Whither Industrial Heritage

Mr Raghunandan , well known vintage and heritage expert brings up a unique heritage issue that often misses our attention: Industrial Heritage. Reader, #HeritageBeku wouid be keen on your thoughts and inputs on this.

‘We need to recognise industrial heritage and acknowledge its role in the history and culture of Bangalore. Many industries were located within the city (Binny mills, Elgin Flour mills, Minerva Mills, NGEF, ITC factory). They have all been relocated or liquidated with not even a trace of them remaining. Not even a tiny museum commemorating them. Similarly we have steam locomotives that are rotting away with little of their history known.

The only industrial heritage structures that remain are the A and B stations of the electricity system, now with BESCOM. I suppose it's only a matter of time before they are demolished.

The railway stations still preserve some old elements. But they have been carelessly restored.

And that's the problem. Careless restoration. Doing the easy 90%. And messing up the critical remaining 10 percent by not doing enough 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.”

Prof Rabindra chips in, ‘Absolutely important as history of technology is the most important indicator of cultural evolution in any society. Very valid point coming from a person who is deeply involved in upholding the values of technological heritage. Thank you for sharing your perspective. “

This is what the vintage car groups do says Mr Raghunandan: ‘ The KVCCC has a decent template of what works in practice when it comes to restoration of old vehicles.

(1) We hold regular shows. For all kinds of enthusiasts. Cars, two wheelers, drivers.

(2) We have technical discussions at our shows. On independence day we held a bike show followed by a tech seminar in which 3 experts spoke on (a) dos and don'ts of restorations of two wheelers (b) handling electrical and carburation issues (c) dos and don'ts for long journeys on classic bikes.’

He informally shares his own experience on the Karnataka Vintage Car Group KVCCC :

´Our WhatsApp group has become a good place to share restoration tips, progress on restorations and similar stuff. Discussions that become useful are immediately archived and put out on our website. We have a huge collection of workshop manuals, digitised.

The result is that over the last two years since a new Executive Committee took over, we have expanded our activities. More members have joined, we have many more displays and drives and more vehicles are being restored and are hitting the road.

We also worked with the government to get the vintage vehicle rules issued for Karnataka. A huge achievement. It streamlines the process for dealing with registration related issues concerning vintage vehicles.’

Excellent example here feels #HeritageBeku . So here is how execution and ideation come together to affect policy . Here’s something to learn from if we proceed on this .

In response to Priya Chetty-Rajagopal query on the ‘how’ of preserving what’s left , Mr Raghunandan responds with Three ideas:

‘(1) Build a collective of enthusiasts around tech and industrial heritage

(2) Document what's left

(3) Maybe collaboration on a few projects? Start with exhibitions and then progress to participation in restorations?’

Readers what are your thoughts ?

And Can we begin ?