Next steps : Industrial Heritage

Bangalore has always been known as a Science City. Its current image of being a vibrant, youthful, innovative and productive city owes its foundations to the vision of the Mysore Maharaja’s government, which transformed this sleepy cantonment city, expanded to keep watch on the goings on during the colonial era, into a throbbing centre for science and industry.

Visweswaraiah’s focus on building core infrastructure and encouraging industries to set up in the Bangalore areabegan with the establishment of Asia’s first hydro-electric power station supplying power on a large scale. The vision of subsequent administrators such as Mirza Ismail, brought plentiful power to Bangalore. The pleasant climate, the availability of educated labour and the availability of land encouraged both public and private enterprises to set up their establishments in Bangalore. State Government industries such as Mysore Electrical Industries and the Karnataka Soaps and Detergents continue that century old legacy, even though other pathbreaking companies such as NGEF and the Chrome Tanning Factory now remain only in the realm of nostalgia. Union Government undertakings such as HAL, BEL and BEML, operate still from Bangalore. In the private sector, Many industries were located within the city; Binny mills, Elgin Flour mills, Minerva Mills, Standard Brick and Tile Factory and the ITC Cigarette factory come to mind.

However, much of this industrial heritage of Bangalore has now been liquidated. Sadly, in many cases, no trace of the old industries of Bangalore remains; most have been replaced totally by residential apartments and office complexes. Some, like the NGEF, are being taken over to cater to the needs of the Metro, and other contemporary infrastructure.

We need to recognise industrial heritage and acknowledge its role in the history and culture of Bangalore. While an occasional museum may be built to preserve memories, such as the HAL Museum, Industrial heritage lovers will find it difficult to piece together a comprehensive picture of Bangalore’s role in India’s industrialization. Bangalore’s celebrated Visveswaraiah museum is inadequate to celebrate Bangalore’s extensive industrial heritage.

There is a dire need to begin and expand initiatives to preserve and celebrate Bangalore’s industrial heritage. Here are three ideas on which we need to move quickly.

Build a collective of enthusiasts around tech and industrial heritage:

Industrial heritage preservation now happens in silos by individual organisations, particularly if there are dedicated persons within the system who wish to devote their time and energy to this task. While the HAL Museum is an early and good example of this effort, there are other such efforts under way. The railways have announced plans of setting up a Railway historical centre at the old Nandi Railway Station, which is being restored. The Rail Wheel factory has plans of setting up a Wheel museum. The Karnataka Vintage and Classic Car Club, one of the oldest clubs of this kind in the country, has over 300 members and documented details of over 1500 vehicles, preserved by individual enthusiasts.

Yet, there are examples of Industrial heritage being neglected. Some still survive for the present,such as the original electricity receiving stations constructed over a century back, but how long they will survive is uncertain.

1. We need to bring together all custodians of such efforts, all museums that exist in this regard, as well as private enthusiasts and benefactors, to brainstorm on what are the plans for going ahead, to preserve Bangalore’s industrial heritage. A Seminar will be a good way to begin these efforts.

2. Initiate a documentation of industrial heritage: Following the seminar, we could initiate a process of documentation of industrial heritage of Bangalore. There are many individual efforts ongoing in this regard, usually undertaken in a low profile manner. However, archivers need to get together, know more about each other and a repository of what is there created. Heritagebeku can be at the coordinating level. Once archived, the stories can be told – of discoveries, their significance and what needs to be done to preserve them. A good example to follow is the one taken by enthusiasts to preserve ancient inscriptions in and around Bangalore.

3. Once interest is raised, collaborate on a few projects: Many projects could be begun to promote an interest in Industrial heritage preservation. Some of them are as follows:

   (a) Conduct an annual exhibition to bring industrial heritage enthusiasts together and showcase their efforts in their respective areas of interest.

   (b) Collaborate to undertake quality restoration of Industrial heritage artifacts.

Many restoration efforts, though well intentioned, end up being careless with not enough attention paid to authenticity, due to inadequate research and mistaking beautification for restoration. Solution is to go slow, be scientific and involve private enthusiasts in the effort to restore and maintain artifacts of industrial heritage. And as far as technology heritage is concerned, we must strive, as far as is practically  possible, to get old equipment to work in the way that they were meant to be. Old wind up clocks should be wound up and click. Old cars should run. Old steam locos must also hiss, whistle and run.

Preserve them by keeping them running..

Please email us at heritagebeku@gmail.com with your ideas and suggestions.