Committee Reports: Urban Heritage 2020-2021
Director-in-charge: Rtn. Jamshed Banaji
Chair: Rtn. Samir Chinai
Co-Chair: Rtn. Anita Patel
Members: PP Sonya Mehta, Rtn. Aditya Somani, Rtn. Ashok Jatia, Rtn. Aziz Jhaveri, Rtn. Rhea Bhumgara, Rtn. Ptn. Sandra Merchant, Rtn. Ptn. Yasmin Divecha, Rtn. Ptn. Arzan Soonawalla
Continuing Our Heritage Efforts
We are excited that the Asiatic Society Library has acquired new equipment for the Hermes Cartographic Conservation Project which has been spearheaded by RCB’s Urban Heritage Committee. The Project, led by conservation consultant Amalina Dave, along with the conservation head of the Asiatic lab Sunil Bhirud, has installed a low-pressure table which was fabricated to specifications in Italy. It will aid in the repair, treatment, and cleaning of centuries-old maps, after which they will be reconstructed.
This is a big step in the direction of establishing a state-of-the-art laboratory at the Asiatic Library. Roberto Bello of CTS Europe travelled specifically to set up the table and give a demonstration, and Sandeep Tomar from CTS India ensured the table was built to best suit the project, and shipped safely from Italy despite the pandemic. The project can now expand to include the most fragile maps, which would otherwise have been very difficult given Mumbai’s environment and lab constraints.
Urban Heritage Committee organised a riveting audio-visual presentation for Rotarians in September on the history of the Bassein Fort, just north of Mumbai. Conceived and hosted by André J.J. Baptista (PhD) the talk covered Portuguese conquest, rule and its impact on the west coast of India, particularly the north Konkan. It outlined the strategic position of Bassein to the Portuguese naval interests, providing context as to why imperial powers vied for control of this region on the west coast. History came alive through images and visuals such as old maps, prints, plans and the architectural history of the fort juxtaposed with recent photographs.
The Asiatic book conservation team completed the restoration of another 31 books sponsored by us through our club during this Rotary year in spite of the lockdown. Work on the next set of 100 sponsored books and additional maps will be resumed after the lockdown.
UHC will have thus far enabled the restoration of a number of ancient and precious books of the Asiatic Library and the digitalisation of thousands more.
