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British Colonial Architecture IV

The Seats of Power - Shimla and New Delhi
The British Empire legitimized its colonial rule as an entity furthering the abstract principles of
the Rule of Law, the Progress of Industrialized Society and the Model Ruler. It is thus
ironical that the public buildings of the empire were anything but of the people, in the main they
continued the well-established Indian traditions of ostentation and luxury. This is in contrast to
the spartan accommodation of the majority of officials who actually governed - they lived in the
ubiquitous bungalow, originating from the simple double-roofed hut of Bengal, and which would
expand in size and complexity on a scale ascending strictly in accordance with the gradations of
their hierarchically ordered service. An essential ingredient was the Classical portico, extended
to form the sun-shielding verandah in more elevated permutations, asserting the dignity of the
ruler without ostentation.
Shimla was the viceroys seat for
half the year, during the summer
months.
The vice-regal lodge here is
patterned after an English great
house, complete with a quaint
reproduction of a rural parish
church, now in ruin and inhabited
mostly by bats and a play space
for children who live near. Even
though the vice-regal lodge is
grand, it pales in contrast with
the last capital of British India
laid out from 1913 by Sir Edwin Lutyens in collaboration with Sir Herbert Baker, who was fresh
from his imperious triumph at Pretoria.
King George V proclaimed the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi at the climax of the
1911 Imperial Durbar. New Delhi was inaugurated early in 1931. Like Calcutta, it was stamped
with the hallmark of authority and like most other seats of British power in India it stood apart
from its Indian predecessors. This was contrary to the original intention. The prevailing
enthusiasm of Anglo-Indian imperial designers for the synthesis of eastern and western styles
quailed before the problem of assimilating an urban order, devised in accordance with the
principles of the modern English Garden City, and the vital chaos of Shahjahanabad: the latter
seemed to be the very embodiment of all the evils of laissez-faire growth that the formulators of
the Garden City movement specifically deplored.

An equilateral triangle is defined

by the ceremonial, administrative
and commercial centers of the
new metropolis. The commercial
centre in the north forms the
apex. Rajpath, the east-west axis
of power, provides their base.
The north-east diagonal serves
the Law; the north-west diagonal
bypasses the cathedral and the
originally unforeseen parliament.
Rajpath is aligned with the
entrance to the Purana Quila. It
runs through the India Gate War
Memorial and the portal
buildings of Bakers secretariat,
from the chattri in which the
citys founder, the King-Emperor,
stood in imperial majesty to the durbar hall of the house where his Viceroy sat.
Lutyens had arrived in India to undertake this
great work with little or no respect or appreciation
for the architectural legacy which preceded him,
and his views grew only the more derogatory with
first-hand familiarity especially with the AngloIndian Imperial hybrids developed by his
immediate predecessors. Many Europeans in
India were of a similar opinion. The Viceroy,
Lord Hardinge, however, asserted that the new
capital was being built for a joint British-Indian
administration and must symbolize reciprocity
between the British and Indians of all creeds.
In his Indian Architecture of 1913, E.B. Havell
pointed to the example of Akbar and maintained
that, through architecture, enlightened patronage
could reconcile racial and religious differences.
The king had of course the casting vote, and he
himself showed a proclivity for the Mughal style.
Lutyens was forced to concede (as if he had a
choice!) that indigenous decorative motifs might
be used within reason, their luxuriance
providing a foil for Classical order.

Centered on the great circular durbar

hall, the Viceroys House is clearly a
revision of its Calcutta predecessor.
Both have a ceremonial core and
four satellite blocks of living and
office quarters, though in Delhi the
western ones containing the Viceregal and state guest apartments are
linked to the centre not by loggias
but by the major suite of reception
rooms. Apart from the English
country house derivation of the plan
and the Pantheon ancestry of the
durbar hall, Lutyens imperial
eclecticism ranged from Wrens St.
Stephens Wallbrook (for the
Viceroys library) to the Mahastupa
at Sanchi (for the central cupola) and
the chahar bagh. On the way he took
in the ubiquitous Indian chattri and
chadya, cross-fertilized acanthus and
volute with padma and bell for his
Order and tethered Indian elephants
at salient portal corners where the
great
ancient
Mesopotamian
monarchies had ceremonial syncretic
winged monsters. Baker was equally
liberal with his Indian motifs in the
Secretariats and the massive,
strangely unassertive, circular Parliament building, but Lutyens thought him singularly
insensitive to the spirit of the scheme as a whole in the angle at which he set Rajpaths ascent
between the Secretariats to the plane of the Viceroys house.
Apparently there is a saying which warns of the dangers of building at Delhi the saying
prophesies that the empire will soon be lost. Whether it be myth or not, the fact is that
independence for India was near. After Independence, there was a brief protest against the
continued use of the Viceroys house as a state building, arguing that its colonial antecedents
would make it a continuing reminder of the past. This debate however did not last long and the
Viceroys house is today Rashtrapati Bhawan, the state house of the President of India. The only
concession made was to remove the statue of King George V from its cupola, to be replaced by
that of Gandhi (the cupola remains empty to this day). The British crown lost its biggest jewel in
1947, but not before the subcontinent was divided into two, and this legacy haunts the politics of
the region to this day.
Ashish Nangia, August 22, 2004