Urbanisation or preserving heritage? ICHR to recommend policy changes

How should cities like Varanasi and Warangal preserve their heritage legacy while facing challenges of rapid urbanisation? How are London and Mumbai different from each other in choosing between the two tasks?
These questions will be taken up by academicians and heritage experts from India and UK during a two-day workshop being organised by the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR), following which recommendations will be made to the Central government about required policy changes.
"The threat of urban change erasing the history of places and how it can be preserved? How do changing historical geographies and patterns of land ownership affect understandings of heritage. Unpacking complex layers of history within an urban environment over time is a challenging task," ICHR Chairman Y Sudershan Rao said at a press conference.

"The workshop will be conducted to examine how modern cities have developed over time and responded to pressures of striking a balance between the urbanisation and heritage and suggest future strategies for heritage protection," he added.
The workshop being conducted in collaboration with the Art and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will feature experts from both the countries to explore history of urbanisation through different periods, the social, economic and technological advances that have influenced the urbanisation process and the historical development of cities in context of contemporary urban pressures.
The cities whose historical and urban relevance will be studied during the workshop will include Chennai, Varanasi, Bhubhaneswar, Amaravati, Mumbai, Madurai, Warangal and Patna.

Similarly, the cities in UK which will be taken up as case studies include Sheffield, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Manchester, Peterborough and a comparative study of London and Mumbai.
"The conclusion and findings of the workshop will be compiled as recommendations and sent to the government suggesting policy changes," Rao said.