HYDERABAD: It was nearly a decade ago, the centuries-old St Joseph’s Cathedral in Gunfoundry was renovated, repairing or redesigning most of the interiors and features, including flooring, cracked walls, towers and other parts of the church.
Not it has come to light that though that renovation work enhanced the image of the church, it has also left a centuries-old chandelier damaged. According to a church official, one of the original chandeliers brought from Scandinavia was damaged during the renovation. Now, out of the five chandeliers that hang from the ceiling in the church, only two are originals, which date back to the 19th century.
It is important to note that conservation and preservation of not just St Joseph’s Cathedral but other churches in city is taken up privately under the aegis of the denomination the church belongs to. As for St Joseph’s Cathedral, since it belongs to the Anglican Church of South India, the conservation work was taken up by them. The fund was raised by the members of the congregation -- as it is done everywhere else -- and a private conservation architect was hired to carry out the renovation work.
This brings up the question, would the damage of the chandelier be averted if the conservation was undertaken by the State government or the Centre? However, the bigger question is, why is the maintenance of 19th-century churches in the city taken up privately rather than by the government in the first place?
A priest from St Joseph’s Church said that to draw funds for the maintenance from the government, the church has to be under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). However, these churches, which are under Anglican South Indian Church, are wary of giving up their places of worship to the ASI. That is because, the priest said, they would lose their autonomy over the church and would have to take permission from the ASI for any minor changes in the future.
In fact, authorities of the St Joseph’s church -- which is enlisted as a heritage building -- in the past have not taken permission from the city’s Heritage Conservation Committee whenever they have undertaken renovation. According to rules, no heritage building can be repaired or renovated without the permission of the city’s Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC).
This is evident from the minutes of a meeting of the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority from 2006, which questioned the renovation works at the church going on then. “The site was inspected by the staff of HUDA. It was noted that the Cathedral authorities are carrying out major renovation works without any application to and approval of the Heritage Conservation Committee. A letter was addressed to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad but there was no response.”