On 26th January 2023, while celebrating our 74th Republic Day, we are entering the 75th year of Republic India. Most of us are aware of ongoing Central Vista Redevelopment Project. We want our readers to revisit the brief history about Development of The Capitol Complex of New Delhi.
Shift of the Capital
On 12th December,1911 King George V announced the transfer of the seat of the government from Calcutta to Delhi. There were quite a few reasons for this move.
British wanted to escape the political atmosphere of Bengal, which was increasingly charged, since the partition of that state by Lord Curzon in 1905.
Also, Calcutta’s insufferable summer necessitated the removal of the entire administration to Shimla for 7 months every year. Transfer to Delhi did not solve it but eased it since Delhi’s climate was bearable.
Delhi, was the prestige of the early Sultans and the Mughals. The King claimed to the Mughals as ancestors by referring Delhi as the ancient capital.
Introduction of the Architecture Design
The Viceroy Lord Hardinge insisted to consider Indian sentiments. The effect meant a mixture of Eastern and Western styles.
Architect Lutyens felt this imposition as an artistic catastrophe. Lutyens resented imposing Indian architectural elements as he felt that it had no redeeming qualities. Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, acknowledged expert on Indian architectural details, was appointed as their advisor. Lutyens had nothing but contempt for Jacob’s work.
King George hoped that adopting Mughal style would be a splendid opportunity to encourage Indian craftsmen.It is the apotheosis of the Anglo-Indian style which also provides an enduring monument to Indian craftsmanship.
Selecting a Style
The greatness of civilization declares itself in its architecture. The Indo-Saracenic fully developed, appealed to the politicians. Viceroy’ for high considerations of state felt bound to have an Indian styled city. He wanted to have a generally Indian appearance, in order to symbolise the increasing role of Indians in government.
A compromise style was proposed which would include Indian motifs. John Beggwas the consulting Indo-Saracenic architect to the government of India.
Indo-Saracenic
Saracenic is a term applied by Christians to the whole of the Islamic world and its architecture. The Indo-Saracenic movement began in the 1870’s. Indo Saracenic architecture was supposed to serve as an imperial gesture to revive Indian traditions. It helped to obscure the exploitative nature of British imperialism.
The Master Plan
The concept of the complex was “the city beautiful”. Located at the geographical centre of city, was intended for easy visibility along main artery. An equilateral triangle defined by ceremonial, administrative and commercial centre of the new metropolis.
Commercial in north forms the apex.
Rajpath-East –West axis of power, provides the base.
North –East diagonal serves the law.
North –East diagonal by-passes the cathedral & the originally unforeseen Parliament.
Rajpath was aligned to the entrance of Purana Quila.
The Capitol Complex was set amidst large landscaped areas.
Central vista is symmetrical in plan which creates a grand formal stage for the entire composition. This axis is reinforced by the
use of symmetry in almost all aspects and is the main guideline for LINEAR VISION.
Flaw
The street plan of the city is unsuccessful because of the confusing web of triangles stacked in hexagons with a round about at each Junction.
Linear Vision and Landscape
Base plan articulated by means of levels and textures, metal road Red sandstone edges, grass belts, trees, built edges and elements.
Water bodies and soft paving have been used to segregate Vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The entire complex has a majestic scale with proportions of classical order.
Arguments Raised
Architectural style for the new buildings with some insisting to be Western and Classical and some on Indian style. The design and the execution of the new buildings be entrusted wholly or predominantly to Indian Mistrisand to traditional Indian working practices since they thought this might be the last chance to rescue the Indian architectural guild system extinction.
Consequences of the above arguments
Two independently minded architects were appointed, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker.
George Swinton accompanied by John Brodie led a town planning committee constituted in 1912. Lutyens was chosen from the many competitors for the post of architectural advisor to the committee, because of his experience in the planning of Hampstead Garden Suburb, and the personal influnecehe exerted on the Viceroy and Vicerine, Lord and Lady Hardinge. Herbert Baker was appointed to be Lutyens collaborator on Lutyens’s own
Recommendation.
Mistrisin Delhi
Issue was raised about choice of appropriate style for New Delhi concerning employment to Indian craftsmen.
Two arguments,
Giving minor and supporting role to Indian craftsmen.
All design work given wholly to Indian craftsmen.
Call for Indian style, gained considerable support and hence, demanded serious attention. King Joseph took up the cause of Indian craftsmen. Havell, leading spokesman, aimed to focus public attention on this subject.
Gordon Sanderson report in 1910 highlighted that
The country has ample evidence of strong local construction tradition
Craftsmen are then still capable of producing high quality work at low cost.
Consulting Architect John Beggwas uncertain about Sanderson report. However, the government established school for training Indian craftsmen .
Further Consequences…
Even after training Indian craftsmen were trusted with lesser decorative work.
Lutyens employed Punjabi carpenters to execute his furniture designs. Lutyens didn’t take any help in designing process from Mistris. Lutyens’s assistant Shoosmiththought one can admire Indian artistry but not respect Indian technology.
Building The City
The original division of labour gave Lutyens the responsibility for designing Viceroy’s house and Baker that for designing the two Secretariats. These buildings are grouped together on Raisina, a low hill standing to the south-west of the old Mughal walled city. Lutyens was principally responsible for designing the street plan of the new city. Transfer of power from a small executive council to a large Legislative assembly created a need for an assembly building. Baker was asked to design the council house, and following the war, Lutyens designed the All India War Memorial (India Gate).
