When Priya Chetty Rajagopal is not looking for CXO level executives, she is passionately searching for ways to preserve Bengaluru’s legacy. A true believer in “together we can” approach, Priya says everyone in the city can play an important role in knowing, loving and saving our heritage.
Interview by Arvind Krishnaswamy
Heritage Beku started about 7 or 8 years ago. There were two incidents that triggered this initiative. The first was the #SteelFlyOverBeda campaign in October 2016 with our city under siege. The second trigger was on Nov 22, 2017, when Krumbiegel Hall was brought down by the Department of Horticulture. It was a dilapidated structure but a true symbol of Lalbagh even in that state. We wanted this to be a citizen’s initiative and nothing else. We came up with a “Kanglish” (Kannada and English combined) name that may seem odd to some but got quickly absorbed and was powerful in its simplicity.
The Steel Flyover campaign was a turning point in caring for the city, in rallying citizens towards saving what they so fiercely loved, and the success of it made us believe that by citizen’s participation things can be changed. It was at that point we realised that Bengaluru is not just a place where we live, but a living place that we need to protect. Remember the Metro on MG Road? Each pillar on the road pierces one’s heart. No one was there to fight for it and today one of the most important, and historically focal parts of the city has been visually destroyed.
The love we have for our city and the pain at its destruction is palpable, but we have shifted the needle from being victims to protectors, from helplessness to engagement/empowerment. And that alone is a significant shift. A citizen initiative, given its agility and diversity, as against a restrictive or formal authority can do wonders in the public private space provided, we focus on collaboration, network and empowerment.
Our work can be broadly categorised into three areas – policy intervention, public consultation and campaigns. We are going to lose a lot of things in the city not because there are villains but because sometimes there’s just a lack of knowledge. We may not have cared enough before but now we do. We did not know how to stand up and fight but now we are more organised and also know the laws that can help us. Empowerment and knowledge have been the key factors in this transition.
We came together to look at what needs to be done at a strategic level from the city’s perspective. For example, let’s take the Bangalore Revised Master Plan (RMP 2031). We got together an incredible mix of eminent architects, urban planners, historians and city aficionados who cared for the city . RMP 2031 was discussed, desired heritage outcomes and the implementation plan needed and we spent hundreds of man hours to brainstorm, strategise, collect our input for the plan.
It was good to note that in RMP 2031, there were 18 pages on heritage whereas the earlier one had just one page. This was a good sign for the city and progress from the past. Unfortunately, this did not take off, and today Bengaluru is probably the only city in the country without a master planning document.
Richard Louv, noted American author passionate about our connection with nature, once said, “We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense.” Similarly, we want people to know about the heritage, get them to love and them perhaps to save. Heritage Beku suggested we follow the constitutional ward structure , decentralise and drive heritage via a innovative ‘ward level heritage manifesto’. For this, the best place to start is at the city ward level. The local corporators should drive this in each ward.
For example in Ward 93 which is Vasant Nagar, we had started some good heritage initiatives. The Palace Trail was an interesting experience because we were working with authorities and they were willing to do something. We worked with various stakeholders like the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), Janagraha and Smart City. We suggested adding cycle paths, signages. We tried to get BBMP to layer heritage as one more component in ward committee meetings. Ward committee is where one can take ownership whether it is heritage or just a pothole. Ward level engagement is very important because you need multiple warriors in this effort. Similarly, this can be done in other areas like Jayamahal, Frazer Town or Basavanagudi. Now, without BBMP elections for many years, these have ceased. The longer the ward committees are kept in abeyance, the lesser the control that citizens have.
We also pushed the Department of Town and Country Planning to make the necessary changes to protect heritage under the act, and to revive the heritage committee. The policy stated that heritage came under Bangalore Urban Arts Commission (BUAC) which has been defunct for 20 years. If revived, it can still guide us, or we use the BBMP Heritage provisions for the city. .
There was an inadvertent side effect of the list of heritage properties in the RMP. People thought there would be a restriction on their heritage properties so some of them rushed to sell it. Many wonderful houses and buildings were demolished in Frazer Town, St Marks Rd, Basavanagudi and other locations once the properties were listed. There are many strategic interventions that we have suggested, to ensure preservation , and one has been the rollback of the proposed BBMP property tax on capital value, although our goal is total tax waiver for heritage structures . Now, if property tax is assessed on the guidance value and not the built up area, the jump and exorbitant taxes could tragically result in more than half the privately heritage buildings owners being pushed to sell and demolish. Old heritage buildings may not be large in area, but the plot sizes can be very large, so this must be stopped.
We initiated the first public consultation on trees especially when it came to Namma Metro expansion. The Metro may be solving a public transport problem but it has a voracious appetite like Pac Man for eating up trees as it expands its footprint. When it was being built on Bannerghatta Road, a lot of trees were marked for cutting. Then it was changed to underground but the irony of it was that they wanted to still cut the trees because they had issued a tender earlier. If one party has assumed unlimited authority over the other, where is the scope for discussion or consultation?
I also fail to understand why should the permission for tree cutting be online when everything else needs to be submitted on paper and in person at an office? Do we want to actually expedite and enable tree destruction? When permission is granted, it should be written in both English and Kannada because our city is cosmopolitan, and everyone may not be able to read Kannada. There have been instances where trees have been totally cut when the permission was only for trimming.
