Heritage is an overrated concept |
We should stop worrying about how the past is constantly being erased and start focusing on new roads or bridges instead
Restoration work going on the iconic Banganga Tank in June this year. PIC/ASHISH RAJE
A little over a decade ago, when the offices of this newspaper were located at Parel, I recall an old stone monument of some importance to the city’s historians being demolished a street away. It happened during one of those regular repaving exercises that every road in Bombay is subject to, and there was anger in some circles because contractors had allegedly been warned about the importance of that structure. I remember walking past it the day after it had been pulled out of where it had stood for 100 years and discarded to the side of the road.
No one knows what happened to that edifice, and it’s safe to assume no contractor paid a penalty for the act of destruction, but I was reminded of the incident a few weeks ago after a plaque on the Elphinstone bridge was reportedly damaged during some routine demolition work. Apparently, it dated to 1913 and was one of the few surviving artefacts linking Bombay to its early 20th-century railway heritage.
I can’t say I was surprised when I........