Implementation Action Team: Cultural Heritage Promoting Quality of Life and Sustainable Development in the At-Risk Megacity Periphery of Kolkata

实施行动小组：文化遗产促进加尔各答高危特大城市周边地区的生活质量和可持续发展

• 批准号: AH/T007958/1
• 负责人: Ian Magedera
• 金额: $ 10.24万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT007958%2F1
• 关键词: Implementation; Action; Team; Cultural; Heritage

The areas targeted by the Implementation Action Team (IAT) are cities on the banks of Hugli River in West Bengal, India. The origins of the unique value of much of their built heritage can be traced back to European trading and fortification (the French in Chandannagar from the 1670s, the Danes urbanizing Serampore from the 1750s and Barrackpore being developed by the British in the 1770s). During the nineteenth century, Indian merchants and traders who enriched themselves supplying the Europeans had grand residences built in a highly original hybrid style: their Palladian facades mirrored the public buildings built by the Europeans, but their cloistered inner courtyards were geared to the climate, multiple family occupancy and to Hindu devotional practice. The importance of this wealth of built heritage and the hybrid cultural heritage that has sprung from it in terms of food cultures, musical traditions, language variation etc, led the UK historian of heritage conservation Philip Davies to comment in 2015 that the Hugli 'is not just an Indian river but belongs to the world'. The state of West Bengal lies below the median in terms of many of the standard development markers when compared against other Indian states and the state of the heritage and tourism sectors reflect this. For example, the first hotel for overseas visitors opened in Serampore only in 2018. The economic liberalization of India starting in 1991, however, has led to the Hugli Corridor being subjected to overwhelming and accelerating urbanization increasing the population density, but this wave of so-called development has put domestic built heritage at extreme risk. The developers' imperative is that its riverine environment and excellent commuter rail links make the Hugli Corridor the ideal suburban dormitory pendant to the megacity of Kolkata (population 14.03M in the 2011 census). The Hugli Corridor's Unique Selling Point, therefore, also places it at the highest risk. In the absence of any enforceable planning law and building control, hundreds of heritage properties have been demolished and replaced by three-storey, identikit, concrete flats. IAT's partners, the West Bengal Heritage Commission and the Serampore Initiative have both done important work, listing and renovating seven public buildings, but the IAT's blended mix of wealth-creation, renovation, education, well-being and documentary film pathways will show the West Bengal state government a diverse toolkit of ways to invest resources to preserve and develop the region's cultural and built heritage before it is too late. Crucially, the IAT will do this through the people and organisations that its predecessor project, the Hugli River of Cultures Project (HRCP), won and up-skilled for the cause of heritage. The predecessor AHRC-ICHR funded Hugli River of Cultures Project documented heritage assets and sensitized large numbers of people into how the river connects them, but the IAT's pathway activities will make selected key individuals even more active throughout 2020. Those individuals will no longer be only witnesses and co-creators of heritage knowledge, they will move up to the next level and apply the IAT's tools to built and cultural heritage and used both to create wealth and well-being for themselves in a sustainable manner. When in ends in January 2021, the Implementation Action Team (IAT) will show the new agency that West Bengalis from diverse socio-economic groups can have in creating bottom-up heritage infrastructure in their state (pop 98.8M, 2018), thus marking a radical and much-needed change of course from the overwhelming top-down, culturally elitist and (rather unfortunate) superficial efforts that have characterized official interventions to date (not WBHC). It is only with active intervention and skilled local people that effective action can be taken to address the present heritage emergency caused by urban sprawl and to prepare this low-lying region for climate change

执行行动小组的目标地区是印度西孟加拉胡格利河沿岸的城市。他们的许多建筑遗产的独特价值的起源可以追溯到欧洲的贸易和防御（法国人从17世纪70年代开始在卡纳加，丹麦人从18世纪50年代开始城市化Serampore，英国人在18世纪70年代开发Barrackpore）。在世纪，为欧洲人供货而致富的印度商人和贸易商拥有以高度原创的混合风格建造的宏伟住宅：他们的帕拉第奥立面反映了欧洲人建造的公共建筑，但他们的封闭式内庭院适合气候，多个家庭居住和印度教的虔诚实践。这一丰富的建筑遗产和混合文化遗产的重要性，在饮食文化，音乐传统，语言变异等方面，导致英国遗产保护历史学家菲利普戴维斯在2015年评论说，Hugli“不仅仅是一条印度河，而是属于世界的”。与印度其他邦相比，西孟加拉在许多标准发展指标方面低于中位数，遗产和旅游部门的状况反映了这一点。例如，第一家面向海外游客的酒店于2018年才在Serampore开业。然而，1991年开始的印度经济自由化导致Hugli走廊受到压倒性的城市化和加速城市化的影响，增加了人口密度，但这一所谓的发展浪潮使国内建筑遗产处于极端危险之中。开发商的当务之急是，它的河流环境和良好的通勤铁路连接使Hugli走廊成为大城市加尔各答（2011年人口普查为1403万）理想的郊区宿舍。因此，Hugli走廊的独特卖点也将其置于最高风险之中。在没有任何可执行的规划法和建筑控制的情况下，数以百计的遗产被拆除，取而代之的是三层楼高的混凝土公寓。IAT的合作伙伴，西孟加拉遗产委员会和Serampore倡议都做了重要的工作，列出并翻新了七座公共建筑，但IAT的混合财富创造，翻新，教育，福祉和纪录片途径将向西孟加拉政府展示一个多样化的工具包，在为时已晚之前投入资源保护和发展该地区的文化和建筑遗产。至关重要的是，IAT将通过其前身项目Hugli River of Cultures Project（HRCP）赢得的人员和组织来实现这一目标，并为遗产事业提高技能。前身AHRC-ICHR资助的Hugli River of Cultures项目记录了遗产资产，并使大量人对河流如何连接他们保持敏感，但IAT的途径活动将使选定的关键个人在2020年更加活跃。这些人将不再仅仅是遗产知识的见证者和共同创造者，他们将更上一层楼，将IAT的工具应用于建筑和文化遗产，并以可持续的方式为自己创造财富和福祉。当2021年1月结束时，实施行动小组（IAT）将向新机构展示，来自不同社会经济群体的西孟加拉邦人可以在他们的州创建自下而上的遗产基础设施（流行98.8M，2018年），从而标志着一个激进的和急需的变化，从压倒性的自上而下，文化精英主义和（相当不幸的）肤浅的努力，这是迄今为止官方干预的特点（不是WBHC）。只有通过积极的干预和熟练的当地人，才能采取有效的行动来解决目前由城市扩张造成的遗产紧急情况，并为这个低洼地区应对气候变化做好准备