Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the selective silencing of heritage in national conservation projects of the Walled City of Lahore and whether/how this form of structural violence is countered by subaltern initiatives for heritage conservation that yield prospects for reconciliation between India and Pakistan.

Paper long abstract:

The debate on the commons is of high relevance for questions of shared histories. Where urban heritage in post-colonial cities is concerned, not all layers of heritage are considered worthy of protection. In this paper we analyse heritage management and urban conservation frameworks in the Walled City of Lahore, Pakistan. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted on and off over the past decade, we explore how selected urban heritage is mobilized as a tool for economic growth and investments opportunities by the government and development authorities, and how these processes of heritage management in turn silence important dimensions and objects of heritage that constitute a shared history with Hindus and Sikhs before and during the Partition of the subcontinent in 1947. The prevalent erasure of a history of conviviality and violence, we argue, prevents any constructive confrontation with the past and constitutes a form of structural violence. While development and conservation projects in the Walled City target the tangible heritage, such as selected built environment (e.g., officially designated houses, public spaces, facades, and monuments), at the same time cultural heritage and intangible dimensions of it, are instrumentalised along with discourses of participation and inclusivity to create acceptance for heritage management projects among the affected population and facilitate their implementation. By examining the relation between development, collective memory, and heritage, this paper traces alternative forms of heritage management in Lahore arguing for the need to decolonize heritage to move towards a constructive confrontation with the past required for agonistic peacebuilding and reconciliation.