Con­ser­va­tion of art, ar­chi­tec­ture, ar­chae­ol­ogy, his­tor­i­cal archives, her­itage and legacy runs through his veins. There are very few such souls in Pun­jab and In­dia. He has been squirm­ing on his bed for the last three days read­ing news, view­ing videos of the de­struc­tion of her­itage in the fore­ground of Har­man­dar Sahib -Am­rit­sar -the House of Guru Ram Das, de­voutly revered by Sikhs from through­out the world. He is Dr Balvin­der Singh -for­mer head of Guru Ram­das School of Plan­ning at Guru Nanak Dev Uni­ver­sity, Am­rit­sar. Her­itage au­thor and ac­tivist Dr Balvin­der Singh shares his in­ner thoughts early this morn­ing to­day on the thresh­old of Dar­bar Sahib, Am­rit­sar, in this photo-es­say with read­ers of The World Sikh News.

In the am­brosial hours of the morn­ing to­day, Guru Ram Das beck­oned me to visit Har­man­dar Sahib. I brushed aside the thought of why I had waited for the last 72 hours to go there. Un­doubt­edly, I was dis­traught, a lit­tle an­gry and a lit­tle hope­ful at the dis­cov­ery of a mar­vel­lous her­itage build­ing buried be­neath the fore­ground of Dar­bar Sahib, a por­tion of which I had seen way back in 1997.

I stood there mo­tion­less at the Shoe Place -Jodha Ghar, out­side the Har­man­dar Sahib, won­der­ing what has hap­pened, why it has hap­pened and who is re­spon­si­ble. What caused this and how has it reached such a pass?  I pon­dered over the im­ages emerg­ing from the tun­nel-like struc­ture, think­ing -what is this? Is there light at the end of the tun­nel or is this some­thing else?

What is the cause of this? What is the cause of all these de­mo­li­tions and rushed con­struc­tion ac­tiv­ity?  Such and more ques­tions floated in my mind. 

Is it the fault only of those who are in­volved in the de­mo­li­tion and the con­struc­tion? Per­haps not. Like many of us Sikhs, they too are un­mind­ful of the im­por­tance and sig­nif­i­cance of the value of this trea­sure of her­itage.

Yet, some­body is re­spon­si­ble. Some­one has not done the home­work. We, as a peo­ple have not in­cul­cated the sig­nif­i­cance and im­por­tance of old build­ings, his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ments, old books, news­pa­pers and hand­writ­ten ma­te­r­ial of Gu­rus, writ­ers and his­to­ri­ans. 

While I clicked pic­tures of the af­ter­math of the de­mo­li­tion, I was deeply re­lieved that the SGPC has stopped the con­struc­tion as of now. 

Cog­i­tat­ing over through all these thoughts, ac­com­pa­nied by my wife, I en­tered the precincts of Dar­bar Sahib and prayed to Akalpu­rakh Almighty and Guru Sahib to grant us the wis­dom, spirit and strength to pro­tect our her­itage and cul­ture. 

Let the SGPC and all oth­ers to whom con­ser­va­tion is dear, be­gin with an em­pir­i­cal study and analy­sis of our her­itage sites, mon­u­ments and lit­er­a­ture. It is time to gen­er­ate aware­ness about our pres­ti­gious mem­oirs de­pict­ing tan­gi­ble and in­tan­gi­ble her­itage. Con­struc­tion can then fol­low.  I will be happy to as­so­ci­ate and sup­port any such en­deav­our to the best of my ca­pac­ity, ca­pa­bil­ity and ex­pe­ri­ence. 

 Read Also: Stop ex­ca­va­tion around Dar­bar Sahib, con­serve her­itage, ex­horts Pan­jab Dig­i­tal Li­brary

What has been lost, can­not come back. What re­mains, can be and should be saved, pro­tected and pre­served for pos­ter­ity. 

Dr Balvin­der Singh re­tired from the Guru Ram­das School of Plan­ning, Guru Nanak Dev Uni­ver­sity, Am­rit­sar. Much-trav­elled au­thor-ac­tivist Balvin­der Singh is flow­ing with ideas of sav­ing Sikh arts and arte­facts. He has writ­ten many ar­ti­cles on the sub­ject of con­ser­va­tion of her­itage and legacy in In­dian and for­eign jour­nals. His re­cent pub­li­ca­tion is “Splen­did Art­works in His­toric Sikh Shrines of In­dia and Pak­istan: Con­ser­va­tion Per­spec­tive.”