'Revive excavations and explorations'

Dr Tejas Garge at the Fort office of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums PicSuresh KarkeraIn the austere office of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums at Fort its been a week since Dr Tejas Garge assumed office as director The 42yearold ended his 15yearlong association with the Archaeological Survey of India ASI where he served under various capacities most recently as assistant archaeologist in Aurangabad At the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums a department under the state government he is the first archaeologist to be appointed as director in the last 20 years ever since famed Indologist and archaeologist Dr Arvind P Jamkhedkar retired In these past two decades the directorate which protects key monuments in the city has had various members of the states revenue or tax department helming its affairsWhile the ASI protects monuments of national interest it is the directorate that oversees at the state level nearly 300 monuments that dont come under the ASI including The Gateway of India and the Bandra and Worli forts The Kipling Bungalow which used to be the college deans residence at Sir JJ School of Art for instance is undergoing conservation through this departmentWe met Garge Nashikborn and a graduate of Deccan College in Pune ahead of the days meetings with government officials on what his leadership will bring to the department and to the citys archaeological concerns Edited excerpts from the interviewHow do you evaluate the contribution of archaeology to our cityOn a regional scale it helps form an ethnic Maharashtrian identity and over here it helps form a Mumbaicentric identity For instance if you take away CST from the city its identity is dented The CST is not a British legacy merely but related to the Mumbaikars life in trains A Punekar cant understand what it means to miss an 8 am local This intangible aspect is related to the tangible aspects of archaeology and conservation The amount of heritage wealth across the country is so vast that no number of agencies will ever be enoughWhat are your immediate steps as directorMy agenda is to revive the academic character of the department We are contributing towards the history of the nation and there is a need to release more publications even though we dont have a publishing division In the 1980s there were slim volumes of research and findings that came from forts such as those from Raigad and Rajgad written by scholars in the department such as BV Kulkarni sold for as less as R3 or R4 Now we plan to reprint those and bring out English translations as wellAnother important area to look into is a website When I was preparing for the interview for this post the first thing I did was look for the departments website I couldnt find oneMore importantly I want to improve the academic activities within the department mainly excavations and explorations You see excavation is not a continuous activity The initiative to excavate more and other purely archaeological activities can come only from directorate and not from the ministryIn recent years forts and their conservation have become hot topics especially since Shivaji is both a cultural and political symbol What do you think The forts of Maharashtra is a sensitive issue that has been taken seriously by the government We have seen an increase in funding for conservation unlike earlier It is perfectly alright if any party or individual that supports the conservation of forts comes forward It is not my job to see whether things are politically utilised or not however I do believe that as long as advertising hoardings and flags are not flown on forts it is doableHow will your directorship add to the departmentEarlier directors were from the revenue and tax departments Administratively they were exceptional and you cant blame them for not having knowledge of archaeology For instance there was a recent controversy of a fort dig in which the foundation wall was dug up An archaeologist will know about upper trenches and section lines mdash those questions can be asked nowI want to revive the professionalism of the departmentWith rapid urbanisation heritage structures and monuments are perennially at risk in the city How does the department hope to negotiate thisWe have to keep in mind that everything that can be excavated and recorded in the city has not been discovered yet Archaeology is a continuous activity Hence urban planners should take into account that archaeological findings are possible all the time so funds allocated for excavation are planted in planning When work is stopped due to the discovery of an artefact or a ruin we become antidevelopment In the UK USA or France there is no department of archaeology doing excavations under the auspices of the government There is salvage work in which objects of archaeological interest are moved to other locations if discovered during infrastructural improvements Some years ago we discovered a stepwelllike structure in Mahim Protecting that would have meant digging up the road which wouldnt have been feasible However we recorded the discoveryHow did you get interested in archaeologyI was preparing to sign up for the defence forces when I realised that I like the practice of archaeology It has some elements of being in the armed forces mdash pitching a tent and bring in trenches for instance It appealed to me that there could be a job that was a combination of groundwork and deskwork