Things fall apart

It’s a warm Sunday morning in Puducherry. A group of American travellers, dressed for the weather, head out on a heritage walk down the once-cobblestoned streets of the French quarter. Their guide Ashok Panda is a native of Odisha, who calls Puducherry home. Panda’s cheerful demeanour masks a growing anxiety, especially after his worst fears came true a couple of weeks ago. The 144-year-old Town Hall or Mairie Building on Goubert Avenue, also known as Beach Road, collapsed on a rainy day, under the weight of years of neglect. November 29 was a wake-up call for many.

Days later, hundreds of concerned citizens held a candlelight vigil and mobilised support for an online petition on change.org, ‘Save Pondicherry’s Heritage Buildings in Time’. Started by a local resident, Kakoli Banerjee, the petition demands urgent reinforcement of six high-risk structures — the Old Lighthouse, Old Courthouse, Police Headquarters, VOC School, Calve College and the Pensionnat De Jeune Fille (Government girls’ French high school).

Sunaina Mandeen, who represents the group PondyCan (Pondy Citizens’ Action Network), and other stakeholders also met the Chief Minister and Lieutenant Governor. “Both of them were genuinely concerned about the endangered French, Indo-French and Tamil heritage properties in Puducherry. We urged them for an amendment to the Town Planning Act, with aid from the state-level Heritage Advisory Committee, to prevent the demolition of privately-owned heritage structures and maintenance of their facades.”

But it’s an uphill task, says Panda, whose chief occupation is that of a co-convener at the local wing of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), an NGO that works with the Government to protect and restore built, natural and cultural heritage across India. “Our biggest challenge is the lack of a proper legal system that recognises the importance of such colonial buildings in Puducherry, gives them a commensurate status, and puts regulations in place for their preservation and protection. For a point of reference, you could look at Europe to understand how deep-rooted the idea of conservation is in the psyche of its people. In Italy and France, you don’t just have monuments, but heritage cities that preserve the identity, culture and architecture of a place for hundreds of years,” says Panda.

Meanwhile at the French quarter, Panda often points out “ugly” buildings built not too long ago with what he says is an absolute disdain for the area’s existing architecture, ignoring the facades and aesthetics that are its signature. “Both government-owned and private properties should be subject to laws that protect the look and feel of the town. In culturally important sites in France, I’ve heard people go so far as to consult the local body before changing a doorknob or a windowpane in their own house!”

While INTACH partners with the Government to restore heritage buildings, it also offers architectural and design guidelines to private owners. Recently, it helped renovate Indian Coffee House, Le Café and the Art and Culture Building. Similar projects at the Bharathiar Museum, Police Headquarters and the Public Park are also in the offing.

Funding is a major obstacle for all restoration projects, but private owners in particular find it difficult to pay for the constant and careful upkeep of their ancestral assets. Groups like PondyCan and INTACH have been entreating the authorities on their behalf for a while now. “It’s a matter of priorities for the Government. When you have issues like poverty, unemployment, sanitation and public works hanging in the balance, how can one expect ample funding for such sites? But that’s why we keep at it, hoping our call for proper regulations and legal interventions will be heard in time,” says Panda.

Banerjee, who kick-started the online petition to galvanise the authorities into action, says, “We should have done it long ago.” Owner of Gratitude, a heritage hotel, she believes real change can be effected only when locals pitch in. That “the officials have agreed to include [them] in the decision-making process” is no small triumph for people like her.

Devangi Ramakrishnan, an urban designer with INTACH and co-trustee with Urban Design Collective, also talks about public involvement and turns the focus squarely on the youth. She suggests engaging them through walks, community events and co-curricular activities centred on the city’s history to imbibe a sense of pride right from school.

“There’s also a huge deficit of informed architectural and design critique in the media, even in niche magazines,” she says, “Opinion pieces and articles that encourage dialogue between citizens and the architecture and design community on what works and what doesn’t in urban planning or heritage structures can go a long way in preserving what we have for posterity.” For now, however, those who filed petitions or took to the streets of Puducherry are taking things one day at a time.