Of status of Kasturchand Park
| Date :31-Oct-2019 |
Vijay Phanshikar :
The news that a few cannons were unearthed a few days ago from the Kasturchand Park while a walking track was being laid around the huge ground, confirmed the historicity and heritage status of the place. Otherwise, too, Kasturchand Park enjoys a Grade I Heritage Status, which protects it from any sort of invasion. Prime Ministers, prime ministerial candidates, Chief Ministers, national leaders with international stature, artists, singers, motivational speakers have addressed gatherings of lakhs of people at Kasturchand Park. Much earlier, the ground also witnessed how the British came to establish their power in Central India. And now have emerged from the ground four cannons that got somehow buried there may be more than a hundred years ago.
This find has added an additional glamour to the historic ground. A question, however, needs to be asked whether the city of Nagpur has ever made efforts to retain the actual and historically high status of Kasturchand Park. On countless occasions, ‘The Hitavada’ has made bare the utter neglect of the iconic ground that has seen India’s contemporary history taking shape, at the hands of the authorities. Glory be to them, but ‘The Hitavada’ has found that despite its Heritage Status, the authorities have not cared much about protecting the ground from abuse and preserve Kasturchand Park in the best possible form because of its high historic value.
Comments in columns, news reports, features, pictures laying bare the neglect have fallen on deaf ears as far as Kasturchand Park is concerned. It is not possible to state authoritatively whether the present mess the ground is witnessing for the past some months has any legal sanction or justification. For, there would always be more than one theory about how to handle Grade I Heritage Status places. Interpretations may differ and things could be defined in unimaginable and unimaginative manner. At this stage, I feel it is my duty to raise the issue if we, as a society, are really handling Kasturchand Park in the best possible manner, in consonance with the rules and regulations governing the treatment of places of historic importance. A little over a year ago, a group sat down to take a look at various plans of “developing” Kasturchand Park into a modern urban attraction.
Those plans had come from various architecture colleges in the city. Perhaps, the current works going on at Kasturchand Park are an extension of that event. If so many people have ideated on a project, it must be having something worthwhile. But at that meeting, the issue of the Heritage Status of Kasturchand Park, too, had been raised with insistence that such places cannot be toyed with. There is a need to revisit all those nuances so as to confirm whether we whatever we are doing at Kasturchand Park is in tune with the rules and regulations of the heritage law. The concern is far more deep-seated than just Heritage Status. The concern is about our attitude to places of historic importance: How do we look at such places and monuments? How much respect do we have for these spots of honour and history? It is out of such concerns that we must confirm whether whatever we are doing at Kasturchand Park is in tune with what is permissible from multiple angles. For, Kasturchand Park is not ‘any’ ground. Its name is Kasturchand Park! n