*Some interesting arguments here. The maharaja jewels of the Indian nation belong to those who can afford the upkeep on jewelry. Meaning corporations or just wealthy "philanthropists," because the oligarchy has all the money.
*Also, as a guy who has spent time in both India and Italy, I always wake up when the Indians cite the behavior of the Italians as, like, the way for themselves to go. It's like the prospect of a future world where everyone is Jhumpa Lahiri.
*By the way, if you've never heard of, or read anything by, Jhumpa Lahiri, she is really a class act. I consider myself a rather radically globalized, pastiche-writer kinda guy, but I look at her activities and I just stare.
Wikipedia's lowdown on Prof. Lahiri
https://theprint.in/opinion/liberals-dont-mind-corporate-funding-for-their-causes-but-outrage-when-its-the-red-fort/54184/
by Shekhar Gupta
(...)
Why should culture, history and archaeology be the monopoly of the state? Why can’t private capital, enterprise and efficiency get involved?
Surely, they (((meaning the intellectual left, who our author Shekhar Gupta here gravely resents))) have no problems cadging sponsorships from the same “evil” corporates for their lit-fests, generous wine ’n cheese laden evenings, gifts, travel grants, track-2, social sciences conferences (all paid for by sponsors). The intellectual-liberal community lives on handouts from Ford, McArthur, Rockefeller, Bill and Melinda Gates, and our own Tatas and other such corporates for funding scholarships, conferences, new universities and even independent new media. All that’s kosher because it is coming to us, the deserving. Talk Red Fort and it is, watan ki aabru khatre mein hai, hoshiar ho jao (national prestige is at stake, so battle stations). Ask the angry ones the last time they went to Red Fort since probably their school bussed them there, sucking at lollipops and ice cream.
- Too many in the complaining elites haven’t been to their monuments lately, or they would have known the mess the ASI has made of them. (((This is the interesting part here, where guys who are PR for the oligarchy look down their nose at the governments of nation-states for being broke, low-class and filthy. I'm inclined to agree that they are, but you didn't used to see this new element of class disdain for bureaucrats.)))
Open defecation may have been stopped elsewhere but most monuments, including Hampi and Mamallapuram, are open-air toilets. Their walls have love-notes scribbled, sometimes with a knife. Walk on the bridge on the beautiful Betwa river bouncing through boulders, facing the stunning old temples of Orchha early in the morning and soak in the sights—but avoid the smells please. (((The government is filthy.)))
The ASI drove piles through the Sun Temple in Konark, the Army built barracks in the Red Fort, (((the government is violent and heavy-handed))) and my colleague Rama Lakshmi, a trained museologist, tells me about the tiny museum in Nalanda with one bored chowkidar, “dusty glass cases, cobwebs, peeling walls”. There is a 12th century artifact on display there, she says, which is a tiny bowl with rice grains. The text label to it unimaginatively says, “burnt rice”. It is the description for a powerful artifact from the 12th century. (((The government is ignorant.)))
If Indian elites were going to their own monuments more often, they would also be complaining about the lack of facilities, no souvenir-economics: (((the government lacks a business model and a consumer-friendly interface))) good quality mugs, caps, key-chains, replicas, nothing like a “my mom went to Ajanta and all she got me was this lousy t-shirt”. Nothing. Our monuments are run like CPWD properties. (((The government is a bad landlord.)))
- They do see monuments overseas but miss some facts: Italy (((yay!))) has the largest number of UNESCO Heritage Sites in the world. Cash-strapped, its government has been handing these out to corporates, mostly the fashion brands, for restoration and upkeep, in return for branding opportunities. Tod’s has the Colosseum, Diesel the Rialto Bridge in Venice. When you go to the Trevi Fountain next, look for the logo of Fendi, and Prada’s at Venice’s big palace. (((He doesn't mention the interesting Italian practice of surrounding cultural objects with giant, opaque fabric screens during "repair and restoration," screens which immediately become huge corporate billboards and tend to hang around indefinitely.)))
I know, it isn’t smart to mention Italian wisdom in India at this point. But it should be for the BJP wallahs to complain, not their (mostly Left) “liberal” critics....
(((A missing part of the argument is that a lot of the world's most precious cultural monuments, such as the Taj Mahal or the Disneyfied dread castles of Bavaria, were built by crazy aristocrats who were throwing away insane amounts of money. They will always lack use-value, even though they generate a lot of tourist traffic.)))
(((I'm about to move into a new office in a former Savoy palace. So I'm thinking that the blog is gonna see rather a lot of pondering about these issues, and related ones, soon.)))