In drawing up their designs , Lutyens and Baker responded differently to the demand of introduction of Indian features. Baker’s aim remained to interpolate into the classical tradition those Indian forms that jarred with it least. Reluctant to tamper with tradition, Lutyens, constrained by his employers to take some notice of the Indian heritage, decided to attempt a more profound kind of union.
Working Style…
Lutyens and Baker, both began with Classicism, since to both the classical tradition embodied order and rationalism. Robert Byron, one of the earliest critics of New Delhi, described Baker’s use of Indian motifs as mere illusion and writing in symbols. Lutyens, by his own account, was attempting something deeper, and he was generally been credited with having achieved it.
Lutyens altered and adapted the Indian forms to a greater degree, but still he used them as punctuation marks, as occasional pauses in the classical scheme. Lutyens buildings are entirely classical, the Indian contribution consisting only of inserted details. At the outset, Lutyens had resisted the insertion of Indian features on the ground that the mixing of tradition would mock them..
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Onto the classical frame, both then grafted a selection of Indian forms : the chajja, the chattri, the jali, corbelled arches and sculptures of elephants and of bells on chains.
RashtrapatiBhavan ‘Viceroy’s House’ (1921-29)
Lutyens and Baker, both began with Classicism, since to both the classical tradition embodied order and rationalism. Robert Byron, one of the earliest critics of New Delhi, described Baker’s use of Indian motifs as mere illusion and writing in symbols. Lutyens, by his own account, was attempting something deeper, and he was generally been credited with having achieved it.
Lutyens altered and adapted the Indian forms to a greater degree, but still he used them as punctuation marks, as occasional pauses in the classical scheme. Lutyens buildings are entirely classical, the Indian contribution consisting only of inserted details. At the outset, Lutyens had resisted the insertion of Indian features on the ground that the mixing of tradition would mock them..
This majestic red and cream sandstone building was designed as the home of the British Viceroys. The so-called Delhi orders which Lutyens created at Viceroys house consists of
Model bells and a stylized Asokan capital placed over a stripped a classical column:
This is not synthesis but combination. Lutyens did achieve a kind of synthesis, in the dome of Viceroys house.
The outline of the dome and the modelling of the drum are reminiscent of the tumulus and railings of the early Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi.
He did not mix details, but produced an original form that is at the same time wholly classical and wholly Buddhist in spirit.
Placed over the classical colonnades (227) of Viceroy’s house the chajja, loses its original sense and is pressed into service as a cornice and so becomes a logical complement to it.
Throughout Viceroy’s house each architectural vista-each view down the corridor, up a staircase or into a distant hall-has been calculated with consummate mastery.
Baker’s Secretariat ‘The BakerLoo’
Baker’s Secretariats have a sculptural power. There is a dynamic rhythm to the grouping of a columned projections on their inner flanks.
A serious planning flaw, arose from Baker’s insistence that the Secretariats should share the summit of Raisina with the Viceroy’s house. In consequence to make space for the Secretariats, Viceroy’s house was pushed back from the crest of the hill. Viceroy’s house appears to sink into the ground as one’s angle of view steepens, Lutyens called this effect his ‘Bakerloo’.
Council House
The elegant circular and colonnaded Parliament house is built in buff and red sandstone, the beautifully proportioned structure has a circumference of nearly half a km. Baker’s council house , stands on no significant axis and is too obviously an after thought.
India War Memorial ‘India Gate’
During the 1st world war, a large number of British and Indian soldiers sacrificed their lives. Under the arch, a lamp burns perpetually beside an inverted rifle and helmet, and men of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force stand in ceremonial guard at the site. The scattered chhatris are powerful, sculptural forms; and their qualities are translated to a larger scale. The Cupola stands in front of the India Gate. It was supposed to be housing the statue of King George V.
Conclusion
Considered in themselves, buildings by Lutyens and Baker in New Delhi are magnificent achievements of architectural design, but they marked the final demise of India’s indigenous tradition.
Government’s refusal to employ Indian craftsmen in design ensured extinction of guild system. Including Indian craftsmen in designing , after schooling them in modern engineering, would have given a less dramatic and successful result. It would have at least sustained the world’s most distinctive architectural traditions a little longer, giving it a new direction.
From this point onwards , Indian architecture had nothing of its own traditions to work from but only what the west had given it.
Central Vista Redevelopment Project
The government statement for the new Vista development project stated “As the needs and duties of the government expanded, so did the usage of the space. However, due to the development in the area being around a century old, and the current growth and development of India, the current Central Vista has failed to keep up with the needs of the country”.
The Central Vista Redevelopment Project was launched in 2019. The project includes converting North and South Blocks into public museums, creating an ensemble of new secretariat buildings to house all ministries, relocating the Vice President and the Prime Minister's offices and residences near the North and South Blocks, and revamping the 3 km (1.9 mi) long Rajpath between Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate. A new Parliament building with increased seating capacity will be built beside the older one as India aims to expand its Parliamentary membership in 2026. The project aims for completion in 2026. The design contract was won by Bimal Patel led HCP Design Planning and Management Pvt.Ltd. of Ahmedabad, Gujarat in October 2019.
Meanwhile, in September 2022, the statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose installed at the India Gate hexagon, under the Grand Canopy.
References
Previous Compilation of the Content by –Ar. Kartiki (Mestry) Arondekawith her peers Ar. AmeetaDalvi, Ar. Priyanka Chheda, Ar. Janaki raut, during their S.Y. B. Arch. Academic Year in 2004
Delhi.Agra.JaipurThe Golden Triangle by Sumi Krishna Chauhan
The History of Architecture in India by Christopher Ernest Tadgell
The Tradition of Indian Architecture by Giles Tillotson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Vista_Redevelopment_Project
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