. (2017). Heritage as sector, factor and vector: conceptualizing the shifting relationship between heritage management and spatial planning. European Planning Studies, 25(9), 1654-1672. doi:DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2017.1329410
Jones, T. (2023). Heritage is Movement: Heritage Management and Research in a Diverse and Plural World (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003374008
Kalman, H., & Létourneau, M.R. (2020). Heritage Planning: Principles and Process (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429431692
Lipman, M. and Mahan, L. 1996. Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street (documentary). New York.
Meutia, Z. D., Akbar , R., & Zulkaidi, D. (2018). Heritage planning and rethinking the meaning and values of designating heritage sites in a post-disaster context: The case of Aceh, Indonesia. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science.
Taylor, K., & Verdini, G. (2021). Management Planning for Cultural Heritage: Places and Their Significance (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315718484
About the author
Tanya Chaturvedi Vegad is a PhD scholar in the area of Development Planning for Urban Heritage in India. As an Associate Planner at DRONAH, she has been a part of several planning projects, impact assessments, community-related projects, outreach activities and surveys with a focus on heritage and sustainability. Since 2005, she has worked in multi-cultural environments in the UAE, India and Japan, which have given her an immersive experience into several cultures. This blog post was inspired by her participation in the Heriland Blended Intensive Program on “Heritage and Landscapes Futures”, in Gothenburg, Sweden, in October 2024.
contact the author: tanya.chaturvedi@gmail.com