ulture and Heritage

 

Coordinated by Ms Amita Baig

 

 

 

People, Heritage & The Future: The Chandernagore Initiative 

 

Speaker: Ms. AishwaryaTipnis, Architect and recipient of the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettre (Knight of the Arts and Letters);  recipient of the UNESCO Award for Heritage Conservation in the Asia-Pacific Region; and recipient of the Commonwealth Professional Fellowship 2011. Her work is largely centred on shared built heritage

 

 

 

Chair D r. Bertrand de Hartingh, Ph.D., Counsellorfor Education, Science and Culture, French Embassy and Country Director, French Institute in India.

 

 

 

An erstwhile French settlement of Chandernagore, 40 kms north of Calcutta with a unique history of its own, lies in neglect, threatened to disappearance by the pressures of modern development. How do we preserve this important slice of Indo-French history? In a scenario where cultural value is embodied in layered histories and narratives, and while built heritage is defined by non-monumental buildings, the challenges of urban conservation become far more complex. While experts at conferences and seminars romanticise about the glory of the past, ordinary citizens have to deal with the everyday issues of health, sanitation, property disputes and economics making heritage conservation an elitist dream. The fundamental question that one needs to answer is whose heritage is it anyway? The talk will outline almost a decade of work on experimenting with new methodologies for conservation of this unique heritage as part of the Chandernagore Initiative