India a questionable host for the 46th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee

“India calls on the world to come together to promote each other’s heritage and enhance the well-being of humanity” : At the inauguration of the 46th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in New Delhi on July 21, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed his country’s commitment to protecting heritage. Accompanied by the promise of a million-dollar grant for the World Heritage Center – directed toward countries in the Global South – this statement by the Indian leader nevertheless hides a policy of erasing Muslim heritage in India.

Chosen as the symbol of this annual meeting of the committee, which will see the inscription of new sites on the world heritage list, the Taj Mahal is thus one of the places that symbolises the tensions against Muslim heritage. Built by the Mughal sultan Shah Jahan, it is the subject of threats of destruction from Hindu supremacist groups, or of petitions demanding that its name be Hinduised. Another world heritage site, the Qutub Minaret in Delhi, is the subject of similar pressure from extremists, demanding that it be renamed in honour of the god Vishnu.

While the destruction of these well-identified world heritage sites seems unlikely, other places of Muslim heritage have been erased under Narendra Modi’s government. The prime minister’s Hindu nationalist policy indeed encourages the destruction of heritage assets: in July 2023, a mob of 1,000 people burned the entire historical library preserved in a madrassa in the city of Bihar Sharif. Last February, it was the Indian authorities themselves who razed a 15th-century mosque in Delhi. In March 2023, local authorities destroyed several century-old mosques in the state of Gujarat.

In January 2024, the Congress of Indian Historians protested against the announced destruction of the Sunehri Bagh mosque (protected by local heritage legislation) in Delhi, denouncing a “continuous attempt to erase our medieval architectural heritage in recent years”The destruction targets buildings dating from the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) and the Mughal Empire (1526-1857), periods of Muslim domination in India. The history of this period is thus removed from the history books, and place names dating from the Mughal period are renamed.

Inaugurated in January 2024 by Prime Minister Modi, the Ram temple in Ayodhya is a clear example of this policy of erasure. The gigantic place of worship is built on the site of the mosque of the Mughal ruler Babur, destroyed in 1992 during violent inter-communal conflicts. During his speech before the World Heritage Committee, Narendra Modi spoke of the Ayodhya temple as an example of “India’s commitment to being proud of its heritage”The Indian leader also cited the construction site of “Kashi-Vishwanath corridor”a major development of this major pilgrimage site for Hindus. In December 2023, Narendra Modi described this major project as “resurrection of India’s civilizational glory”.

There have been a few voices raised against holding the committee session in India from July 21 to 31. Indian historian Yasmin Saikia has published a text, challenging the committee: “I ask the leaders of the World Heritage Committee: Do you feel the pain of the Muslims of India whose heritage is being erased because some want to make them “foreign” to the history of India? Can history be erased because one community, although a majority, wants to disown another community, a minority? Can history be made to disappear simply by the will and violence of the majority community? These questions, and many others, should be discussed and deliberated at the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee.”

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