Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore what is gained by the possibility of simulating the old, particularly in the absence of sympathetic conservation practices, and ask if "new heritage" can be taken seriously as religious or political claims-making expressed in the ability to build again.

Paper long abstract:

In 2017, construction work on Pakistan's first mass transit system was briefly halted over claims that it threatened adjacent heritage sites. A satirical article joked that the chief minister of Punjab had placated international heritage bodies with the promise of building "new heritage" sites in place of those at risk of destruction. Influential stakeholders protesting the construction works relayed the story as if it were fact as it travelled between WhatsApp groups. Elsewhere, the caricatured yet believable practices associated with the possibility of "new heritage" have become increasingly common. In the UAE and China, the construction of simulated heritage areas designed for shopping and public leisure often operate alongside the destruction or ruination of actual historic sites.

Importantly, the possibility of (re-)building heritage is not only a state concern but can be a subversive expression of disagreement. In Shi'i neighbourhoods in Lahore, Iranian-imported construction kits allow users to (re-)build the mausoleums of Jannat-ul-Baqi, the graveyard in Medina demolished in 1926. When contestations over the built heritage of holy sites are materialized by mass produced commodities, the aspirational and satirical idea of "new heritage" becomes a playful way of re-producing political and religious morality through friction with the perceived other. This paper will explore what is gained by the possibility of simulating the old, particularly in the absence of sympathetic conservation practices, and ask if "new heritage" can be taken seriously as religious or political claims-making expressed in the ability not only to develop and build, but to build again.