Heritage Conservation in Postcolonial India seeks to position the conservation profession within historical, theoretical, and methodological frames to demonstrate how the field has evolved in the postcolonial decades and follow its various trajectories in research, education, advocacy, and practice. Split into four sections, this book covers important themes of institutional and programmatic developments in the field of conservation; critical and contemporary challenges facing the profession; emerging trends in practice that seek to address contemporary challenges; and sustainable solutions to conservation issues. The cases featured within the book elucidate the evolution of the heritage conservation profession, clarifying the role of key players at the central, state, and local level, and considering intangible, minority, colonial, modern, and vernacular heritages among others. This book also showcases unique strands of conservation practice in the postcolonial decades to demonstrate the range, scope, and multiple avenues of development in the last seven decades. An ideal read for those interested in architecture, planning, historic preservation, urban studies, and South Asian studies.

Recognised by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as a measure to make cities inclusive, safe and resilient, conservation of natural and cultural heritage has become an increasingly important issue across the globe. The equity principle of sustainable development necessitates that citizens hold the right to participate in the cultural economy of a place, requiring that inhabitants and other stakeholders are consulted on processes of continuity or transformation. However, aspirations of cultural exchange do not translate in practice. Equity in Heritage Conservation takes the UNESCO World Heritage City of Ahmedabad, India, as the foundational investigation into the realities of cultural heritage conservation and management. It contextualises the question of heritage by citing places, projects and initiatives from other cities around the world to identify issues, processes and improvements. Through illustrated chapters it discusses the understanding of heritage in relation to the sustainable development of living historic cities, the viability of specific measures, ethics of engagement and recommendations for governance. This book will appeal to a range of scholars interested in cultural heritage conservation and management, sustainable development, urban and regional planning, and architecture.

Soqotra, the largest island of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, is one of the most uniquely diverse places in the world. A UNESCO natural World Heritage Site, the island is home not only to birds, reptiles, and plants found nowhere else on earth, but also to a rich cultural history and the endangered Soqotri language. Within the span of a decade, this Indian Ocean archipelago went from being among the most marginalized regions of Yemen to promoted for its outstanding global value. Islands of Heritage shares Soqotrans' stories to offer the first exploration of environmental conservation, heritage production, and development in an Arab state. Examining the multiple notions of heritage in play for twenty-first-century Soqotra, Nathalie Peutz narrates how everyday Soqotrans came to assemble, defend, and mobilize their cultural and linguistic heritage. These efforts, which diverged from outsiders' focus on the island's natural heritage, ultimately added to Soqotrans' calls for political and cultural change during the Yemeni Revolution. Islands of Heritage shows that far from being merely a conservative endeavor, the protection of heritage can have profoundly transformative, even revolutionary effects. Grassroots claims to heritage can be a potent form of political engagement with the most imminent concerns of the present: human rights, globalization, democracy, and sustainability.