After ten years of painstaking restoration and conservation work on the tombs in Hyderabad, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), has decided to call it quits out of sheer frustration and helplessness
PRAVASISAMWAD.COM
Unless the government intervenes with decisive steps, Hyderabad’s Qutb Shahi tombs may sink deeper into a mire of controversies and legal disputes. This would also mean a terrible blow for Hyderabad’s rich history and Telangana’s pride.
What’s more, conservation and restoration work will also suffer in the process. In the long term, it may severely impede, perhaps irreversibly, the chances of the historic complex earning Unesco’s coveted World Heritage tag.
The tombs have been on Unesco’s tentative list since 2010. They are laid out in the sprawling Ibrahim Garden, close to Hyderabad’s iconic Golconda Fort. The tombs are spread across a sprawling 106-acre complex.
After ten years of painstaking restoration and conservation work, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), has decided to call it quits out of sheer frustration and helplessness.
The AKTC CEO Ratish Nanda says it has now become practically impossible to work in an environment of perpetual recriminations and court cases.
In the last ten years, the trust has had to engage in more than 40 cases brought against them by a group of 7 petitioners who live inside the Golconda Fort complex.
The latest development is that a stay order of the trust against an Interpretation Centre under construction in the adjacent Deccan Park has been over-ruled by another stay order of the Telangana High Court.
In their stay plea, the AKTC had said the modern structures, part of a museum together with other entertainment facilities, coming up in the Deccan Park right next door were defiling the pristine and historic character and ambience of the Qutb Shahi tombs.
Completely put off by these devious tugs-of-war, together with contrary claims and counterclaims, an exasperated Ratish Nanda says once their MoU (memorandum of understanding) expires in January 2022, they will withdraw from this project.
In its conservation and restoration work on the tombs, the Aga Khan Trust has received many international accolades and acclaim.
After ten years of painstaking restoration and conservation work, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), has decided to call it quits out of sheer frustration and helplessness.
The Telangana State Archaeology and Museums department collaborated with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in the restoration work and restored the tombs. The work had started in 2013.
For over a year, conservation work had come to a standstill on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the conservation has resumed, it is now progressing at a snail’s pace,
As it is, encroachments on the northern as well as the southern side, of the tombs’ complex present an ugly façade.
An extraordinary feature of the Qutb Shahi tombs is that the entire dynasty – which lasted 174 years from 1512 – 1686 AD – is buried in this necropolis, except for the last ruler, Tana Shah.
His defeat at the hands of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s army, spelt the end of the Qutb Shahi dynasty in 1686 AD.
The fourth in line in the dynasty, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (1580-1612) was the founder of Hyderabad. He was a scholar of Persian, Arabic, Deccani Urdu and Telugu.
In all, the complex has 40 mausoleums, 23 mosques, six ‘baolis’ (step-wells), a ‘hamam’ (mortuary bath), pavilions and garden structures, each with its own striking grandeur. The galleries of the smaller tombs are of a single storey while the larger ones are of two storeys.
The Indo-Islamic architecture of the tombs is a striking synthesis of Persian, Pathan, Deccani and Hindu styles.
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