Heritage in crisis: Lucknow’s monuments cry for attention

Lucknow lawyer and heritage enthusiast, Syed Mohammad Haider Rizvi, fights against encroachments on heritage sites in Lucknow.

Syed Mohammad Haider Rizvi, 50, believes heritage sites are a collective legacy. A lawyer and heritage enthusiast, Mr. Rizvi was momentarily jubilant when the Lucknow Bench of the Uttar Pradesh High Court on February 7 once again directed authorities to convene a meeting of the committee constituted in 2013 by the High Court, to identify and take action against encroachments in monuments in Lucknow.

“The Court had asked the authorities to remove encroachments from centrally protected heritage sites, but the administration did little,” said Mr. Rizvi. The committee has met only 13 times over the past decade.

Up to 60 protected monuments in Lucknow have been declared to be of national importance under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Mr. Rizvi said that most of these structures, built during the Nawab era (17th to 19th centuries), have been encroached upon in the last few decades.

Authorities, both at the Centre and in the State, had failed to take any concrete step to remove intrusions, he alleged. “Despite numerous petitions and public interest litigations (PILs), encroachment still exists at Chattar Manzil, the Kazmain buildings, Rumi Darwaza, Bada Imambara, Chota Imambara, among other heritage sites,” said Mr. Rizvi.

However, ASI’s Superintending Archaeologist in Lucknow, Aftab Hussain, said: “We issue notice to encroachers and approach the local administration for taking legal action wherever information of encroachment is found correct. We have issued notices to more than 1,100 people in Lucknow alone, and many encroachments have been removed.”

The ground reality is different. Lucknow’s iconic Bada Imambara, constructed in the late 18th century, has people living within the complex. Declared a protected monument by the ASI in 1920, it also houses a large Asfi mosque and a bhul-bhulaiya (labyrinth). It was built during a devastating famine by Awadh Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula, who aimed at providing employment to people reeling under poverty and hunger at the time.

The Ministry of Culture did a recent assessment of the Kazmain buildings, built mirroring a similar structure in Iraq, considered sacred to Shia Muslims. “The monument shows signs of rising dampness in the external façade on all sides along the plinth level,” reads the report published in October 2023. It goes to on to note “structural cracks at the lintel level”, “water seepage…at the ceiling which further led to deterioration of wooden roof structural members”, and “missing copper panels [from the dome]”.