Last Sunday, Charminar turned 444 years, according to the Hijri calendar. Heritage walks, photo exhibitions and lectures were held to mark the occasion. But despite Hyderabad being a historical city, its built and natural heritage are under threat from the State government and the real estate lobby. With its heritage under threat, the city’s fabric and identity markers are being erased. While the Central Vista project in New Delhi and the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor project in Varanasi attracted public attention, Telangana’s experiments with heritage have escaped scrutiny.
Hyderabad was the second city in the country after Bombay to have a city-specific heritage and zoning laws. In 1995, Regulation 13 was added to the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority Zoning Regulations for the purpose of conserving buildings, artefacts, structures and precincts of historical, aesthetical, architectural and cultural value. The Heritage Conservation Committee was given the duty of identifying “heritage buildings” that required government protection. A total of 151 buildings were identified and notified according to importance.
But in 2017, on the plank of regional pride, the State government brought in the Telangana Heritage (Protection, Preservation Conservation and Maintenance) Act, three years after the creation of Telangana. Instead of creating a protocol to protect the State’s heritage, the new law removed protection for nearly all the heritage sites in Telangana. Finally, the Telangana High Court had to step in when the State government wanted to demolish a 150-year-old palace of a Nawab to build the new State Legislative Assembly. The court ruled against the scrapping of Regulation 13 and scuppered the plan to demolish the palace. The court said, “It is an imperative duty of the State to preserve the heritage buildings which contribute to the sense of culture and sense of identity of the city. The State cannot afford the luxury of forgetting that the destruction of heritage building will rob its people the essence of their identity, and will deprive the city its sense of uniqueness. While it is important to plan for the future, it is equally important to protect, to preserve and to promote the past.”
While the onus might be on the state to protect the city’s heritage, a complex web of ownership and stakeholders are proving to be additional challenges in preserving whatever remains. Recently, the new owners of King Kothi Palace brought down parts of the structure before city officials stepped in to stop the destruction of the Baroque-Gothic home of the last Nizam, Osman Ali Khan. Poet and freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu’s former residence, which is in need of conservation, is under the jurisdiction of the University of Hyderabad. The outlying areas of Golconda Fort have been overrun by encroachments in the absence of land-ownership records with the Revenue Department.
But there is hope. After the 13th Century Ramappa Temple in Palampet was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2021, the State has appeared to get its act together. It recently notified the creation of State and city-level heritage conservation committees. Residency Building has been restored and is now open to visitors for a small price. The Qutb Shahi tombs are being restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. The government is expected to incur expenditure of ₹560 crore to restore the nearly century-old Osmania General Hospital on the banks of the Musi river and construct a new health block. This is a far cry from the time when politicians demanded that the 1920 Vincent Esch building be razed to the ground to make way for a new hospital. Is Telangana set to protect and cherish its heritage? These are early signs.
serish.n@thehindu.co.in
