Heritage Governance in Postcolonial India: Maharashtra as a Case Study

Abstract

This thesis examines the governance of cultural heritage in postcolonial India through a detailed study of the pluralistic legal and regulatory landscape, with Maharashtra as a central case study. Heritage in India is institutionalised through a dense web of constitutional principles, statutory frameworks, administrative rules, judicial precedents, and bureaucratic practices. These processes were largely introduced under colonial rule and subsequently nationalised in the post-independence period. The creation of state-level legislation and introduction of international frameworks for World Heritage added further complexity, embedding heritage within a broader framework of India’s federal structure and development planning in states. While the national framework for heritage has been extensively scrutinised, state-level regimes, despite their critical role in heritage governance, remain underexplored. The present study aims to fill this gap. By centring the state as the primary unit of analysis, this thesis makes three central contributions. First, it demonstrates that heritage governance in India cannot be comprehended solely through national frameworks; rather it requires consideration of the diverse state-level legal and institutional regimes shaped by regional narratives and development aspirations of the states. Second, it shows how colonial epistemologies continue to structure postcolonial governance, even as they are reinterpreted through nationalist and regional politics. Third, it foregrounds the role of civic participation and contestation in expanding, challenging, and reshaping state-led heritage frameworks. In doing so, the research repositions Indian states as a crucial locus of innovation, adaptation, and contestation in contemporary heritage governance. It also advances the critical understanding of heritage governance as a site of negotiation over identity, memory, and power in contemporary India. Through archival research, legal analysis, and ethnographic fieldwork, this thesis examines the plurality of state-level approaches to heritage governance that emerge as institutional responses to the ontological pluralism of heritage itself, and contestation of colonial legacies. This thesis makes an important contribution to the emerging field of critical heritage studies by showcasing the experiences from the Global South.