Geopolitical priorities, governance gaps, and heritage subjectivities: The perils of heritage-making in the post-disaster reconstruction in Nepal

Abstract

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent around the world, causing extensive damage to both the physical and social fabric of cities and towns. Reconstruction of a city’s architecture and built heritage becomes a priority to safeguard lives, livelihoods, traditions, and cultures. The process, however, is replete with conflict and mediation between different tiers of governance resulting in a complex ‘heritagescape’. Drawing on the post-disaster reconstruction of Durbar Square, one of the seven World Heritage Sites in Kathmandu, Nepal, this paper demonstrates how heritage reconstruction sites serve as a stage for broadcasting geopolitical interests, national agendas, and subnational motives. Global actors and donor agencies appropriate heritage and legitimize their actions within the context of weak institutions, informal governance, and lack of formal plans and policies. This is resisted and re-worked by local groups through the cracks in the post-disaster reconstruction landscape. The paper draws on the fieldwork conducted between 2016-2019 supported by interviews with 47 individuals representing 13 organizations involved in the reconstruction. The paper demonstrates challenges in striking a balance to situate heritage on an international platform while also adhering to local sentiments and sensibilities. It also points to three intersecting planes of existence, emphasizing the simultaneous significance of global, national, and local dimensions and forces in post-disaster heritage-making.