What constitutes Muziris? Past and the production of heritage destinations in the south Indian state of Kerala

This paper examines how the discourses generated around the early historic port site of Muziris have led to the configuration of multiple and overlapping territorial imaginations in the south Indian state of Kerala. Closely examining the heritage narrative that has developed around the tourism initiative, the Muziris Heritage Project, this paper looks at how it responds to the demands of an emergent globalising discourse on heritage, while at the same time drawing heavily from the narrative preoccupations of the national modern. The heritage imagination thus generated feeds back into popular perceptions altering and creating novel territorial imaginations of the past in the region.