38th WORLD UNESCO World HERITAGE SITE:

Relevance: Prelims/Mains: G.S paper I: Art and culture

In a Remarkable Achievement, India gets its 38th WORLD UNESCO World HERITAGE SITE as Pink City Jaipur

Culture Minister Shri Prahlad Singh Pate thanked to global community for recognizing the historic and cultural importance of Jaipur.

In yet another landmark achievement, India’s nomination of the Jaipur City, Rajasthan got inscribed on the World Heritage List of UNESCO during the 43rd Session of the World Heritage Committee held at Baku, Azerbaijan.

The nomination of Jaipur City has successfully been done by complying with the various UNESCO guidelines of 2017. With Successful inscription of Jaipur City,  India has 38 world heritage sites , that include 30 Cultural properties, 7 Natural properties and 1 mixed site.

India’s nomination was initially recommended by the ICOMOS (advisory body of World Heritage (WH) Centre for cultural sites) as Deferral, but the 21 nation World Heritage  Committee debated it and after discussion decided to inscribe it on the World Heritage  list.

The excerpts of  proposed statement of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) before the World Heritage Committee was presented by India as follows:

• The City of Jaipur is an exceptional urban example in indigenous city planning and construction in South Asia.
• Unlike other medieval cities of the region, Jaipur was deliberately planned as a new city on the plains open for trade as opposed to hilly terrain and military cities of past, though its planning still ensured a response to the surrounding hill tops in all directions.
• The site selected within the valley that lay to the south of Amber hills was comparatively flat and unmarred by any previous construction.
• Besides an exemplary planning, its iconic monuments such as the Govind Dev temple, City Palace, Jantar Mantar and Hawa Mahal excel in artistic and architectural craftsmanship of the period. Jaipur is an expression of the astronomical skills, living traditions, unique urban form and exemplary foresighted city planning of an 18th century city from India.
• Jaipur is an exemplary development in town planning and architecture that demonstrates amalgamation and important interchange of several ideas over the late medieval period.

The countries that supported India’s nomination are as follows:

Brazil, Bahrain, Cuba, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Kyrghystan, Zimbabwe, China, Guatemala, Uganda, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Bosnia and Hezegovina, Angola, St. Kitts and Nevis. Australia and Norway initially proposed referral but after the debate they agreed for Inscription of Jaipur city.

With this, India now has 38 World Heritage Sites , that include 30 Cultural properties, 7 Natural properties and 1 mixed site.