Ayodhyā (India): Sacredscapes and the Inclusive Heritage-Based City Development (IHCD)

Abstract

According to UNESCO, urban governance is the process that leads and considers the various links between stakeholders, local authorities, and citizens; it includes written and unwritten policies, procedures, and decision-making of units that control resource allocation within and among institutions. Inclusive Heritage-based City Development (IHCD) policies are an integrated part of urban governance, and heritage properties and sacred places can be an integral part of larger ensembles, such as holy-historic cities, cultural landscapes, and natural sites. The holy-heritage city of Ayodhyā plays an important role in the formation of religious nationalism and corporate identity of religious heritage through cultural performances, pilgrimages, and religious festivities. The main institutional-administrative bodies of Ayodhyā, viz. Shri Rāma Janmabhumi Tīrtha Kshetra Trust, City Development Authority, International Rāmāyaṇa and Vedic Research Institute (IRVRI), and Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (INTACH), and other such bodies fulfil the three dimensions of urban governance, i.e. political, economic, and institutional—all together they play an important role in making heritage-inclusive development policies and programmes. The IRVRI promotes heritages using associated attributes as resources, especially intangible and religious performances. This chapter narrates the role of urban governance in heritage-inclusive development concerning sacredscapes. The qualitative approach, participatory observations, field studies, and interfacing interviews are the main frameworks of this chapter. This chapter is reasonably initiated from our earlier studies (Kumar and Singh in Ayodhyā, India: cultural landscape and perspectives for inclusive heritage development. Context: built, living and natural, pp 21–30, 2017a; Kumar and Singh in Making cities resilient. The urban book series. Springer, Cham, pp 317–338, 2019); however, significant updates and contemporary changes have been incorporated. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.