UN SDGs and Context of Holy-Heritage Cities in India: A Study of Ayodhya and Varanasi

Abstract

UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) Target 11.4 calls for “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by strengthening efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage.” The ICOMOS Report refers that more urgently than ever, the SDGs demand collaboration among those implementing the World Heritage Convention, the other UNESCO conventions on heritage and diversity and the seven global biodiversity-related conventions. Taking ICOMOS Focal Point for the World Urban Campaign, it is noted that “We need to recognize cultural heritage as essential to sustainable urbanization, integrate it into current planning and development models and advocate more transparent and equitable legal and financial systems.” Under the agreement for ‘Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, cultural heritage and urban sustainability are now considered inseparable. In Indian context, religious heritage as a religious properties and sacred places considered as an integral part of larger ensembles, such as historic cities, cultural landscapes and associated natural sites. Religion had played a role for controlling power in Indian monarchy in the ancient past, and in contemporary India too it played a role in the formation of religious landscape and corporate identity of religious heritage, through commonly using processions, pilgrimage, religious assemblies, religious fairs (melā), and sacred places. Newly introduced concept of pilgrimage-tourism will help to revitalize these sacred cities. Situated in the Ganga river basin Ayodhya and Banaras, both are located along the sacred rivers, and have been primarily ancient tirthas (riverfront sacredscapes) and salvific cities that record settlement continuity since at least ca 800BCE. Under the purview of Smart City development strategy through the interfacing programmes of HRIDAY (Heritage city Development and Augmentation Yojana) and PRASAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive) Government of India seeks to promote an integrated, inclusive and sustainable development of heritage sites (cities), focusing not just on maintenance of monuments but on advancement of the entire ecosystem including its citizens, tourists and local businesses. The present essay focuses these issues in the purview of SDGs in the future development of such cities.