We don’t care

FOR all the triumphalism about the artistic and architectural achievements of the past that dot the length and breadth of the country, our collective resolve to preserve, conserve and value such magnificence is dismal. This ironical societal trait is not confined to heritage and cultural legacies. As the utter disregard for works of modern art at a public space in Chandigarh shows, it’s a failure at multiple levels — the administration, the community and even the artists’ fraternity. Why don’t we care? Why does it not matter to us? There’s a litany of lazy excuses: financial constraints, urban developmental pressures, or the prioritisation of issues given the sheer number of people that populate the land. The answer may not entirely be about a lack of appreciation.

What’s missing in the national character and what regrettably has seldom been demanded of citizens and of each other is civic duty and responsibility — not enforced, but a way of life that embraces what’s special and unique. Change would require a reset, and largely at the community level. Not far from the forgotten works of art in Chandigarh’s Leisure Valley is the Rock Garden, a phenomenal creative enterprise. It bears the stamp of a committed individual, Nek Chand, whose birth centenary was celebrated last month. The long queues of visitors prove that there is a genuine desire to celebrate art and its manifestations. It then falls upon the citizen to honour such spaces.

Another concern is the self-celebratory fetish to raze or put out of use structures that have stood the test of time. The national capital has been leading the way, sanctioning the drive to weed out the old for the new, no matter the cost involved or the utility of it. New, but not necessarily better.