Our heritage.

We celebrated our 60th Independence day a week a ago, on this eve there were many features by channels across the board. Especially the news channels, the one that caught my attention was a feature on the places of historic importance with regards to the struggle for Independence rusting to dust every day on one of the English news channels. Its a fact that in India we really don't take good care of our heritage, be it the centuries old temples or mosques or places of historic importance.

One such place of historic importance highlighted was the small town of chauri chaura in Gorakhpur district of U.P. For a matter of fact how many people actually remember the name of the place let alone what happened out there. We sure due have a memorial built there in the name of those who died fighting for the freedom of the nation but how many people actually take care to visit such places is the question that bugs me.

We sure do take care of the places if there is a big inherent gain to attain from it. Take the case of Babri masjid that was destroyed by Sangh Parivar and its ofshoots, the Muslims started fighting for the place only after the parivar people laid their claim on it to convert it into a temple otherwise it was dying its own death due to neglect and I am not ever sure even if some prayers were carried out in it till the controversy arose.

This trend is too getting deeply rooted in our society, there is a viral campaign by some malicious souls which are spreading forward mails and SMS' claiming that there are certain findings which prove that the Taj Mahal wasn't actually built by Shah Jahan but by some Hindu king many centuries back, probably during Ram rajya. I don't understand how does it matter whether the Taj was built by Shah Jahan or by some other King, people don't visit the Taj because it was built by Shah Jahan, they visit it because it is Taj Mahal.

A few months back Indian Express had started a campaign to save our heritage structures where they highlighted the importance and the current condition of a few structures every week. They probably would have thought they would be able to bring about some awareness among the people, but the way the campaign died down it doesn't seem it clicked, after all who cares about what's gone there's some much to do ahead. But the fact is that the people who cannot take care of their own heritage can't build a solid foundation for their own future.