Heritage walk held to save iconic Patna Collectorate

A special heritage walk was held in the campus of the historic Patna Collectorate on Sunday, seeking to highlight its historical and architectural value and promote preservation of the built legacy in the city.

The event 'Walk for Patna Collectorate' was attended by a group of students, professionals, photographers, lawyers and journalists.

The walking trail began from Christ Church, a Gothic-design church built in 1852, and traversed through Dutch-era and British-built buildings of the collectorate before culminating at DM Office Building.

The over two-hour-long event was organised by 'Save Historic Patna Collectorate', a people's movement to promote heritage preservation in Bihar, to mark the International Women's Day.

"We wanted to highlight the historic values of the Patna Collectorate, and raise awareness among the people, seeking their support for its preservation, as its future currently hangs in the balance. At the same time, we wanted to highlight the plight of these buildings in urgent need of upkeep," said Patna-based lawyer Kumar Shanu, 26, a core member of the organising team.

The US-educated advocate said even in New York such people-led movement have brought an ethos of historic preservation.

The Bihar government had in 2016 proposed to demolish the old Patna Collectorate for a new high-rise complex, triggering public outcry and appeals from various quarters in India and abroad to spare the demolition and preserve it as a "signpost of Patna's history".

Subsequently, the Indian National Trust for Art and Culture (INTACH) had last year filed two petitions in the Patna High Court challenging the demolition proposal and seeking constitution of a Bihar heritage commission. 

The Patna High Court on Thursday had fixed March 17 as the next date of hearing in the case of demolition of the collectorate.

Situ Tiwari, a city-based journalist who works with a leading international media organisation, said, "My knowledge about Patna's modern history and Patna Collectorate's heritage increased manifold after the walk".

"I felt very ashamed, and it was at two levels. First, the state government has largely failed in preserving the heritage using it for tourism and employment generation," Tiwari rued.

"Secondly, we residents hardly know our own city. Crumbling old buildings, vintage road rollers dumped, and Burmese teak benches rotting in the open put us to shame that we have failed in preserving the historic fabric of the city," she said.

She was referring to the vintage seating benches dumped in the open in the premises of the Patna Collectorate. These benches were once kept in the iconic Meeting Hall of the Patna District Board building constructed in 1938.

The Patna Collectorate complex, parts of which are over 250 years old, is situated on the banks of the Ganga and is endowed with high ceilings, huge doors and hanging skylights. 

The collectorate is one of the last surviving signatures of Dutch architecture in the Bihar capital, especially the Record Room and the old District Engineer's Office.

Neel Madhav, a Patna native who studies at Delhi University was also among those who took part in the walk.

"If we youth do not take the lead role in preserving our own heritage, who else will. The government had allowed this historic building to decay and then proposed the demolition. Heritage does not belong to a person or government, it is for the future generations, and we must come forward to save it," he said.

Anish Kumar Singh, 31, a photographer, who also attended the walk, said, the "event was an eye-opener".

"We Patna people have become blind and insensitive towards our own heritage. These buildings should have been celebrated after restoring them as a cultural and recreational hub. A new collectorate building can be built elsewhere," he said.

Historians, urban planners, conservation architects and other heritage experts have been appealing to the Nitish Kumar government to not dismantle the collectorate, saying it will "set a very bad precedent" and "jeopardise" the fate of other colonial-era buildings.

After hearing the two PILs filed by INTACH, the Patna High Court had last September stayed the proposed demolition of the government complex while restraining the state authorities from "causing any harm to the collectorate building until further orders", bringing some relief to the heritage lovers. 

Parts of Oscar-winning film 'Gandhi' was shot in the Dutch-era Record Room and British-era DM Office. 

Representative Image