Reclaiming Jammu’s Place in India’s Heritage-Based Urban Future
Dr Mrinalini Atrey
atreymrinalini@gmail.com
India’s cities are more than engines of economic growth-they are living palimpsests of memory, imagination, and centuries-old wisdom. From temple towns and trade ports to princely capitals and pilgrimage routes, each historic city carries within it a unique rhythm of life shaped by its geography, architecture, rituals, and oral traditions. Yet, in the race toward modernisation, these layered urban identities often risk being flattened, forgotten, or commodified.
The Historic Cities Series 2025 is a landmark national initiative that seeks to reorient how India envisions urban development-by placing heritage at its core. Jointly stewarded by five national collaborators-the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), Dronah Foundation, ICOMOS India, Heritopolis, and Altrim Publishers-the series brings together deep expertise in urban policy, heritage conservation, academic research, and creative outreach. Conceived as a collaborative movement spanning over 20 historic cities, it responds to the urgent need for culturally sensitive, inclusive, and sustainable planning in the face of rapid urbanisation.
At its heart, the series convenes a wide spectrum of voices: policymakers, scholars, architects, artists, and citizens, all working together to explore how traditional knowledge systems, cultural landscapes, and historic urban forms can guide the creation of resilient and future-ready cities. It challenges the notion that heritage is a static relic or a decorative afterthought, and instead positions it as a living, evolving resource-one that actively informs infrastructure, governance, and community well-being.
Each city edition is locally driven yet nationally resonant, ensuring that the strategies and insights emerging from diverse urban contexts contribute to a shared framework for heritage-led planning across India. The series lays the groundwork for a more thoughtful, emotionally grounded, and culturally rooted urban future by bridging grassroots action with national policy dialogue.
Between April and November 2025, the Historic Cities Series has unfolded across more than 20 historic cities in India, activating a vibrant assemblage of events-expert talks, panel discussions, heritage walks, exhibitions, and community-led documentation. These city editions have celebrated the imagination, memory, and multidisciplinary approaches embedded in India’s living urban heritage, while also generating actionable insights for policy, planning, and public engagement. More than a retrospective gaze, the series offers a forward-looking blueprint-one where heritage becomes a catalyst for inclusive, resilient, and joyful urban futures.
At the heart of the initiative lies a comprehensive framework anchored around three interlinked themes:
* Indian City Planning and the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL): This theme bridges the globally recognised UNESCO HUL framework with India’s own centuries-old planning traditions-Vastu Shastra, Agamashastra, and temple-town layouts. It invites cities to reflect on their historical planning logics and adapt them to contemporary urban needs, emphasising landscape-based approaches and cultural continuity.
* Heritage Toolkits and Manuals: Focused on implementation, this theme supports the creation of practical, locally adaptable resources for homeowners, urban planners, and municipal bodies. These toolkits guide the conservation of historic precincts, promote sensitive urban growth, and foster long-term stewardship.
* Heritage Awareness and Interpretation: Recognising that heritage must be felt as well as preserved, this theme promotes public engagement through guidebooks, heritage walks, exhibitions, storytelling, and digital media. These tools make heritage accessible, relatable, and emotionally resonant for diverse audiences.
Following the city-level editions, the second stage of the series will culminate in a national exhibition titled Living Heritage in Historic Cities of India, to be held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi (November-December 2025). This exhibition will showcase the creativity, memory, and multidisciplinary approaches embedded in the urban heritage of participating cities, offering a tactile and visual experience of India’s cultural ecosystems.
The final stage will be marked by a National Symposium, also at the India Habitat Centre, where insights from across the series will be synthesized into a shared vision for heritage-led urban development. This culminating event will convene city representatives, policymakers, scholars, and practitioners to reflect on priorities, share best practices, and chart a path forward for India’s historic cities.
Why Jammu Matters in the National Narrative
The Jammu edition of the Historic Cities Series 2025 brings long-overdue attention to a city shaped by profound continuities and transformations-its historicity stretching back to the Stone Age. Archaeological finds around Akhnoor and Manda reveal traces of early human settlement, situating Jammu within the ancient cultural geography of Madra Desh. Mythology and oral tradition attribute the founding of Jambupura to Raja Jambulochan, whose vision of a city where a lion and a goat drank water side by side remains a powerful metaphor for coexistence.
Over centuries, Jammu evolved through multiple urban nodes-Purani Mandi, once a bustling capital, gave way to Mubarak Mandi, the architectural jewel of the Dogra dynasty. With its Mardana and Zenana palaces, galleries, and courtyards, Mubarak Mandi became the nucleus of political and cultural life, eventually anchoring Jammu as the capital of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Post-independence, the city expanded beyond its historic core, but the memory of its layered past continues to shape its identity.
The Historic Cities Series 2025 – Jammu Edition, held from 11-16 October under the theme Riverine Memory, Plural Heritage, and Community Narratives, offered a week-long exploration of Jammu’s richly layered urban identity. Coordinated by the author of this write-up and Ar. Kushagra Anand, and supported by national collaborators alongside local institutions and civic bodies-including Jammu Smart City, INTACH Jammu Chapter, Kala Kendra, The Law School (University of Jammu), Jammu Heritage, and The Devika Project-the edition reaffirmed Jammu’s role as a vital node in India’s heritage-based urban future. It demonstrated how memory can serve as a tool for planning, and how plural heritage-spanning architecture, ecology, language, and ritual-can offer a resilient foundation for inclusive development.
Through immersive heritage walks, archival exhibitions, storytelling sessions, and academic panels, the city’s evolution-from sacred geographies and dynastic capitals to civic spaces and community rituals-was engaged with depth, nuance, and inclusivity. Events across Mubarak Mandi, Kala Kendra, Purani Mandi, and Panchvaktra Mandir foregrounded participatory stewardship, youth engagement, and interdisciplinary dialogue, while the concluding symposium convened scholars, practitioners, and government representatives to reflect on heritage-led planning and the future of Jammu as a culturally grounded, community-driven urban landscape.
The Jammu edition culminated with the symposium that brought together a diverse constellation of voices to reflect on the evolving relationship between heritage and urban development. Across three thematic sessions, the dialogue foregrounded Jammu’s architectural and ecological memory, its intangible traditions, and the emotional depth of its civic identity. Language and oral traditions were reframed as living archives of belonging; crafts and monuments were recognized not just as physical assets, but as embodiments of cultural philosophy. The discussions challenged technocratic models of urban planning, advocating instead for culturally grounded development and sustained community engagement.
In the context of Jammu’s designation as a Smart City and the vision outlined in the Jammu Master Plan 2032, the Historic Cities Series 2025 offers a timely and strategic intervention. It reframes heritage not as a barrier to progress, but as a vital resource for resilience, identity, and community well-being. Jammu’s river system, shrine networks, artisan traditions, and dynastic architecture form a rich and underutilised foundation for inclusive urban planning. By placing Jammu in the national spotlight, the series challenges reductive narratives and affirms the city’s rightful place in India’s civilizational continuum. It calls for policy reform, participatory governance, and investment in cultural infrastructure that reflects Jammu’s unique historical trajectory. From the restoration of Mubarak Mandi to the cultural activation of the Tawi riverfront, the series invites both citizens and administrators to envision a future where heritage is not only preserved-but lived, celebrated, and meaningfully integrated into the everyday life of the city.
(The author is Secretary-General, ICICH-ICOMOS International)
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