While nations across the globe have been investing a large amount of money in discovering their cultural heritage to determine how strong roots they have historically and culturally, we as a nation have taken the route in the reverse direction, at least in certain cases. We hardly care about existing symbols of our rich culture; thinking of investing in preserving historical monuments is a far cry. The dilapidated condition of age-old structures speaks volumes about our ethos towards preserving monuments having the tangible presence of past eras, historic styles and heritage.

As a result, whereas Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate or Delhi’s India Gate have been preserved for years and stand tall as the symbols of respective cities and testimony of their rich history and glory, one of such gate in our capital, the Dhaka Gate or Mir Jumla’s Gate, faces obliteration due to the lack of maintenance and construction of metro rail. Two dilapidated structures covered with green tendrils are telling more about our negligence towards heritage and past glory. Very recently, we also came to know about the plan to demolish the 100-year-old building of the Maheshwarpasha Art School and an attempt to grab the historical house of Deshapriya Jatindra Mohan Sengupta.

There is hardly any scope to be reluctant to saving archaeological evidence to make our community feel proud of the past and be united based on those roots. So, all the heritage sites and historical mementos, including Dhaka Gate, must be preserved with due importance. None have the right to destroy the testimony of our glorious history as these are the bridge between generations.