Heritage movement scans suburbs

MUMBAI: Guess who''s just jumped on to the 9.05 Virar slow? For so long in thrall to colonialism''s imperious imprint, the city heritage movement is now officially moving northwards, away from the haughty Victorian edifices of South Mumbai to the traditional villages and shrines of the suburbs.
The city heritage committee recently commissioned a review of the pink book—as the who''s who of historical buildings in Mumbai is known—to re-assess the existing list of 660 structures as well as to identify heritage buildings and areas in the eastern and western suburbs that need protection.
The move, say architects and activists, is long overdue since the list was formulated in 1991 and published in 1995, but has not been updated since.
While architects have long begun exploring the more ancient gaothans of Amboli and the Portugese churches of Gorai, the pink book has clung firmly to monuments in the island city.
"The list''s deepest flaw has been its island centricity," acknowledges Shyam Chainani, who was intimately involved in making Mumbai the first city to implement heritage regulations in 1995, "There are just a handful of buildings fromnorth of Bandra on it."
In fact, the bulk of listed heritage is from South Mumbai, the area up to Haji Ali. Central Mumbai, with its textile mills and chawls— considered a vital part of the city''s industrial heritage-is excluded.
Even in South Mumbai, some heritage is more equal than others. "The traditional has been taken for granted," says Sandhya Sawant, architect and BMC heritage committee member, noting that even seemingly ordinary buildings in Bhuleshwar are worth preserving because "they have been so beautifully crafted and are typical of a Gujrati tradition".
Explaining the dominance of colonial heritage, Bandrabased architect David Cardoz, notes that British buildings are "expensive, high architecture befitting an imperial power. They are awesome, they want to overpower and dominate you".
Colonial splendour has even skewed the way heritage buildings are graded on the list. "Because they are magnificent, they become the benchmark against which small vernacular structures can never hold up," says Sawant.
Agrees Cardoz, "Everything is compared to VT. But is a cave less important than a big Victorian station?"