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In the second calendar year of the third millennium of our Common Era, that is in 2001, our world witnessed two acts of destruction which have, since then, set the trajectory of global

politics, foreign affairs, security and defense, and the continuing struggle for human rights. By early March 2001, armed forces of the Taliban in power in Afghanistan, used artillery and

dynamite to destroy the two Bamiyan Buddhas, the most monumental of statues glorifying Gautama Buddha. On 9 September 2001, twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York were destroyed

when commercial planes were hijacked and crashed into the towers by fundamentalists owing allegiance to Al-Qaeda. The two global events ~ one in the ancient lands of Afghanistan, amidst

rocky mountains and dry dusty terrain and once the hot-bed of trade and commerce across Asia, and the second, in the heart of global capitalism with its glittering towers signifying the

triumph of modern free market economy ~ had the entire world community up in anger, horror, disgust and hatred; debating, discussing and violently thrashing out issues even before the dust

could settle. It seemed as if the ‘clash of civilizations’ had become a gory reality with these well-planned acts of destruction; and, soon enough, in the name of tightened security norms,

every hu – man being was a suspect-bomber or hijacker and every aeroplane or automobile was a possible bomb-loaded missile whi – ch could kill thousands. In the span of a few months, our

modern world seemed to be going through a dark tunnel with little or no light at its end. Advertisement As the International Museum Day was commemorated on 18 May, with the World Heritage

Day just gone by, what comes to the fore are enlightened issues of cultural heritage, challenges of preservation and conservation, of institutions and individuals becoming custodians of

global heritage and hanging on to every shard of pottery, every scrap of papyrus, prehistoric rock excavated, and building bridges across historical time and geographical space. In ‘India: A

Sacred Geography’, Diana L. Eck, professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at Harvard University, surveyed the vast Indian subcontinent as a “lived landscape that may focus on a

particular temple, hillock or shrine but sets it in a larger frame. Advertisement Landscape is relational, and it evokes emotion and attachment.” In her magnum opus she detailed not just

geographical features ~ rivers, mountains, hills and coastlands ~ but stories of gods and heroes, the layers of myths, memory and association that shape the human perception of nat – ure.

“It is a resonant, sacred geo – graphy,” she underlined. It was the geography and history of Bamiyan, Naw Bahar in the Central Asian centre of Balkh which left Xuanzang (earlier written as

Hsuen Tsang) awe-struck and inspired when he arrived at the sprawling Buddhist complexes in 632 CE with its monasteries housing thousands of monks. His description of Bamiyan and its then

recently-carved Buddhas is like a fairytale to be retold a million times: “To the north-east of the royal city, at the foot of the hill, there was a standing rock statue one hundred and

fifty feet in height. To the east of the statue there was a monastery, and to the east of the monastery a standing bronze image of Shakyamuni Buddha, a hundred feet tall. Inside the

monastery there was a recumbent image of the Buddha, a thousand feet in length, in the posture of entering nirvana. All these images were magnificently adorned.” Works of Sra mana Huili and

Shi Yancong ‘A Biography of the Tripitaka Ma s ter of the Great Ci’en Mon a stery’, translated by Li Rongxi, and Benjamin Brose ‘Xuanzang: China’s Legendary Pilgrim and Translator’, bring

alive not just Bamiyan but Naw Bahar (also known as Nava Vihara) as among the greatest Buddhist centres of learning. William Dalrymple’s ‘The Golden Road’ takes modern readers across this

sacred geography going far beyond the confines of ‘Central Asia’, joining the dots through ancient times and space when trade, commerce and religion were bringing cultures together. As the

Taliban forces brou – ght in artillery and dynamite (produced-procured from the developed world, be it USA, Europe or Russia) to blow the 1500- year-old Bamiyan Buddhas to smithereens, the

impact of this ruthless destruction was immense, stirring the conscience of global citizens who were determined to preserve the historic past, and to let the legacies of Buddhism, in this

case, be a constant reminder of Shakyamuni’s eternal teachings for compassion, kindness and love for all humanity. When Fareed Zakaria, as editor of Newsweek International, wrote the iconic

cover story titled ‘The Politics Of Rage: Why Do They Hate Us?’ (Newsweek, 14 October 2001), he dug deep for complex answers to the rather simple question posed. He acknowledged, “From the

