Sacheen Suresh Pai Raikar

DRP

Cultural Heritage Tourism as a Potential Tool for Regeneration in Dharmaj, Gujarat. Dharmaj, a village in Anand District of Gujarat, India has the label of “NRI Village” due to a high percentage of residents residing abroad since the 1930s. The older parts of the village display a variety of architectural influences, from Saracenic to Post Modern to Art Deco, mingling with traditional timber-based structures. These buildings are much sought after as heritage backdrops for movie and advertisement shooting. Due to the migration of people for better prospects, and sometimes with entire families moving away, the structures face a lot of neglect and apathy, partly due to a lack of cognizance of the heritage value of their buildings, and spaces near them, but mostly on account of lack of information on how to repair and maintain their holdings. This has resulted in either a complete changeover of building by demolishing and re-building, or sometimes allowed to deteriorate till they collapse upon themselves. The loss of built fabric has been substantial. To understand the precedents in salvaging Cultural Heritage and beyond that, look for a tool to achieve Regeneration, the Valletta Principles, the ICOMOS charter for International Tourism and the Toolkit for Sustainable Tourism by UNESCO was referred to and a methodology based on these was formulated. The process followed was in stages, Theoretical, Analysis and Empirical, with conclusions and discussions to follow. The theoretical stage of the research dealt with studying archival data on Dharmaj, Cultural Heritage, and CH Tourism to understand the two main aspects of the research, Conservation and Tourism, in the context of Urban Regeneration. Analysis was carried out through site documentation, interviews, surveys and allowed the correlation between theory and actuals at site. Case studies, which formed the Empirical part and allowed for a scale and scope to be adhered to, were coherent with the situation Dharmaj is facing and were studied for clues on approaches to adopt and adapt. Creating awareness amongst the residents about the value of the heritage and the consequences of its loss would be paramount in controlling the deterioration of the built heritage. There are precedents of conservation efforts in the village, and these should be able to influence the building owners to reduce their apprehension and opt for conserving their holdings. Efforts to promote Tourism in Dharmaj could start where the initial target audience could be members of the Community that no longer reside within the historic core, and then extend to visitors from outside. The appeal it could have on the diaspora beyond the preservation of the structures along with the way of life is evident given the interest of the next generation in its roots, traditions, and history. Smaller initiatives would serve the purpose of sensitizing the resident community to the idea of visitors and open the doors to tourism related activities eventually. Looking beyond Dharmaj, similar situations of loss of heritage fabric affected by migration from smaller villages and towns need to be investigated, and a general conservation strategy could be formulated, especially if the most common factors could be identified and addressed. Since one of the factors identified at Dharmaj, through site observations and supported by archival research, is migration for economic opportunities (or the lack of the same in their hometowns), regeneration tools such as sustainable tourism or industry can be useful to provide potential avenues for employment and income, which could in turn possibly stem the loss of heritage, due to migration.