Mutable histories on crumbling edifices

Archival narratives were authored, and even tempered to insert specific affects by both the colonial government and later by the nation-state.

Monuments are cast in stone, but not their histories as multiple appropriations in time and space generate diverse narratives of their mute existence. Red Fort has lived through it like none other. From the seat of the Mughal Empire in 17th century to the nucleus of armed rebellion against the British in 19th, it has had its share of history before emerging as the ultimate symbol of a nation-state in the 20th century. In tracing contested history of five monuments in capital Delhi – Red Fort, Jama Masjid, Purana Qila, Qutab Complex and Rasul Numa Dargah – Mrinalini Rajagopalan brings fascinating accounts of their unexpected uses and ideological appropriations by state and non-state actors. 

Each of the five monuments had a brush with the unexpected in the course of their archaeological existence: the Red Fort got turned into a place for rebellion, and resurgence; the Jama Masjid served as a place for self assertion during the pre-independence period; the Purana Qila was considered to rest on the mythic city of the Indraprastha; the Qutab complex has had its share of religious skirmishes; and the little-known sufi shrine of Hazrat Rasul Numa was saved by locals from expropriation by the British. The basic contention of this eloquent study is that each of these monuments exists in the space between archive and affect, lending credence to the notion that the monuments are culturally mutable objects far from being symbols of their specific pasts. In this context, the inheritance of the past is rarely seamless and secular.

Drawing detailed portraits of each of the five monuments, Rajagopalan examines how archival narratives were authored and even tempered to insert specific affects by both the colonial government and later by the nation-state. Interestingly, while the colonial government sought to erase reminiscences of the humiliating losses suffered during 1857 rebellion from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the Indian government did not remove Nicholson statue, the British soldier who had crushed the rebels, as a reminder of our own weakness to serve as a good historical lesson. These affects reflect differing interests and varying motivations toward the same monument.  

Building Histories captures the archaeological history of the five monuments and the institutional preservation that began with the establishment of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1861, which was given additional impetus by the enactment of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act by Lord Curzon in 1904. As a distinct departure from its past history of looting, pilferage and destruction of historic structures, the colonial government had an image makeover post-1857 as it started protecting monuments on behalf of its subjects. Could it be an institutionalized atonement for a previous history that included destruction and vandalism of country’s cultural heritage? 

The book is more than an archaeological treatise on the five monuments, as it raises question on what historical lexicon may suffice to accommodate many voices and affects that continually make and remake these structures. Mrinalini Rajgopalan, an assistant professor in History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, opines that Delhi’s rich Islamic structures are deeply vexing to those who seek to reclaim India as a geography defined solely by Hindu culture and history. The November 2001 abortive attempt for reclaiming the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in the Qutab complex as a Hindu temple is a case in point. Such parochial reframing of nation and history has been frequently played out on the monuments in the capital city. 

Each monument may be a bearer of specific truths regarding the past, and yet it remains vulnerable to multiple interpretations as the text that sets the regime of truth changes hands over time. No surprise, therefore, that prevailing anxieties between state and non-state actors builds new narratives to justify the imagined past. The creative appropriation of the medieval ruins of the Qila Rai Pithora in south Delhi in 2010, as the remnants of an ancient Hindu empire of Prithviraj Chauhan, has been a way to contain the history and interpretation of the monument. However, there is more to the Qila that is located at the entrance to Delhi, and which has been witness to many ups and downs of the history of India.  

Rajgopalan examines such contestations to argue that since the past could not be retrieved by the contemporary observer, there is a need for each of the monuments to remain a sacred and immutable relic of the past. What worries her is the continuing seduction to redefine the archival past in a bid to avenge past Islamic domination.  

Building Histories narrates extraordinary stories of the each of the five monuments – many of them previously unknown – in making a strong case for pulling archival histories out from the influence of popular emotions. Within the archival representations and affective appropriations of the monuments, the book echoes the need for more nuanced history of architectural objects. 

Building Histories
by Mrinalini Rajagopalan
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago/London
Extent: 244, Price: Rs. 3,857   

First published in The Hindustan Times online on Nov 11, 2017

The cultural sociology of sanitation

Swachh Bharat will remain a work in progress unless the cultural sociology of open defecation gets addressed.

