Monumental neglect of historical sites

Several havelis have been turned into workshops or warehouses

Narrow bylanes of Nabi Karim in Delhi’s Paharganj area lack the grandeur that one may expect of a heritage site. Locals are surprised when you mention the Qadam Sharief.

It is only when you enter the “Qila” road, that they promptly guide you to “keep going straight” to reach the Qila Qadam Sharief.  Soon you reach the Inner Gateway of Qila Qadam Sharief which today stands neglected. The unprotected site shows serious signs of deterioration. A medical store’s banner hangs from the gateway making it look like any regular entry point. It is flanked by a paan shop and the MCD malaria inspector’s office on the left. The overhead cables run through the gateway.

“Only a few elderly people are aware the gateway has high heritage value. There has been no maintenance of the monument for the past many years now,” says Kamal Kumar, who runs a grocery store next to the site.

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) had identified the inner gateway of Qila Qadam Sharief as of “Archaeological Value A”. The site is not protected by any agency and has not been well preserved either. It has pointed arched openings and the walls are made of rubble masonry. This is just one of the several unprotected sites in bad condition in the Capital.

The site has now been notified by the Delhi Archaeology Department along with INTACH. This means the site cannot be demolished without permission, says INTACH Delhi Chapter convener A G K Menon. 

On the way you see a mosque with ornamental facade which is now in ruins and turned into a garbage dump yard. It has been like this “forever now”, say locals. The ground floor houses a dry cleaner’s shop.

The Qadam Sharif Dargah is not easy to locate even after reaching the well-maintained mosque. The compound remains crowded with children playing. The dargah remains locked. As two youths get the keys and open the gate, the interiors speak of the neglected state it has been for years now. There is graffiti on the walls. Its compound is used as a storeroom for building materials. The ceiling sports a neglected look with the beautiful carvings only partly visible.

“There has been no support from any quarter for the dargah’s renovation. Its condition has gone worse over time. On Thursdays, the dargah remains packed with people coming to offer prayers. Otherwise, we keep it locked,” says caretaker Sultan Amiruddin.
“It used to be a beautiful shrine, we have heard,” says Mohammed Anas, 22, who sells artificial jewellery in Sadar Bazar market. 

Since 2010, INTACH, with the Delhi Archaeology Department, has so far documented around 150 sites which have historic or architectural value. In all, 250 sites which need documentation have been identified. “While several sites are protected under the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India), several sites remain unprotected,” says Menon. They too need to be documented so that they do not vanish or are vandalised.

“After notification and documentation of such sites, the government will decide on which sites need to be conserved. These are public assets and need to be preserved. Documentation is also a lengthy procedure and we are carrying out the process in phases,” he says.

The Paharganj Main Bazaar lane houses several such treasures. Two mosques here with high domes remain in poor condition. Encroachments and neglect are visible. One such mosque houses a dhaba on the first floor. It also shares a boundary wall with a lodge. “The corporation had filed a case against us for running the dhaba from here. But now we have sorted things out,” says Fahre Alam.

Just a km away from the Main Bazaar on Qutab Road lies another structure, the Imambara. The enclosure which housed the Imambara has now vanished.  The site was encroached upon with commercial activities in and around the monument. Over a year back, the Archaeology Department took up the renovation work as it was cited as a site of high archaeological value in severe deterioration. The shops were pulled down.

ASI protected 

If the unprotected monuments in the Capital are facing a threat, several of the city’s ASI-protected monuments are also in poor condition. With an acute staff crunch in the department, littering at sites is common.

Dhalaos, the municipal garbage dumps, outside prominent monuments are common. So are toilet blocks encroaching on the sites. Proximity of parking vehicles to monuments also leads to the damage. The road-level has gone up near the Delhi Gate, Khooni Darwaza and Tripolia Gate which leads to garbage being swept towards the site. The Daryaganj City Wall and the Kashmere Gate City Wall are also among the neglected monuments.

“The ASI has no magisterial powers and therefore it is not the enforcement agency. It was recently communicated to the Ministry of Urban Development and the municipal corporations of Delhi to remove the dhalaos from around the monuments. There needs to be coordination between the corporations and the Delhi Police to stop encroachments. Community participation is required to maintain the ASI-protected sites. So locals need to be sensitised on the heritage value of monuments,” says R S Fonia, Joint Director, ASI.

The city of Shahjahanabad which houses a wide range of monuments and havelis today is a congested place. There are over 520 havelis in the walled city. These are mostly private properties in poor condition. Several such havelis have been turned into workshops or are used as warehouses. The Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation (SRDC) has now found that both handicraft and chemical industries are run out of the havelis.

“The heritage buildings have not been maintained due to lack of funds. We are looking at various options to revive these havelis. One way of maintaining the heritage is facilitating coordination between hoteliers and the owners. In this case, the government will also give tax redemptions for owners in maintaining the property,” says Nitin Panigrahi, Deputy General Manager, Project and Administration, SRDC.

In the long term, the SRDC is planning to turn Old Delhi into a tourist hub by reviving the several heritage places there.

The mushrooming of several trades and loading and unloading of goods near the monuments have contributed to their deterioration, say experts. Some commercial activities need to be shifted out of the Shahjahanabad area to revive its lost glory.