The parishioners of All Saints Church were desperate to save the place. When I went to see the church after it was saved, I wept. It is a sacred place, not just because it is a heritage church, or a place of worship, but because it is also so achingly beautiful. The issue is that there is little or no public discussion when the Metro expansion is planned. Namma Metro is probably the only one in the world where the stations are so huge. It was humbling to see so many people step up for All Saints. Many groups like ESG (Environment Support Group), INTACH, Heritage Beku and others all joined in this effort.
The Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976 was amended to make public consultation mandatory to cut more than 50 trees. There were exceptions for farm land and for some species. Someone proposed another amendment to add more species to this list. There was a small, inconspicuous notification and most people did not pay attention to it. In an informal chat Ecologist Harini Nagendra told me that those five species happened to be 85% of the total trees in Bengaluru. By this legislation, and of the parastatals could cut any of these trees without formal permission or public consultation. We started our campaign Kill Bill , (a play on the very violent Uma Thurman movie title! ) to stop this amendment with an online petition. We got over 56,000 signatures for that. We started the very visual Grey for Green campaign where people took black & white pics of themselves hugging trees. We had Storm the Soudha, where volunteers in Vidhana Soudha wearing green shirts attended sessions to make sure the amendment was not passed surreptitiously. Finally, the amendment was withdrawn. And potentially, lakhs of trees saved.
Imagine the disaster if Gulmohar, Purple Bauhinia, curry leaf, drumstick and tabebuia and many others had been exempted. The beauty is that Bengaluru has truly rallied around its greenery. Do you know you cannot cut a tree in your home because trees are collective property, and anyone can object? That is the law but how many people are aware of it?
Its never ending. We have been involved in campaigns like Cubbon Park Ulisi. We came up with a weighing scale visual where one pan had a single flower with a caption “The Weight of Public Opinion”. It was a very powerful visual that transformed the campaign. Many people and even children joined the campaign, and a few Parikrma students even composed a rap song in Kannada for this campaign.
We have also been fighting for a traffic free Cubbon Park but that is one battle we may have lost -for the moment. We still have 10 pm – 8 am and the weekends. Harish Bijoor came up with the #PradakshineyHaaki hashtag which urges everyone to go around the park with respect for this temple of nature. It was during COVID that Cubbon Park learned to breathe. It showed us what Cubbon Park can be without traffic, and it was magical to see the ecosystem bloom. We had a six-month-old child Kian file a PIL stating it is my right to grow up with a park without pollution. We had environmentalists, the Right to Breathe group from Delhi come and support our #TrafficFreeCubbonPark. Even the horticulture department and some ministers supported us. We worked with multiple agencies like IISc, DULT, Pollution Board, and city planners to create a detailed plan where the government offices and other venues in Cubbon Park could be accessed by alternate routes. This fight for Cubbon Commons has been ongoing for ages. If we did not have people like Bimal Desai and many others who single handedly fought for the park in the 80s, I am sure we would have had a mall built there by now. Now we have traffic-free Cubbon Park at least on the weekends but even that is under threat. We conducted a professional traffic study which showed that one could save only between 0 to 8 minutes if you cut through the park. Is the park not worth it? Have you ever driven your car through Lalbagh – you cant! If not, why cannot we treat Cubbon Park in the same way?
On the positive side, we led the initiative to bring back music to the park. The hallowed tradition of music at the Bandstand every Sunday was revived after a decade on December 8, 2024 with a Carnatic music recital by the Saralaya sisters and Veena maestro D Balakrishna. Major General V T Mathew, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Karnataka kindly agreed to restart the military band performance at the Bandstand with its first Republic Day (and for Kargil Diwas, Independence Day etc) . We also hope to bring back the magnificent, mounted police on weekends. The public has been very receptive to our #HeritageRevival Series.
We have many ideas and campaigns brewing. We had about 11 events at the recent BLRHubba like on the toy train, the Taj West End walk, and the postal museum (Sandesh). This is our way of bringing fun back into heritage.
We have a MoU with the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) for creating cycling paths and spaces for people to enjoy. We have one with the Department of Tourism and this is important because heritage now comes under this department. We are about to sign one with the Dept of Archaeology, Heritage & Museums. We also coordinate with Association of Designers India, NGMA, Bal Bhavan, Mount Carmel College and Parikrama. These MOUs create synergy because we are trying to help each other.
For example, when the Queen Victoria crown fell, we were able to quickly talk to the Department of Horticulture and work out a plan to restore it. When these incidents happen, there can be a lot of negative thinking about removing these monuments. We should not do things like enclosing it in a cage or glass case. Instead, we can do three simple things – first maintain it better, install a security camera at the three monuments in Cubbon Park and have a periodic cleaning of the monuments which will alert you to any problems.
Heritage Beku is one initiative amongst many others. Heritage Beku may have created a huge impact in Bangalore, but it is still work in progress and I would love some help! We need eyes and ears everywhere, so that we are not doing this alone. We have ideas and plans and campaigns, and we need to build and scale. We do a lot of things, but the focus always comes back to three things:
Knowing, Loving, Saving.
Image Credits:
- All Saints Church Rajeev Rajagopalan
- Krumbiegel Hall P L Tandon
- Cantonment Railway Station P L Tandon
- Cubbon Park protest Heritage Beku
