The Jammu and Kashmir chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) on Thursday said it is preparing a dossier to be submitted to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry for inclusion of Srinagar in the list of UNESCO heritage cities.
“We are applying for Srinagar city to be listed as aUNESCO heritage city under the category of crafts and folk arts’,” SaleemBeg, convener of the state chapter of INTACH told IANS.
The dossier has to be submitted by June 30, he added.
There is one slot each year for an Indian city to berecognised as a UNESCO heritage city.
“In order to make a strong case for the inclusion ofSrinagar city in the list, we are working together with the Development andResearch Organisation for Nature, Arts and Heritage (DRONAH),” he said.
Beg said that they had to take DRONAH on board “becausethe state government has laid down a condition that only that organisation cantender for getting a city listed as a UNESCO heritage city that had at leastonce successfully competed with the tender”.
“DRONAH had last year succeeded in getting Jaipurlisted as a UNESCO heritage city. Till now Jaipur is the only city in India tohave made to the prestigious list in the category of a ‘crafts city’. The othertwo cities, Chennai and Banaras (Varanasi), are in the UNESCO heritage list inthe ‘music city’ category,” he added.
Beg said Srinagar has a strong case since it is a2,200-year-old city with historical standing in crafts and folk arts drawing onits centuries-old connections with Central Asia.
Founded originally during the reign of the Emperor Ashoka ofthe Maurya Empire around 250 B.C., he said that crafts and folk arts flourishedgreatly in this city during the reign of local Sultan, Zainul Abidin (c1420-70), known popularly as ‘Budshah’ (The Great King) of the Shah Mirdynasty.
“Among the arts introduced here during this period arepapier-mache, khatamband, carpet weaving, sozni, wood-carving, pashminaetc.”, he said.
Beg said that if the heritage city tag was approved, craftsand folk arts of Srinagar city and the rest of Kashmir would get a new lease oflife.
“There would be an implementation programme of three tofour years that would be aimed at sustainable development of Srinagar through avigorous policy of revival of these otherwise fast vanishing crafts andarts,” he said.