The sites of Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagrahas, including Sabarmati and Wardha ashrams, Guruvayur Sreekrishna temple, Vaikom Mahadeva temple, and the Sivagiri Madhom are in the race for the World Heritage Site status.
These sites, associated with the freedom struggle, have been included on the tentative list of the World Heritage Committee.
The locations of Chauri-Chaura agitation, Quit India Movement, Natun Bari, Shyamoli and ‘Santiniketan Griho’ at Santiniketan, Gandhi Bhawan, Beliaghata, Tilak Ghat in Chennai, Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmadabad, Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, and Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi have also been enlisted.
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A decision on the nomination will be taken at the Doha session of the World Heritage Committee, which will begin on June 15.
Other sites The other sites on the list are Mani Bhawan, Mumbai, Salt Satyagraha and Dandi March routes, sites of Vedaranyam March, Champaran, Kheda, Dharasana, Bardoli, and Flag satyagrahas.
The agitation in Kerala sites were against untouchability in Hindu society and for allowing temple entry for the untouchables.
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According to the nomination documents made by the Permanent Delegation of India to Unesco, these sites are “associated with India’s non-violent freedom movement, a rare and notable example of political emancipation achieved during the first half of 20th Century, that became the role model for civil resistances worldwide”.
The movement also resulted in over 60 political transitions through nonviolent civic resistances worldwide, it said.
On the “Outstanding Universal Value” of the sites, it argued that the movement led by Gandhiji “became a role model for other civil rights movements across the world”.
The sites were “directly associated with the idea of satyagraha, non-violent civil resistance, which is of Outstanding Universal Value and has impacted other civil liberation movements across the world”, according to the document.
Most of the sites, it said, were “converted into Gandhi Museums or Memorials and follow the Gandhian principles of austerity and simplicity in their maintenance”.