Why be a part of Unesco if it’s not protecting or projecting India?

December 6 marked the 25th anniversary of the destruction of the Babri mosque, and it’s an appropriate time to bring the spotlight on the increasing politicisation of heritage and its loss. Earlier this year, the long-simmering debate reached a tipping point with the United States and Israel pulling out of Unesco citing its “anti-Israel bias”. This came on the back of a blatantly political resolution by Unesco board condemning Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem, terming it an occupier — issues and terms quite outside its mandated scope. In India this was viewed as a largely esoteric external debate with absolutely nothing to do with us. Partially this is true – India’s contribution to (of around Rs 320 million this year, according to Unesco) and benefits from the UN body have been minimal. However, even this minimum participation, is too much money spent on too little gain, sometimes negatively affecting us.

So, what exactly does Unesco do that negatively affects us? Mostly this is through ignoring India completely. Take for example the latest publication United 4Heritage: Cultural Diversity Under Attack, which highlights the loss of heritage in war zones. Welcome as this is, it’s worth pointing out that the vast majority of current active hot spots are in West Asia, with almost all the publicised losses of cultural heritage. What’s absent here is any study on how low-level societal violence/heavy resource competition can be equally, if not more damaging to such heritage. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, by 2013, 92 of 1,655 Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-protected monuments are “not traceable”; 12 of these being in Delhi.

In any scientifically guided organisation the thesis that ‘war zones tend to lose more than others’ has to be subjected to testing. Unesco refuses to do so. Yet the persistent problem of antiquities smuggling indicates otherwise. When we focus on that problem we find that well over 50% of US heritage imports in 2016 were from India. Yet, Unesco made no effort to curb/intervene; unlike in West Asia, which is anyway oversaturated with attention.

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