Understanding the tensions in place – conflict and conservation in Kashmir

The ongoing evolution of the global heritage movement has been marked by a move away from fabric-centred understandings of heritage, towards a language of ‘place’, ‘values’ and ‘stakeholders’. Recent initiatives like the ‘Vienna Memorandum on Historic Urban Landscapes’ and the ‘Seoul Declaration on Heritage and the Metropolis in Asia and the Pacific’ represent important steps in such directions for managing the heritage of urban environments. This paper examines these developments in the context of Srinagar, the capital city of Indian administered Kashmir. With the conflict in the region enduring for more than fifteen years, the city - regarded as one of the most important pre-modern urban landscapes in South Asia - has suffered extensive physical damage. Nonetheless, the city remains the cultural and political heart of a wider collective identity rooted in the Kashmir Valley. As such, Srinagar presents a rich example of a city that would strongly benefit from the insights gained from Seoul and Vienna; an approach that recognises how a sense of ‘place’ arises through an intimate dialogue between the built environment and the socio-cultural context within which it sits. However, as we shall see, a framework oriented around ‘values’ and ‘context’ opens up unfamiliar and difficult questions and challenges. If a city like Srinagar is to be discussed in more holistic, less fabric-based terms, the interfaces between heritage and its wider social values, such as cultural sovereignty, multi-culturalism or democracy require far greater attention than they have received to date

Leaving the buildings behind : conflict, sovereignty and the values of heritage in Kashmir

Given recent events in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, the role cultural heritage plays in post-war reconstruction continues to be seen as an important and complex issue that warrants critical attention. There is a growing recognition that heritage policies need to address a multitude of agendas, and extend their goals beyond the restitution of objects or the reconstruction of buildings and other structures. However, if cultural heritage is to be integrated within wider goals of post-conflict economic reconstruction and societal recovery, stronger ties need to be made with today’s humanitarian or developmental aid frameworks. This chapter explores the possibility of such links within the context of Srinagar, the capital city of Indian-administered Kashmir. In particular it focuses on the issue of housing as a focal point for understanding the interweaving cultural and economic rights of Srinagar’s citizens