Heritage helps us understand our past, appreciate our present, and shape our future. It also enables us to question the wrongs of the past and gives us a chance to mend it. It brings us close to different kinds of people by understanding and respecting their practices and how they originated. This may help us see that we are not all that different, after all, or that what makes our world exciting is the sheer variety in how we all think, act, create, perform, rejoice, mourn, and live.
Perhaps this has happened to you. When all you wanted was to stay at home, order in some snacks, and catch a movie, or if you had to go out at all, then to the mall, elders in the family simply dragged you to a monument some 50 km away! “Uff, that’s unfair,” you must have thought. Surely, what can be exciting about a monument built in unappealing stone all those centuries ago? But here’s a thought. What if that monument is actually a fort that singularly guarded the city you are living in right now from foreign invasion? What if it holds a great mystery that has not been solved in all these centuries – that the huge stones used to build the fort walls are not found anywhere in a 200-km radius, and nobody knows till now how the stones were brought there at a time when lorries hadn’t been invented!
That’s heritage for you. Heritage is something we have inherited – collectively and not as individuals – from the past. It can be something tangible such as buildings, monuments, historical sites, artefacts, books, etc., natural such as forests and wildlife, or intangible such as tradition, customs, rituals etc. Heritage helps us understand our past, appreciate our present, and shape our future. It also enables us to question the wrongs of the past and gives us a chance to mend it. It brings us close to different kinds of people by understanding and respecting their practices and how they originated. This may help us see that we are not all that different, after all, or that what makes our world exciting is the sheer variety in how we all think, act create, perform, rejoice, mourn and live. It is important to preserve one’s heritage so the future generations can benefit the way we have. This can be done through simple ways. Here are just two. Along with your friends and family, you can take a pledge to help preserve natural wildlife habitats, and not deface any monuments by carving anything on them.
Unfortunately, during invasion, wars, and terrorist attacks, and in countries under an authoritarian government that denies its citizens any kind of freedom, heritage suffers; natural and human-made heritage structures are destroyed, and people are banned from (or punished for) practising their customs and rituals. This is the direct result of hatred and the lack of understanding and respect for diversity. Something that a deep love for heritage can set right. And that is something you can do! Now, are you already urging your family to take you to that huge monument in your neighbouring State?
Picture Credit : Google
