Wah, Taj?

Judging from the celebratory scenes all over the country, ordinary Indians have been jubilant about the inclusion of the Taj Mahal in the list of the Seven Wonders of the World compiled by the Swiss firm New7wonders Foundation. Such elation is probably understandable, but it is also misplaced. This is less because of the controversial list of candidates that made the grade and the questionable results from an energetic marketing exercise in the world's second-most populous country. The mass jingoism is inappropriate because of the way Indians and Indian officialdom treat their monuments""the Taj Mahal included.

Few countries can boast the stunning number and variety of monuments that India can, from as far back as Neolithic times. Yet modern Indians appear to treat this inheritance with a singular callousness. No visitor to India's monuments can miss the jumble of amorous graffiti scratched on the surfaces nor, with rare exceptions, the signs of rapid disintegration. Some of the country's most famous heritage sites""the 9th century Elephanta caves, the temple complex at Hampi, Mahabalipuram, the paintings of Ajanta and Ellora, to name a few""are visibly under threat from environmental factors, neglect, wilful damage and indiscriminate tourism. This, despite the fact that many are designated world heritage sites under the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and are, therefore, subject to some conservation work. Nothing symbolises this degeneration better than the purana quila, or old fort, seat of government of Sher Shah Suri, temporary usurper of the Mughal dynasty. Situated barely 5 km from Raisina Hill, the British-built seat of the government of modern India, the purana quila's crumbling ramparts are testimony to India's collective indifference to its heritage. So, if the franchisees of multinationals Pepsi and Coke think nothing of painting advertisements on pre-historic rocks along the Rohtang pass, neither does the government's own Border Roads Organisation.

The Taj Mahal has been no exception to this trend. It has, in the past, been commandeered by a multinational for a concert by Yanni, master of orchestrated musack. More recently, it was saved the depredations of Mayawati's plans to set up a vast shopping complex in its immediate vicinity, which would have affected the Yamuna's flow. And, despite a Supreme Court order to shift sulphur-emitting industries away from the area, the marble on the Taj continues to yellow at an alarming rate from other pollutants. It is telling also, that, following Saturday's vote, the government is only worried about the lack of tourism infrastructure rather than improving the conservation of a monument that brings in more tourism dollars than any other.

In any case, it is ironical that India owes the preservation of the Taj and many of its other major monuments, secular and religious, to the Raj's most imperial of viceroys and muscular of Christians""Lord Curzon. The antecedents of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), the flawed and under-funded flagship institution for conservation of India's public monuments, date back to the "Orientalist" Sir William Jones's Asiatic Society. Yet, although independent India appears to have (more or less) successfully adapted the Westminster system of government, it appears to have rejected one of the better legacies of the Raj""and is the poorer for it.