HISTORIANS, artists, architects, cultural and theatre personalities, intellectuals, teachers, and many such eminent people signed a joint statement that was prepared by Ananya Vajpeyi, Supriya Gandhi , and Vivek Gupta. This statement was initially signed by over 100 people and was published in a section of the media. Later it was hosted on Change.org where more than 1,000 people have joined in through their signatures opposing the Central Vista project.

We reproduce the statement here:

We, the undersigned call for an immediate halt to the Central Vista Redevelopment Project undertaken by the government of India, which commenced in December 2020. The designation of this scheme as an ‘essential service’ invites fresh scrutiny of the plan. It is especially troubling that this extravagant project is moving ahead in the midst of a devastating pandemic, endangering workers, and squandering scarce resources that could be used to save lives.

We would like to draw particular attention to the upcoming demolition and relocationof the National Museum of India, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), and the National Archives Annexe. In fact, preparations to raze the IGNCA complex are already underway. There was a clear logic in the urban planning of Delhi to keeping these cultural, archival and historical centres in close proximity to each other. The National Museum, in particular, has historical value and requires renovation and augmentation, not demolition. The rushed destruction of these structures will cause irrevocable harm to world-renowned institutions that have been painstakingly built over decades.

The Central Vista demolition threatens the collections of these heritage repositories. We are concerned that such a shift would impact the state of conservation of several objects. Even under normal circumstances, it would be a complex and risky operation to shift the diverse and irreplaceable treasures of the National Museum, the archival records held in the National Archives, and the manuscript holdings of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. The current pandemic only exacerbates these risks.

The unilateral and hasty implementation of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project runs contrary to established practices worldwide. Across the globe, such plans to expand, relocate, repurpose or redesign key cultural institutions are preceded by widespread consultations and consensus building before finalizing the design, let alone moving collections indefinitely.

The details of the Central Vista demolition are opaque. It is unclear, for example, how the National Museum art objects will be stored and eventually displayed in the office complex of the North and South Blocks, as is planned. As the National Museum’s collection still lacks a complete inventory of its holdings, this relocation is hazardous. The extent to which these collections will continue to be publicly accessible is also unknown.

These demolitions are only one part of a mammoth undertaking that involves constructing a lavish new Parliament and turning open space into office blocks. The project as a whole will forever alter the historic urban plan of Lutyens’ Delhi, a piece of world heritage that has become an integral part of the cultural and political life of independent India.

The current escalating health crisis calls for a pause and a reset. For the short term, this project should be immediately suspended, and all priorities and resources directed to combating the pandemic. In the long term, however, this hiatus should be followed by extensive public consultations so that the future of India’s institutions, heritage architecture, and historical collections can be determined through a democratic process.

We urge the government of India to reconsider its misguided scheme.
Some of the signatories in the 100 names include:
Vivan Sundaram, artist, Delhi
Romila Thapar, Jawaharlal Nehru University (emerita)
Carlo Buldrini, journalist, Rome
Nancy Adajania, cultural theorist and curator
Ernst van Alphen, Leiden University
Sean Anderson, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Arjun Appadurai, NYU and Bard Graduate Center
Catherine Asher, University of Minnesota (emerita)
Frederick M. Asher, University of Minnesota (emeritus)
Sussan Babaie, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Mieke G. Bal, Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
Tim Barringer, Yale University
Homi Bhabha, Harvard University
Shailendra Bhandare, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Bronwen Bledsoe, Cornell University
Sugata Bose, Harvard University
John H. Bowles, writer and curator
Michael Brand, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Rebecca M. Brown, Johns Hopkins University

Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago
Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University
Divya Cherian, Princeton University
Iftikhar Dadi, Cornell University
William Dalrymple, writer and historian
Gouranga G. Das, Hanyang University, Seoul
Catherine David, MNAM-Centre Pompidou, Paris
Rohit De, Yale University
Vidya Dehejia, Columbia University
Chris Dercon, Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais, Paris
Vishakha N. Desai, Columbia University
Faisal Devji, University of Oxford
Deepali Dewan, University of Toronto
Bernard Fibicher, Fine Arts Museum Lausanne
Rahul Mehrotra, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
A G Krishna Menon, architect, urban planner, and conservation consultant
Ram Rahman, photographer, SAHMAT (Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust)
Susan Stronge, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.