The recent proposal made by a Parliamentary standing committee has caused quite a stir in the national preservation circles. The said committee has taken a bold and patriotic stance, recommending the creation of a devoted cultural heritage squad that will focus on the recovery of stolen antiquities from India.

The committee understands that safeguarding national treasures involves much more than just maintaining existing artefacts - it also involves retrieving our lost history. Just imagine the thrill of discovering a piece of our past, long thought to be lost, and bringing it back home!

This commendable proposal was made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture in their report - a landmark document that was presented to both Houses of Parliament recently. The report, titled "Three Hundred Forty Eighth Report on the subject 'Heritage Theft - The Illegal Trade in Indian Antiquities and the Challenges of Retrieving and Safeguarding Our Tangible Cultural Heritage'", proposed that a multi-departmental task force be created to expedite the retrieval process.

The proposed task force would be quite the collaboration! It would bring together top-ranking officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs to oversee the police and investigation side, the Ministry of External Affairs for coordinating with foreign governments, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and senior scholars and experts to lend their wisdom and expertise. It is indeed a great example of unity and coordination towards a shared national objective.

An important fact to note is that the ASI is not just involved in archaeological research and conservation. According to an official statement released by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, they are also entrusted with the mammoth task of recovering stolen antiquities. It’s a double duty of sorts - preserving what we have and reclaiming what we’ve lost. A herculean task indeed!

The committee pointed out that many countries like Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, the US, Scotland, Spain, and France have already set up specialized squads dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage. These teams comprise of experts who single-mindedly track and recover stolen antiquities. Borrowing this smart strategy could prove highly advantageous for the ASI.

A dedicated squad, made up of well-trained officers, focusing solely on the recovery of stolen antiquities could make a huge difference. The training could cover all relevant aspects of the retrieval process, adopting successful procedures followed by other countries. In the fight against heritage theft, such a squad would be our frontline warriors.

The committee also brought up another thoughtful recommendation. They proposed the creation of a central sector scheme that encourages state governments to form a comprehensive database of antiquities across the country. This, if implemented, would give us an accurate inventory of our cultural heritage assets.

Incentives play a huge role in getting people involved. The committee suggests that an incentivisation scheme should be formulated to encourage the participation of relevant agencies or stakeholders for record keeping of our tangible cultural heritage. The more hands on deck, the better!

Talking about documentation, the National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA) came under the committee's scrutiny. Since its inception 15 years ago, it was noted that only about 16.8 lakh antiquities, which is roughly 30 per cent out of an estimated 58 lakh antiquities, have been documented. But hold on, it was also revealed by the ASI director general that this 58 lakh figure is just an estimation - the actual number of antiquities in India could be even higher!

This discrepancy led to the committee expressing alarm at the slow pace of documentation under the NMMA. If there's an ocean of antiquities out there, we need to be moving a lot faster in documenting them.

Following a candid review of past efforts, the committee has made a call for immediate action. The need for thorough documentation and maintenance of a database for the country's antiquities has been recognized as an urgent task, and the committee strongly recommends concerted efforts to complete this process swiftly. A mission mode approach is needed, they stressed.

The committee was also informed by the ASI that the process of documentation in the 55 ASI Site Museums scattered around the country has been initiated, with a target completion date set for the end of 2023. However, the committee was not entirely satisfied with this, feeling that the documentation in "ASI-owned sites" should have been completed much earlier.

A piece of alarming information came to light through media reports that ASI sites like Chandraketugarh in West Bengal are unfortunately sources of numerous artefacts that are sold worldwide in illegal antiquities markets. It's heartbreaking to think that pieces of our heritage are being whisked away while the sites themselves lie abandoned.

The committee found it quite puzzling that, despite the emphasis on documentation as a major preventive measure against the theft of antiquities, the ASI has not documented the antiquities in its own Site Museums. The committee mentioned that the Ministry of Culture has been around since 1961 and the ASI is even older by a century. Yet, despite years of conservation efforts and funds allocation, the preliminary step of documentation hasn’t shown satisfactory progress.

The committee also proposed that the ministry and ASI explore the possibility of involving state governments and relevant bodies such as the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), National Culture Fund (NCF) and the French Institute of Pondicherry, among others, in the process of documenting India's antiquities.

Further, the committee suggested that a dedicated team should be created within ASI to foster better collaboration with civil society organisations, enhancing the documentation and recovery process. The more minds and hands working on this, the better our chances of success!

Finally, the committee expressed its concern over the current budget allocation for the Ministry of Culture. It noted that only a meagre 0.075 per cent of the total budget is allocated for this purpose, which is strikingly inadequate. Contrast this with countries like China, the UK, the US, Singapore and Australia, which allocate about 2-5 per cent of their budget for the promotion of art and culture. Notably, the funds for these efforts in the aforementioned countries are largely sourced from non-government sources, which isn’t the case in India.

In conclusion, these proposed changes, if implemented, could pave the way for a new era in the preservation and protection of India’s rich cultural heritage. We all can look forward to a future where our national treasures are protected, documented, and where lost antiquities are returned to their rightful place - within the heart of our nation. The sense of pride and nationalism this brings about is indeed a thrill to anticipate.