Historical buildings in India photographed and their stories preserved before they succumb to decay and neglect

Photographer Amit Pasricha is determined to find as much as he can of what his countrymen have forgotten. This desire to document India’s neglected and crumbling heritage buildings and monuments spawned a project he calls India Lost & Found (ILF). Just 3,650 cultural monuments enjoy the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). That leaves at least 35,000 and as many as 700,000 other items of built heritage vulnerable to bureaucratic apathy, decay, vandalism – and property developers. The country’s capital, Delhi, alone is said to have more than 1,000 unprotected monuments. With most foreign visitors to India preferring to stay in places such as Delhi and Jaipur in Rajasthan, historical sites in towns and cities off the tourist trail are slowly turning to dust. “India protects a few hundred of its hero monuments and the rest are forgotten,” says Pasricha. He hopes photographing and mapping the country’s heritage buildings and monuments will get Indians talking and raise awareness of them. So far he has trained his lens on, among others, Raj Bhavan, in Nainital Uttarakhand, built in the style of a Scottish castle with wooden staircases and dark oak panels dating back to 1899; the Patiala Fort in the Punjab, with its crystal chandeliers; and the Jahaz Mahal, in Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, part of an ancient royal complex. From palace to hotel: how India’s royals are striving to stay relevant Pasricha’s mission includes interpreting each structure’s backstory. “The thing about history is that it takes cognisance only of authenticated facts, so a lot of important things like folklore, traditions or sociological aspects get thrown out of the reckoning,” he says. Based in Delhi, Pasricha was born into a family of photographers and has many coffee-table titles to his name, including India at Home (2017), which tells the stories of a cross-section of the nation’s population by picturing them in domestic settings. He has assembled a team of more than 600 volunteers to identify and photograph underappreciated heritage across the country. This effort involves ASI lists, data from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, and conservation architects. When a structure has been identified, researchers assess the site’s culture and storytellers add their input. To this end, Pasricha has built a “patron network” of some 300 experts that includes Laila Tyabji, a designer and craft authority, and historian William Dalrymple. Crafts, folklore, mythology, cuisine, fashion and textile use are explored in this part of the process. What did people associated with the building in question eat? What did they wear? What interesting stories relate to the era the structure dates back to? “Heritage structures are not just bricks and mortar,” says Pasricha. “They signify the hopes and aspirations of human beings; their lives, their food and traditions.” ILF already has a strong presence on social media through its Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, but Pasricha is looking to increase that. “The entire heritage map will come alive next year [online] and eventually it will be a phone app of heritage structures along with narratives [enhanced by] animators and voice-overs. We are also planning an audio podcast series,” he says. Maryam Shaikh, 25, an assistant professor of English based in the city of Pune, oversees mapping and editing for ILF. “I love being involved in this project, as it’s all about the unknown and exploring,” she says. “Finding out stories from different eras, finding unknown connections is an adventure by itself. “The point of the project is to map the built heritage, and use it to engage with people and create awareness and interest in our rich heritage and the need to preserve it. “Our volunteers come from different backgrounds and places, from college students to Harvard graduates and researchers from across the world. They go from street to street in cities and towns, taking photographs of deteriorating heritage structures, talking to locals to get stories and insights.” Delhi-based Dr Giles Tillotson, 60, a prolific writer on Indian art, architecture and cultural history who has lived in India since 2004, is part of the project’s patron network. “ILF is a great initiative, as built heritage is something India ignores and neglects, even in its formal education,” he says. “Architectural legacy is such a rich source of history, and needs to be preserved for posterity.” Pasricha says: “ILF is not just something that has a single goal, but something that is a lifetime journey, and attempts to build ‘heritage warriors’ of tomorrow, who are aware of the rich architectural heritage of the country and will hopefully [ …] take steps to preserve it.”