Historic Heritage:- Nostalgic as the Personal
Who cannot love the grace beauty and grandeur displayed by ancient monuments? How can one not help but awe at the opulence of Palace of Versailles, the monumentality of the Great Pyramids, and the grandeur of the Taj Mahal? These buildings in their iconicity, inspire humanity and fire its imagination in ways that we cannot even fathom.
Awe aside, what really stands out in our appreciation of historic beauty, arises not so much from the perception of the monument external to the us, but from experiences intimate and personal to us. “A sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations the term nostalgia is derived from a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning “homecoming”, a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning “pain” or “ache”, and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Nostalgia plays into our imagination of history in ways both conscious and unconscious and influences our perception of beauty in extraordinary ways..
Places and structures are after all not just physical entities, but carry great social ,political, historic and emotional meaning, which we ascribe to them. Human civilization on the whole is sustained on a collection of myths, eulogies, stories, histories and motifs which give meaning and legitimacy to daily functioning. Nostalgia, then a manifestation of this human desire for finding meaning by finding security in places reminiscent of an earlier era or for that matter reminiscent of a period or episode in a persons life. Sometimes the two go together. A “Souk” (Street Market) in Cairo or Istanbul reminds citizens of the endurance of local heritage and of a time of great trade and prosperity. Palaces and Villas remind people of a an era of splendour and of the dignity lent to society, through exquisite architecture. A pristine mountain village in a corner of the world, may remind a tourist of his lost boyhood or the pain of separation from a home which happens to be vaguely similar to the one he is visiting. Nostalgia binds the personal, aesthetic and historic in ways, that sway the mind. My own experience in the sweltering town of Mendoza in the Semi-Arid Andean region of Argentina, reminded me of my hot and endless afternoons of my childhood hometown Chennai in Southern India.
And that brings me to my experience of working in the field of Heritage preservation with the Indian local government. A land with a rich and timeless history dating back several millennia, my job is based out Hyderabad, a unique historic city in its own right with an eclectic Indo-Islamic Heritage. As we wind through the narrow streets in the Old Town, trying to double our efforts at preserving historic precincts and neighbourhoods, a fascinating observation comes to mind; all the historic mansions, mosques, temples and squares are in fact tied to fabric of the communities that inhabit it. Ancestral properties, inhabited by families whose lineages date back generation to the time of the local erstwhile Royalty (Nizams as they were), Jewellery Makers who catered to young women, the newly married and to the royalty, Ancient Markets housing food and groceries dating back generations. Most of these areas (particularly historic mansions), were in tatters, warranting desperate restoration. Working in generally disorganized and informal environments such as the Old Town region has made us realize that no attempt at historic and cultural heritage restoration can ever be successful, unless it is inclusive of the socio-cultural fabric that underpins it as well as their economic needs. Communities have an umbilical connection to the regions they inhabit, a connection that transcends time. Narrative Psychology, often emphasizes how individuals often have an “Ontological Narrative” on their social and cultural genesis, their perception of in a society or community and their formulation of identities. This in turn shapes their relationship to the place they inhabit. Hence in destroying material heritage, we are in fact, effectively destroying people’s relationship to a place. Any attempt therefore at preserving material historic heritage therefore should be coupled with an equally vigorous thrust towards preserving the intangible heritage that is associated with. Community involvement is a must.
From the point of view of Tourism, this makes perfect sense. People’s sense of nostalgia is animated, when they don’t just see physical heritage but see the intangible heritage that it is associated with; the , smells, vendors, artisans, families, wares and so on. They then see historic sites as not just a collection of antique buildings but as a lively place of engrossing authenticity, rooted in living and breathing history. The imagination of history then, very often interacts with a recollection of the personal leading to an almost profound connection to a place.
Times of political and moral strife, often demand a time for introspection. Interestingly, these are times, when the power of nostalgia is often used to further a political and demagogic agenda. However, it is also precisely in circumstances like this that the nostalgic power of historic and cultural heritage should actually be used to unite communities, than divide them or rile them. Like previously said “Ontological Security”, or a sense of order and continuity in one’s life and personal experiences derived through the reduction of anxiety and uncertainty in one’s life. At a time when people’s lives are uncertain they long for some kind of stability or endurance. The timelessness of historic and cultural heritage and it endurance throughout the generations shaping the communities, that so rely on it may perhaps be the anchor, that binds people. Afterall, does not heritage much like universal human values like courage, endurance, altruism and compassion stand the test of time?