Restoring our history

My parents claim that we are ‘Mughals’. I take their word for it because I do not know how to verify this claim, or what it means to be a Mughal. Does it make me the descendent of a great emperor, a fallen warrior king or just someone down the line of illegitimate offspring that those monarchs had from the many concubines in their harems?

To be honest, I don’t even believe that Mughal ancestry could have helped me much in the early 21st century. So, when I heard that the Sheikhupura Fort, built by the Mughal king Jahangir — that’s Sheikhu from Mughal-e-Azam for those who are only familiar with history through the movies — in the 17th century, was going to be restored with a financial grant, it did not affect me much.

The fort is a crumbling structure, much like most things in this country. It is old and historic and neglected. There are buildings inside the fort which are so unstable that they have been closed to the public. And that’s more or less the state of most historic places in Pakistan, especially in Punjab: from Sirkap in Taxila, to Nur Jahan’s tomb in Lahore. Elsewhere, the Moenjodaro ruins were reportedly affected during the recent rains. The native town of the monk who introduced Buddhism to South Korea lies unmarked in Swabi, a decade after it was discovered.

Lack of funds given for preservation and the limited capacity of archaeological departments, both of which contribute to such neglect, are the conditions that will probably not go away anytime soon.

It is sadly ironic, on a purely romantic level and excluding the external factors which helped the fall, that after 4,000 years of history, the cities of the Indus Valley civilisation, with their planned layouts and their groundbreaking advanced sewerage systems, have given way to filthy, chaotic cities.

I believe the argument for restoration and preservation for historic buildings is emotional: by protecting these structures, we try to protect our cultural heritage, perhaps maintain some sort of identity and pay respect to the past generations.

But maybe there is an economic angle here, too. One that involves tourism and some incentive for conservation of the historic monuments because the Sheikhupura Fort and other such buildings might be preserved with fancy new grants but if the preservation is not made sustainable, we might be staring at the same crumbling situation a few years from now.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2013.