Jaipur's Intangible Heritage - Will it survive?

Will Jaipur’s Intangible Heritage Survive? by Ajay Singha - Raconteur Indica 
Jaipur was selected as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in mid 2019 and shortly thereafter the Chief Minister of Rajasthan announced plans for developing a heritage walk zone in the walled city. A plethora of photographs were unleashed comparing buildings before and after restoration and extolling the work done by successive governments. The work done over the years, however, retains focus on the built heritage and architecture of the city. This tangible heritage is just the tip of the iceberg and gets easily covered in media lending undue weight to obvious and apparent aspects while neglecting the intangible heritage of Jaipur. The unique and mostly intangible heritage of Jaipur is inextricably interwoven with the tangible and apparent aspects of the city’s social fabric.

Skills, knowledge and practices have passed from generation to generation and reflect the collective cultural and living heritage of Jaipur. Living this heritage brings forth a special sense of identity among the citizens and distinguishes it from other cities. A unique image of the town’s composite heritage and persona is projected to the rest of India and the outside world. Traditional Culture, clothing, food dishes, rituals, and mannerisms are the main stay of the city’s intangible heritage. The whole range of performing, visual and other art forms account for what can be captured by the lens and projected through media. Some aspects of this heritage have taken a more tangible form and therefore stand a higher chance of survival because of the apparent visibility.

Fortunately the city’s heritage has several capable keepers including non-governmental organisations like the Jaipur Virasat foundation, INTACH and others. In a large and diversely composed nation like India organisations have limited outreach for impacting social change. Both collectively and individually the people of Jaipur must actively live the heritage to ensure its continuity and preservation. In the background of continued development of Jaipur as a Smart and modern city there is a danger that the tide of social and cultural transformation could drown the city’s unique living heritage.

Fortunately the traditional manufacturing processes and professions of Jaipur adapted well to the socio-economic progress in the last few decades and became the main stay of the region’s economic growth. Hand block printing, pottery, jewellery, paper, handicrafts etc have done well commercially. The original processes and techniques may have given way to modern and often machine dependant technologies. These intangible original processes and methods of manufacturing continue to fade and need far greater understanding by the people if they are to survive. Local dialects, the art of storytelling like “Phad banchna” and other oral traditions are under tremendous pressure to survive. They have no economic model which makes their survival commercially unviable and consequently attract very few sponsors.

Observing seasonal and religious festivals has received positive support from the tourism sector and needs careful monitoring to prevent inadvertent metamorphosis into crass commercialisation. Teej, Gangaur and Diwali festivals and related processions are here to stay. The elephant processions, band marches, folk dance and music events must involve students, public and visiting tourists. This participatory model has done wonders for the success of Literature and music festivals which go much beyond the heritage of Jaipur.  Government policy must dictate that heritage events must be announced a year in advance and never ad-hoc so that both Indian and foreign tourists include them in their travel plans.

Ancient and traditional sports, games and hobbies receive sporadic support from private groups which makes their survival non-sustainable. These events have never been main streamed by the authorities and have limited appeal beyond the sphere of the city’s cultural heritage. Kite flying, pigeon flying and hawking (recognised by UNESCO) etc. have wildlife and environmental concerns and are heading towards imminent oblivion. Traditionally they were dependant on local benefactors because of the strong participatory element involving the local population.  More acceptable games like chaupar, satoliya, gilli-danda, kancha, rassa-kheench etc are unlikely to survive this decade as benefactors and sponsors compare their popularity and outreach to contemporary options. One way of popularising these would be to encourage sponsorship from government contractors and suppliers by offering them monetary concessions and tax relief.    

Unique heritage walks and exclusive no-vehicle zones are great initiatives of the government but await local public acceptance and political approval. World over such heritage zones are great crowd pullers and become economic engines creating employment for the locals and revenue for the administration. Intangible heritage of Jaipur must be actively exposed in these zones and economically viable models devised for display of short performances, jugglers and entertainers. This is essential if the intangible heritage of Jaipur is to remain sustainable and economically viable for all parties. To gain public support and perception in support of no vehicle zones and heritage walks the economic advantages for locals must be spelt out upfront.

Over the years various aspects of the city’s heritage have been identified, documented and researched. The present academic and research based model must be replaced by corporate and commercial thought processes. Contemporary market and advertising strategies must be introduced by replacing the decision makers. This approach will allow controlled commercialisation for various aspects of intangible heritage. What is not tangible must be encouraged to flourish through economically viable models developed by imaginative and out of the box thinking. In today’s commercial environment the intangible heritage of Jaipur must be made strong enough to survive without the tax payer’s financial support.

Kite flying is an intangible heritage which has survived. It needs greater acceptability by the educated middle class which tends to disrespect hobbies unconnected to IT.