CULTURE-LED URBAN REGENERATION STRATEGIES FOR VARANASI CITY

Abstract

Over the years the city grows around the old settlement. The settlement then plays a key role in the social and cultural life of the city. Yet, it often undergoes a period of neglect until the local planning body intervenes, and alterations, sometimes drastic, arc made in the city. Because of the rapid changes taking places in traditional cities, a large part of the cultural continuity is tied with the future of those aspects of the city that have a historical character, such as streetscapes, neighborhoods and traditional architecture. The thriving traditional cores of the most modern metropolises are degenerating with increased pressure on their poor infrastructure. Little input is given to upgrade their infrastructure. Over- commercialization, weaker economy, very high- density growth and insufficient infrastructure are largely responsible for the deteriorating environmental conditions of their cores and the loss of their tangible and intangible heritage values. Varanasi, being the oldest living city and is heterogeneous with multiple layers of religion, culture, art forms, believes nature, profiles and individualities. It is a sacred and holy place to l-Iindu, Buddhist, Jain and Muslim religion. It is also the home to numerous religious monuments (4000 temples, 300 mosques) and is famous as a centre of music, arts, crafts, education and learning. The culture of Varanasi is deeply related with the river Ganga and the rivers religious importance. Varanasi is known mainly for its ghats and is the religious bathing place for the pilgrims. The city has been a cultural and religious centre in northern India for thousands of years. Varanasi has its own style of classical Hindustani music, and has produced prominent philosophers, poets, writers and musicians in Indian history. The city which served as the cultural capital is now facing a lack of efficient policies to revive its cultural heritage. The spatial components are challenged with social and physical problems. Improvements could take place in a bottom-up process in which the concerns of residents are addressed in the process of design, planning and implementation. The intervention will be leading to improvement in quality of life of the people of Varanasi and facilitate them with appropriate additions and alterations to reinstate their cultural potentials. It will organize their growth and development while taking care of its core values and heritage to regenerate its degrading urban fabric. As Culture-led urban regeneration policy has become a global trend in many major cities worldwide. While overseas governments such as the United Kingdom Japan and Australia have directed their regeneration policies to encourage the creative class and industries. The intent of the thesis is to find alternate regeneration methods, through which city can adapt itself in the transferring present, with the maximum continuity of the past. The dissertation on the above topic attempts to understand the process of transfbrrnation in the city cores and its relation with contemporary. The thesis recognizes the counterview point on the social grounds, that there is an aspect of privatization and exclusiveness attached to the concept of treating culture as a commodity and will attempt to construct a symbiotic relation between the two. The scope of the topic extends to two zones i.e. the riverfront Chat zone and the adjacent old city heritage zone. The project deals with the changes that have come into picture over the past affecting the otherwise safe and rich heritage fabric of the area and is an • attempt to figure out the probable reasons for the same. The study deals with the physical fabric of the Chats and its interrelationship with the culture of the place. It aims to remodel existing and craft new social spaces and policies for contemporary societies and using tourism as a potential economic tool for the up gradation of the area. The strategies .actions and design moves are demonstrated majorly in Chats and heritage core area. Although that part of the city is very well connected with the whole city and influence the life of people connected with it tangibly or intangibly. Conducting visual surveys and interviews of stakeholders, and studying the cultural urban scape and issues of the selected area on the basis of secondary as well as primary data shall come up as limitations of the time frame. For this, the riverfront Ghats and I Icritage City is taken up. The report consists of two broad segments divided into the existing situational analysis and the broad proposal and policies for its regeneration. The process fbcused around to make use of a city's culture and use its genius loci as an urban regeneration strategy, one has to bring together the various identities that occupy a space. l'his dissertation has a two-way focus; on one hand, it seeks to address the issues related to declining cities and how culture-led urban regeneration can counter the affect; on the other hand, it contributes to the academic debate by exploring the mechanism of capitalizing culture in a regeneration project in order to maximize the ways at which local residents can truly benefit. It is often assumed that the integration of cultural production, consumption and community art programme bring about the greatest benefits for the local economy, and hence benefit the locals by trickle down effect (131nns, 2005). The phenomenon of using cultural activities to reinforce cities economy, foster tourism and to improve city image has become very popular in traditional cities as well as in cities with prominent culture. The world's cultural capitals like Paris, New York and Bilbao have built no. of museums, concert halls, art galleries, art centers as part of the revitalization plan. The cities have persuaded the idea to incorporate cultural components in regular augmentation of urban development process. The various urban regeneration cases from all over world are studied in the study to generate the understanding of subject. Various strategies and programs are proposed as part of recommendations mainly focused around the development of concerned area by soft interventions. The cultural development made a tremendous contribution towards the success of the urban regeneration process and the area now includes cultural centers, performance clubs, and a center for handicrafts, a Varanasi art center and a yearly festival. One of the most efficient policy strategies in the cultural sphere is the establishment of "cultural quarters," which include museums, galleries, convention centers, cultural halls, theaters, cinemas and more. The empowerment zones and enterprise zones were identified for economic regeneration of ct-aft community. Programs such as vending collaborative and on-site composting will engage the local communities and improve the local economy. Public spaces reclaimed as plazas and reclaiming surfaces as narrative spaces have the potential for healing communal strife and reviving urban art folk practices. Policies for Adaptive reuse of heritage building and Heritage conservation by providing heritage TDR and restoration load can thus become an empowering tool for local communities. Mixed use development on the ghats to facilitate the visitors with the view of Ganga ji by providing accommodation will not only attract the tourism and enhance the global image of the city. The study proposes the decentralization of visitors, tourists and pilgrims. Due to the economic benefits, the extent of ghats (towards a riverfront development) permeate beyond the sacred cosmic boundary, i.e. raj ghat in north and Assi ghat in south of Varanasi metropolitan. It may help in polarizing the tourism into pilgrims which can be concentrated to core ghat zone and visitors, other than core ghat zone may use peripheral ghat zone for recreation by indigenously traditional culture with the comfort of contemporary needs. This will help in maintaining sacrality of Banaras. Tourism and pilgrimage in sacred cities is majorly because of the uniqueness which its urbanism offers. This must give rise to the protection, preservation and promotion of religious, cultural and economic values. Strategic Eventification countering the low profile areas of the city along with City level festivals and events must be organize which may temporarily decentralize tourist Footfall from pilgrimage being at the same location. This will generate economy through the year while not negotiating the local values. As per the URDPFI guidelines and discussion with various stakeholders, construction of ward level community centers, meditation and spiritual centers, libraries and tourism infrastructure is a requirement of the city. Hence, it is identified as a component in the project list. The wards should be replaced with mohallas in the new urban development plans. This will increase the public participation and monitoring in local area development by reviving mohallas committees. Various other programs and proposals countering transformation are incorporated in the study.