Is there a need for Cultural Heritage Law for India?

Introduction

Protection as well as preservation of our cultural property against the threats of damage and destruction is our sole duty to be performed. Cultural heritage along with environment is very essential to the well being and to the enjoyment of one’s own basic rights-even the right to life itself.The protection, preservation and conservation of the cultural heritages have become extremely crucial in order to pull back there lost essence. The entire human race is anxious enough to preserve and protect the world’s cultural along with natural heritage.

Cultural heritage has become a central concept of local and national identity, yet defining this heritage is always subjective. Cultural heritage can be defined as those objects or those intangible specifics that have been inherited from our ancestors, without losing its essence.

 The cultural heritage includes all those main aspects or values of culture transmitted to humans by their ancestors from generation to generation. They are cherished, protected and maintained by them with unbroken continuity and feel proud of it.

 Indian legislature has divided the cultural property into three categories-

1. Archaeological sites
2. Ancient monuments
3. Art treasures and antiquities

The first two are the immovable properties while the last one is movable one.

Cultural heritage again splits into two types: Tangible heritage and Intangible Heritage.

The tangible heritage includes of those objects that have a physical appearance and can be touched. It can be either movable or immovable. For example, sculptures, potteries, ornaments, monuments and much more. The intangible heritage is something that lacks of any sort of physical appearance and can’t be touched. For example, rituals, oral poetries, thoughts, languages and much more.

Cultural Heritage Laws

Several laws have been enacted by the Indian government in order to protect the tangible as well as intangible heritages of India. Few of them are explained as below:

1. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (1958): it aims to provide the preservation of the ancient and historical monuments and archaeological excavations and for the protection of sculptures, carvings and other like objects. Under the provisions of this act, giving a two months prior notice, the Central Government can declare a monument or an archaeological site to be of the national importance. The cat further states that where there is no owner of the site, monument or the material Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) becomes the owner.

• The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972) : it is an act to regulate the export trade in antiquities and art treasures, to provide for the preservation of smuggling of and fraudulent dealings in antiquities and to provide for the compulsory acquisition of antiquities and art treasures for preservation in public places. It is applicable to only those artifacts that are more than 100 years old (in case of paintings) and 75 years as the minimum age in case of any sort of manuscript. The central government has declared paintings including drawings,diagrams,sketches and the like and the objects of plastic art by Rabindranath Tagore,Jamini Roy, Sailoj Mukherjee, Ravi Varma,Abanindranath Tagore,Nadlal Bose, N. Roerich and Amrit Shergill as art treasure for the purpose of this Act. These all are human works of art, not being antiquities and have artistic and aesthetic values.

• The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act (2010): it is an act further to amend the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 and to make provision for validation of certain actions taken by the Central Government under the said Act. This act was an amendment to the similar Act of 1958 but the only difference is that few major aspects have been added into this new amended Act.

In the records of history, it was found that James Burgess, who succeeded Sir Alexander Cunningham as the Director General of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) , showed a greater awareness about the legislative measures as tools to protect cultural legacy from ultimate decay by the human race. In the British era, it was found that not only the local people destructed the monuments without having a proper knowledge about the same, but it was the authority in power as well, who also destroyed the historical structures. For example, the Stupas of Sanchi.

After the promulgation of Constitution of India on 26^th January 1950, the allocation of the historical and archaeological sites of importance was given to the following:

1. List I (Union List), item 67 – ancient and historical monuments and records, and archaeological sites and remains declared by or under law by Parliament to be of national importance.
2. List II (State List), item 12- libraries, museums and other similar institutions controlled or financed by the states; ancient and historical monuments and records other than those declared by or under law made by the Parliament to be of national importance.
3. List III (Concurrent List), item 40- archaeological sites and remains other than those declared by or under law made by the Parliament to be of national importance.

These are enlisted under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

So these were the major initiatives taken by the Indian government in order to serve for the protection and preservation of the ancient monuments and historical and archaeological sites in India. By these measures, the government is able to protect the cultural heritages of India. In addition to these facts, all the monuments under the supervision of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have been protected under the act of The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (1958).

Basically it’s the strict laws only that puts the people into a submissive and in a controlled form because without having a proper knowledge about their heritage, people start destructing not only the ancient marvels but also their cultural traditions. Because if the nation does not have a proper cultural heritage law, then the illiterate or unawared public would destroy all the cultural heritages and the consequence would be a complete degradation of the heritages, aftermath.

It is not like only the Cultural Laws that are focusing upon the degrading condition of the cultural heritages, but there a lot of institutions working upon the same. A few can be named as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), as an attached office under the Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, is the major organization for the archaeological researches and protection of the cultural heritage of the nation. Maintenance of ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national importance is the prime concern of the ASI. Besides it regulate all archaeological activities in the country as per the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. It also regulates Antiquities and Art Treasure Act, 1972. (Ministry of Culture).

In a very recent time, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has taken the initiative of gathering and recording the number of people having artefacts are more than 100 years old. This is due to the reason that ASI wants to save, preserve and protect all the individual cultural heritages, so that the intangible heritage along with tangible one gets restored and the coming generations become aware of their culture as well. This is not only of national importance but also of personal cultural importance.

Apart from this, there is an institution named Aga Khan Trust, which took the initiative in the restoration work of the famous mausoleum of the Mughal ruler Humayun renowned as the Humayun’s Tomb. The latest conservation efforts on the site were confronted with the cultural essence of its preservation history. The present project aims at the revitalization of the architectural spirit and original intentions of the builder.

Speaking logically, generally people do not make a concern about their lost cultural heritages. It not only happens with the tangible materials but also with the intangible sources as well. For instance, a lot of people belonging to a specific region are found disrespecting towards their native language or mother tongue as they confess that they don’t know how to speak their mother tongue. So from here, they start losing their cultural identity and are also unable to keep their culture long lasting.

It also needs to be highlighted that the environmental factors also contribute to the sole degradation of the cultural heritage. For instance, the Ajanta cave paintings underwent such a serious fate and this was due to the negative consequences of the environmental factors that affected those paintings adversely.To restore their prominence, the conservators of the Department of Archaeology of the Government of Hyderabad took the step to preserve their essence.

As the concluding part of this topic, it would be rather extracted from all the given acts that it is important to have a proper defined Cultural Law for the preservation and restoration of the historical as well as archaeological sites under the dire supervision of the related authority in power, so that none of the ruthless human activities can make harm to the national cultural heritages, provided that these cultural laws are enacted properly on the very right time. In fact it is too a good idea to conserve and preserve the personal individual cultural property in order to restore culture of an individual household,which is useful in tracing the history of a particular tradition and family, therefore.