Beyond factories: Patancheru’s ancient past resurfaces through community drive
HYDERABAD: Drive through Patancheru on any given morning, and you will see the usual markers of a working industrial town that are factory gates, commuter traffic, and apartment blocks pressing up against old roads. Most people overlook a 16th-century tomb that stands quietly at the edge of their everyday commute.
That invisibility troubled Seema Krishnakumar. An assistant professor at the Department of Design, IIT Hyderabad, Seema arrived in Patancheru from Kerala nearly eight years ago. She moved into a place she knew little about. Like most people in the area, she passed the Amin Khan tomb regularly but never stopped to look.
This growing curiosity set the stage for change. “For six or seven years, we let it pass us by. We only knew Patancheru a.k.a Patancheruvu as an industrial town. We saw nothing, except this one tomb we kept passing,” says Seema in an exclusive conversation with HyderabadMail.
Deccan Archive, a Hyderabad-based group known for its heritage documentation and walking tours of the city’s historical precincts, created a turning point. When the group announced a heritage walk through Patancheru, Seema signed up half-curious, half-skeptical. She encountered a reality that unsettled her. The heritage was real, layered, and genuinely ancient. The neglect was equally real.
“We were all unhappy, at least those of us on the walk. It was a very bad situation,” she recalls. Residents of nearby apartment complexes had dumped waste at the Amin Khan tomb. The community living beside it did not know its history. “Local people have to be proud of what they have in front of them. Only then will they own it, and things can be preserved in the long run,” opines Seema.
Back at IIT, Seema did what academics do best, she turned the problem into a project. Radhika Bondre, a final-year Bachelor of Design student, took it up as her thesis, with Seema mentoring her. Before designing anything, they went to the source. They visited three colleges in and around Patancheru and surveyed young people about the heritage sites outside their windows. The findings were stark. Most students did not know what stood in their midst. Many had never given the old structures a second thought.
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From this research, new ideas quickly emerged. The research directly inspired a visual campaign centered on Patancheru’s heritage trail. The campaign was named together4patancheru to bring a sense of harmony. The team deliberately chose a street-walk route and Radhika reimagined it as an Instagram series. Each post in the ongoing campaign pairs a modest slice of history, the structure’s age, and its significance with a visual language designed to stop a thumb mid-scroll. The team also shares what they know of each structure’s story.
Collaboration soon amplified the impact. Sibghat Khan and Dheeraj Vanarasa of Deccan Archive research team helped in the research. Further, the team collaborated with the MDR Foundation, a local group led by Maadri Prithviraj, to organize a heritage walk and cleaning drive with the support of CMC (GHMC) at the Amin Khan tomb. Trucks cleared debris. The team forged local college ties that had once been difficult to build.
This joint effort proved essential for real progress. “If MDR Foundation and Maadri Prithviraj hadn’t helped, we couldn’t have accomplished the cleaning drive or many other things. They had an equal stake. Radhika and I, as outsiders, just pushed it a bit further,” added Seema.
Key partners include Deccan Archive, a heritage research and historical documentation, Maadri Prithviraj from MDR Foundation, a local community coordination and cleaning drive, GHMC for the support for site clearance, and Data Co-lab, Dept.of Design, IIT Hyderabad for Design research, system design and visual campaign.
One of the most striking findings is the sheer age of some Patancheru structures. From the account of Deccan Archives, the Amin Khan tomb is one of the oldest structures of Hyderabad. In another incident Someone at the first heritage walk shared a haunting photograph of a Buddha statue, which revealed details that were nearly lost. The record does not clarify whether someone stole, removed, or simply displaced the statue, but its existence points to a deeper history, predating the industrial era for which people know Patancheru today.
Still, many challenges remain. “Few have truly explored Patancheru’s history,” Seema said. The team believes Patancheru needs funding, focus, and aid. “It also has a very bad name because of pollution and industry. We ourselves are victims of the pollution here,” she says. Seema adds that a place known for fumes and factory gates does not inspire pride. Without pride, she argues, even thorough documentation cannot guarantee real preservation.
Yet, there are glimmers of hope and progress. Radhika Bondre presented a prototype at IIT as part of her thesis submission. Seema Krishnakumar, who arrived as an outsider knowing almost nothing about the city she had moved to, has come a long way. So, perhaps, has Patancheru.
