It was announced last week that Delhi will be applying to UNESCO that it be recognised as a Heritage City. The Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has put together a dossier on the subject and has approached the Archaeological Survey of India with a request to make the application to UNESCO. Ahmadabad is already in the race and Delhi hopes that, by virtue of its being the capital city, it will be given priority. Now where does that leave Chennai which is nowhere near even a locally enacted legislation to protect its heritage?

This year, the team that helps catalyse a Madras Week in August hopes to launch a signature campaign to press the Government for the passing of a Heritage Act. With almost all other modes and avenues having been exhausted, this appears to be the only way ahead. Readers of Madras Musings need hardly be reminded that the draft of a Heritage Act was completed in 2002 and had it been adopted then, we would not be a city minus buildings such as Gandhi Illam, Capper House, the erstwhile Madras Club building on Express Estates, and Government House. And Bharat Insurance Building would not be facing an uncertain future. However, with Queen Mary’s College being threatened in 2003, the draft regulations were quietly shelved. Since then there have been attempts at revival in fits and starts, but nothing concrete has emerged.

The High Court then took the initiative and, in response to litigation on the demolition of Gokhale Hall, ruled that around 400 buildings listed by the Justice Padmanabhan Committee had to be protected. Subsequently, acting on the same ruling, the Government appointed a Heritage Conservation Committee with a mandate to ensure the protection of each of the buildings listed in the High Court’s judgement. However, with the Committee being largely populated by bureaucrats and with it choosing to take its own time in getting its act together, several buildings were demolished in the interim. And, later still, the Committee has remained a passive witness to the depredations of the Metro Rail which, unmindful of any heritage consciousness, has cut a wide swathe of destruction in its wake.

It is in the light of these developments that the demand for a Heritage Act in the city needs to be looked at. And so, during Madras Week, we will be approaching each one of you with a request to sign the petition. We look forward to your cooperation to participate in the continuing effort to ensure that Chennai protects what little there is of its heritage, even if it may not aspire for Heritage City status, which, however, it should.