Crusades of the 11th century to the Turkish expansion of the 15th century to the colonial era in the early 20th century, Islam and the West have often battled militarily. This tension has

existed for hundreds of years, during which there have been many periods of peace and even harmony. Until the 1950s, for example, Jews and Christians lived pe – aceably under Muslim rule. In

fact, Bernard Lewis, the pre-eminent historian of Islam, has argued that for much of history religious minorities did better under Muslim rulers than they did under Chr is tian ones. All

that has changed in the past few decades. So surely the relevant question we must ask is, Why are we in a particularly difficult phase right now? What has gone wrong in the world of Islam

that explains not the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 or the siege of Vienna of 1683 but Sept. 11, 2001?” Zakaria wrote, without the fear of alienating loyal readers of Newsweek, “To say

that Al Qaeda is a fringe group may be reassuring, but it is false. Read the Arab press in the aftermath of the attacks and you will detect a not-so-hidden admiration for bin Laden. Or

consider this from the Pakistani newspaper The Nation: ‘September 11 was not mindless terrorism for terrorism’s sake. It was reaction and revenge, even retribution.’ Why else is America’s

response to the terror attacks so deeply constrained by fears of an ‘Islamic backlash’ on the streets? Pakistan will dare not allow Washington the use of its bases. Saudi Arabia trembles at

the thought of having to help us publicly. Egypt pleads that our strikes be as limited as possible. The problem is not that Osama bin Laden believes that this is a religious war against

America. It’s that millions of people across the Islamic world seem to agree.” If there was agreement on one front, it was in the domain of ‘world heritage’, or more often termed as ‘global

heritage’. In a publication released on Buddha Purnima 2002 titled ‘Bamiyan ~ Challenge to World Heritage’, Kasturi Gupta Menon director-general of Archaeological Survey of India wrote,

“Bamiyan, situated about 250 km north-west of Kabul between the mountain passes of the Hindu Kush and Koh-i-Baba, is one of the important historical sites in Afghanistan. It was the symbol

of the civilizational link between India and Afghanistan. Buddhism was introduced in the region first by Asoka (in the 3rd century BCE) and subsequently by the Kushan rulers. In the 3rd

century CE, the city of Bamiyan became an administrative centre, a halting place for caravans and the location of a great monastery.” She reminded readers ab – out the ASI’s programme “to

preserve this great cultural heritage of mankind. The work started on 10 July 1969 and was of such magnitude that it continued for the next seven years.” As the Taliban gained ascendancy in

Afghanistan from 1996 on – war ds, museums were targeted at Hadda, Kabul, and then Ba – miyan with huge collections of sculpture and carvings of the Gan dhara school. Once vandalized, the

museum collections were often destroyed or sold to equally unscrupulous art dealers. Neil MacGregor, advisor to the Getty on the Sharing Collections project, and celebrated scholar-head of

British Museum and National Gallery in London, wrote in a catalogue on key ideas of emerging global understanding, highlighting “antiquity as a common inheritance, to be preserved,

researched, shared and enjoyed as widely as possible across the world.” In the catalogue of “Ancient Sculptures: India Egypt Assyria Greece Rome”, the international exhibition at Chhatrapati

Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai through 2023-2024, he drew attention to the work of scholars, researchers, teachers across the world who are looking anew at the ancient

world and finding interconnectedness between civilizations and cultures. Call it ‘connected histories’ or ‘shared histories’, new narratives are being developed, with new perspectives on

history, culture, and its impact on modern lives despite the context of America’s prolonged ‘war on terror’, the Israeli-Palestinian bombardments, and closer home, the agonizing armed

battles, terror attacks and wars between India and Pakistan since 1948. “Preservation of cultural heritage has to become a top priority for UNESCO, governments of different countries and

civil society too,” said Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director general of CSMVS, emphasizing, “I strongly believe that the power of culture can change the world as it unites people, countries,

religions, and customs. It works as a healing tool in our broken societies.” (The writer is a researcherauthor on history and heritage issues, and a former deputy curator of Pradhanmantri

Sangrahalaya) Advertisement