Pondicherry Heritage Festival

In November 2014, the historic Town Hall of Pondicherry, built in 1870, collapsed. For a town whose economy and identity rest on its unique heritage, a grid of French-era boulevards and Tamil quarters, colonial mansions, temples, churches and mosques, and the spiritual presence of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and nearby Auroville, the loss was a warning. Out of it, a group of citizens formed People for Pondicherry's Heritage, and from their determination to act came the Pondicherry Heritage Festival, first held in early 2015.

Largely a volunteer effort, organised with INTACH Pondicherry, PondyCAN and the support of the Puducherry Tourism Department, the festival is built to make heritage everyone's business. Its programme spans the physical and the living: guided heritage walks through the French and Tamil quarters, cycle tours and food walks that reclaim the streets for residents; classical and folk performances, art exhibitions, book launches and poetry evenings; and a serious strand of talks, seminars and discussions on conservation, Tamil heritage, the ideas of Sri Aurobindo, and themes such as local food systems and millets. Across its editions (recent ones have run between February and April) it has drawn historians, artists, scholars, residents and tourists into a shared encounter with the town's history.

The festival's aims are explicit and twofold: to create and strengthen a distinct sense of belonging and being Pondicherian for all its residents, and to protect and project the town's architectural heritage, with the larger ambition of seeing Pondicherry recognised among the heritage cities of the world. In tying cultural celebration directly to conservation, the Pondicherry Heritage Festival has become both a yearly gathering and a sustained civic movement.