Amidst the Swachh Bharat hype of ridding the country from the scourge of open defecation, the ground reality of transformation remains shrouded in statistics. The notion that lack of toilets force people to literally shame themselves in the public has not stood the test of time since toilet building program began over four decades ago. Despite claims to the contrary, open defecation is declining sufficiently slowly, suggesting instead that the day of reckoning is unlikely to match the deadline set by the government. The massive loo-building program needs to flush the notion that a toilet built ensures its usage. 

Why it is that access to toilet does not inspire people to avoid having a field day? Is the state’s idea of a toilet different from peoples’ perception of sanitation? Are social and cultural notions so deeply entrenched that the masses fail to draw a distinction between purity and pollution? And, why sanitation prejudice runs so deep in peoples psyche that they belittle any attempt by the state at correcting the ‘dirty picture’? 

In delving into the stinking subject Where India Goes comes out clean with new insights on why toilet has remained an incomplete solution to poor sanitation, as it neither relates to more poverty nor to less education. If that were not to be the case, neighboring Bangladesh would have been eons away in achieving total sanitation. Instead, the poverty-stricken neighbor is close to attaining total sanitation coverage. No surprise, therefore, India continues to top the global open defecation ranking, becoming a unique country where people walk a short distance away from home to squat and relieve themselves. And, it has come to stay as a typical Indian syndrome. 

Clearly, one size doesn’t fit all as the toilet alone has not been the solution to the prevailing social ill. Should it be otherwise, a great many people who could afford it would have built one and those who already own one would have used it? A socially iniquitous society neither takes subsidized uniform design of a toilet kindly nor does it take any pride in emptying a latrine pit.  Such behaviour presents the real challenge that the policymakers have so far continued to ignore. Else, the current pace of building ‘a toilet a second’ would have attached greater significance to addressing the ecosystem of behavioral change. Ironically, less than 1 per cent of current total toilet construction budget has been set aside for this purpose! 

The researcher duo of Diane Coffey and Dean Spears have put together an important and timely book, with an easy to read narrative, which argues that caste factor is the biggest stumbling block for open defecation to be overcome anytime soon. Drawing heavily from field studies and data analysis, the authors contend that the power of the state over open defecation is limited because it not only lacks the human resources needed for behavioral change but also because the social forces against it are strong. Seeking collective action from a fragmented society is an altogether different ball game that the state has yet to start playing.

There isn’t an easy solution in sight though, and neither have the authors suggested a prescription. Far from it, the University of Texas researchers working under the aegis of non-profit Research Institute for Compassionate Economics have located the pieces that need to be pieced together to solve the sanitation puzzle. To begin with, it will make sense for the government to reflect on its website the number of actual toilet users against the numbers of toilets built. Such a shift will usher a sense of accountability, and a tool for assessing change and measuring impact. Because, the goal is to eradicate open defecation with toilets as the brick-mortar means of achieving it.   

Having missed the deadline of eradicating open defecation a fewer times in the past, there is little to counter Coffey and Spears’ prediction for its repeat yet again. Let the government not shy away from accepting limited impact of its drive because plan to find reasons for rejection of affordable toilets have yet to be drawn. Creating options in toilet designs to accommodate peoples’ beliefs, including the convenience of mechanical emptying of pits, should be taken up in right earnest. Unless the targeted approach is replaced with an action and research initiative, location-specific challenges will continue to limit impact.  

Where India Goes is a timely reminder on what has not worked, and a list of actions that could spur change. It is a book for planners who are guided by their political masters to meet targets, but are forced to hit the ground while running for achieving the over-ambitious goals. Without addressing the cultural sociology of open defecation, the political rhetoric of Swachh Bharat will remain a work in progress. A critical policy shift cannot be left to the politics of toilet building alone. 

Where India Goes
by Diane Coffey & Dean Spears
HarperCollins, New Delhi
Extent: 271, Price: Rs 250

This review was first published in The Hindustan Times dated Nov 11, 2017.