Karewas: Pillage of valley’s geological treasure
The condition of the ‘protected’ monuments and sites being what it is, the status of unprotected heritage, like private residences and institutional buildings, is vulnerable to vandalism, inappropriate additions and alteration or even demolition, risking their long term survival. The worst instance of this vandalism is the demolition of the famous 17th century Persian poet, Gani Kashmiri’s house at Razay Kadal in 2001 in the name of its preservation, and rebuilding it in brick and mortar with Dholpur tiles exterior. According to Altaf Hussain, Convener INTACH, Kashmir Chapter, “Most buildings under private ownership are suffering from several issues of conservation due to lack of knowledge and resources. The floods of 2014 have amplified these problems as many heritage houses in some prominent neighbourhoods were demolished and reconstructed as the owners deemed them unfit for rehabilitation.”
The Government’s insensitivity is further amplified by one of the least talked about, yet serious case of heritage plunder – the pillage of Valley’s geological and heritage treasure – its karewas – happening under its nose, if not with its connivance. World over, the karewas are valued and explored for global climate record of the recent past – so vital for predicting future climate. Likewise, most significant evidence of Kashmir’s earliest human life like at Burzahom and Gufkral were discovered from the karewas. Sadly, the Government appears working hand in glove with land mafia in vandalizing these scientific and anthropogenic sources. Massive construction activities, especially filling of flood plains and marshes for building new housing colonies and laying of railway track and new roads in Kashmir, has resulted in destruction of its karewas.
Another instance of Government insensitivity is reflected in the construction of the Tehzeeb Mahal. After several foundation-laying ceremonies at different places since early 1980s and identifying some existing buildings for the purpose, the Government finally appeared making a serious effort on 22 January 2013 when it laid the first stone of the Rs. 72 crore project near the Tourist Reception Centre in uptown Srinagar. Five years and an expenditure of Rs. 4.82 crore later, the present Government has stopped funding the construction, allegedly for it having been initiated by the government of a rival party although citing unsuitability of the location as the reason. The aesthetically designed building would have added to the beauty of the skyline, besides being a centre of attraction for people and tourists for its multiple facilities like a heritage museum, art gallery, seminar hall, book shop, auditorium for literary and cultural activities, and a coffee shop. The work on the project has stopped since 2014 and reappearance of the State Road Transport Corporation buses on the abandoned site gives enough clues about encroachment of the land. One would not be surprised if the premises were ultimately claimed by a nearby located financial institution.
In olden times, art traffickers and traders travelling on the Silk Road were believed to have taken out huge heritage wealth of Kashmir. In many cases, travellers and scholars collected material of immense cultural value and returned to their native places with the amassed wealth. The 7th century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar and traveller, Heun Tsang arrived in Kashmir in 631 AD. During his two year stay, the king provided him 20 copyists for copying religious texts and manuscripts. Tsang left Kashmir through the Pir Panjal pass and visited different Indian cities. After his extensive travel when he returned to China, he had 20 horse-loads of manuscripts, books and Buddhist relics with him. The 19th century Hungarian-British explorer and the celebrated translator of Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, Sir Aurel Stein, known for his enormous contribution to the promotion and development of Sanskrit literature of Kashmir, is reviled as an “imperialist thief” for removing priceless manuscripts, paintings and sculptures during his several expeditions to Central Asia [Reinterpreting Exploration: The West in the World]. Stein comes “top of the list of offenders who removed “literally by the ton” huge heritage wealth and shipped it home.” During his fourth Central Asian visit he was forbidden by Chinese authorities from digging.
Stein visited Kashmir many times between 1888 and 1905 and collected a vast treaure of Sanskrit manuscripts, most of which he took with him to the United Kingdom. Later in 1911, he deposited 350 manuscripts with a library, now part of the New Bodleian Library, Oxford where these remained hidden from public eye for a century. Some of these manuscripts he gifted to other people, one among them being Georg Buhler who in 1875 himself collected from Kashmir “more than 300 manuscripts, many of them in Sharda script written on birch bark leaves”. The Hoernle collection at the British Museum also consists of manuscripts collected by Captain Stuart Hill Godfrey who was Joint-Commissioner of Ladakh in 1896 and Assistant to the Resident in Kashmir between 1897 and 1899 and Sir Adelbert Cecil Talbot, Resident in Kashmir from 1896 to1900. Europeans such as these have been accused of taking away Kashmir’s intellectual wealth and making its cultural landscape poorer. Author and scholar, Prof, Shafi Shouq, however, has a different take on this. According to him, “The European scholars have not only preserved our intellectual heritage but preserved it in the form of thousands of systematically analyzed books published from London and other parts of the world. I wish the native scholars contributed just one percent towards understanding this huge repertoire of knowledge in all these years of so-called independence.”
Khalid Bashir Ahmad is the author of Kashmir-Exposing the myth behind the narrative