VIRTUAL ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Set into motion by the current government since the early 2000s, the eastern Indian state of Bihar is witnessing a cultural reset based in the pride of an ancient Buddhist past. What sets apart this movement of cultural revival is the harnessing of massive resources for new architectural edifices to be built in the name of public service for a historically underdeveloped and impoverished state. This paper will focus on the urban reorganization in the capital city of Patna, beginning with the construction of the Buddha Smriti Park in 2010 on the grounds of a historic British-era jail complex. The most recent and possibly the grandest intervention comes in the form of the Bihar Museum, inaugurated in its entirety for the public in 2017. The collections of the erstwhile colonial-era state museum, the Patna Museum, were moved to the new Bihar Museum, creating a complex heritage debate about progress and conservation. I argue that the making of new monuments by the state government is not only an attempt to revive cultural pride or impress upon the public the present government’s munificence, but also an attempt to reorient the city of Patna itself away from the older, medieval city to east, to the new urban growth in the west. Through careful perusal of government missives, architectural complexes and planned development, this paper demonstrates the redevelopment of a post-colonial South Asian city at the crossroads of Buddhist revival, nationalist rhetorics, and the embedded heritage consciousness of the Bihari public.