Between Treaty Obligation and Developmental Governance: India’s Implementation of The UNESCO World Heritage Convention

What constrains the sovereign state in its implementation of treaties? This paper examines India’s uneasy custodianship of its UNESCO World Heritage sites, demonstrating how an international obligation entered back in 1977 has evolved due to pressure from the requirements of domestic law, federal politics and economic aspirations. Focusing on the principles of dualism and illustrated with reference to the case of the Taj Corridor, whereby a state’s decision to commercialise land near the Taj Mahal was impeded by a legal challenge, the paper shows how treaty obligations are implemented in India through creative institutional practices rather than formal ratification. However, behind such a process of transplanting international law into a domestic context hides a more complex struggle: while UNESCO’s measure of greatness, ‘Outstanding Universal Value,’ is based on Western values, this paper demonstrates how it implicitly excludes some of India’s spiritual or historical sites from being recognised by the rest of the world.