Indian World Heritage Sites In Context

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This book on World Heritage sites in India has two objectives: one, to highlight the archaeological context and cultural landscapes relating to monuments inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list; and second, to draw attention to urban pressures that impact the conservation and preservation of many of these sites and the need for comprehensive management strategies to ensure their continued survival. While six are natural properties, the Archaeological Survey of India has twenty of the twenty-four World Heritage cultural sites in India under its administrative control. These may be categorized into: caves, churches and convents, forts, monastic complexes, mosques, palaces, rock-shelters, temples, and tombs. This list, by and large, focuses on either single monument or groups of monuments, bereft of cultural moorings. It is important that archaeological and historical inputs regarding the wider cultural milieu of World Heritage sites be introduced through site management plans, interpretation centres and heritage bye-laws to aid in holistic appreciation of the ?monument? or ?group of monuments?. Clearly, there is an urgent need for change in our understanding and appreciation of not only World Heritage sites, but also policies to ensure their preservation. It is this need for change that the papers by archaeologists, historians and heritage specialists in this edited book articulate and discuss.\n\n

Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray is Chairperson of National Monuments Authority, New Delhi, and former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Among her recent publications are two edited volumes, Archaeology and Text: The Temple in South Asia (2010) and Sanghol and the Archaeology of Punjab (2010); a co-edited volume, Reimagining A?oka: Memory and History (2012); and two authored volumes, Colonial Archaeology in South Asia (1944?1948): The Legacy of Sir Mortimer Wheeler in India (2007) and Monuments in India (2007). Her latest book is titled The Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for a New Nation, Routledge, New Delhi, 2013. This book maps the role of archaeological discoveries in shaping the public and academic discourse on India?s Buddhist past in the colonial period that eventually led to the acceptance of Buddhist symbols by independent India. Dr. Manoj Kumar, an archaeologist, is working in the National Monuments Authority as Consultant. He has co-authored the volume, Kos Minar in History and Architecture (2013, NMA & Aryan) and authored a book titled Neolithic and Tribal Cultures of Himalayan Region: An Ethno-archaeological Approach (2010).

Himanshu Prabha Ray & Manoj Kumar (Ed.)

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