Editorial 2: Empower ASI to do its job and Heritage needs the PPP model
Context:
India’s heritage landscape, encompassing over 3,600 protected monuments and countless unlisted sites, faces the challenge of balancing preservation with public access and modern relevance. A recent debate, feature two contrasting perspectives which explore whether India’s heritage conservation should remain a government responsibility or be opened up to private participation through public–private partnerships (PPPs)
Strengthening the ASI’s Capacity and Vision:
- The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) established in 1861 during British rule should remain the central institution for safeguarding heritage.
- Policymakers today are losing both historical understanding and creative imagination in managing monuments.
- Once a beacon of scholarly excellence, the ASI has, over time, become bureaucratic and isolated, failing to keep pace with the changing urban and cultural landscape.
- Privatization risks reducing monuments to mere tourist commodities, stripping them of their historical and cultural essence.
- The problem lies not with the ASI’s existence but with its limited resources, weak outreach, and lack of professional autonomy.
Steps needed to strengthen ASI:
- Revitalizing the ASI through professional recruitment of archaeologists, conservation architects, and historians.
- Enhancing field-level engagement with local communities and scholars.
- Promoting public participation through heritage walks, school programs, and citizen initiatives.
- Digitizing archives and research outputs for greater transparency and educational access.
- Heritage must be preserved with continuity, sensitivity, and historical consciousness, values that market forces or commercial ventures may overlook.
- Past initiatives like the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC) sought to balance conservation with urban growth.
Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) in heritage conservation:
- With limited funding and manpower, the state alone cannot maintain thousands of monuments.
- Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are essential to preserve India’s vast and diverse heritage effectively
- Experience of restoring Mumbai’s Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mehta highlights how collaboration between the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, INTACH, and private donors transformed a neglected space into an award-winning institution, recognized by UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Heritage Award.
- This success demonstrates that well-regulated partnerships can achieve excellence while retaining authenticity.
- There are public concerns about commercialization but the PPPs, when transparent and inclusive, can strengthen rather than undermine heritage preservation.
Steps needed to strengthen PPP in heritage conservation:
- Forming heritage trusts involving local authorities, experts, and citizens.
- Promoting heritage-linked tourism and craft economies to benefit surrounding communities.
- Ensuring scientific restoration standards under ASI or UNESCO supervision.
- Building local capacity and citizen stewardship for long-term sustainability.
- Heritage management should not be seen as exclusionary.
- Instead, it must integrate education, conservation, and economic development, ensuring that preservation efforts also empower communities and generate livelihoods.
Way Forward:
Heritage conservation must balance state responsibility with participatory governance. Privatization should enhance, not erode, the authenticity and social value of monuments. A hybrid model, where the ASI provides oversight, while private and community actors bring innovation and resources, may offer the most sustainable path forward.