New Delhi: At first glance, the 1857 revolt and India’s architecture seem to have little in common. But architect and urban designer Rajesh Luthra connected the dots at a lecture at Delhi’s India International Centre earlier this month. The 1857 revolt not only saw the British Crown taking over the governance of India from the East India Company, but changed the course of how buildings were envisioned and built.
“The initial buildings were built by military engineers. But after 1857, architects were appointed to design buildings,” said Luthra, at the lecture titled Designing Edifices for the Empire and the Princely States – Foreign Architects in India at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The vocabulary of construction changed to incorporate Indo-Saracenic elements.
Luthra focused on the role of foreign architects — primarily British — in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the stabilisation of the Raj in the subcontinent, and the spread of a ‘Western way of life and thinking’ in certain sections of Indian society. He showed how this was reflected in the architecture of that period.
One of the grandest buildings dating back to 1799 is the Government House (now Raj Bhavan) in Kolkata, commissioned by the Governor-General of India, Richard Wellesley, and designed by engineer Charles Watt. It was the seat of power for the East India Company and was inspired by the Kedleston Hall in England. There was no Indian element in its architecture.
Before the revolt, the British built cantonments, hill stations, and clubs that did not reflect Indian sensibilities. But after 1857, the vocabulary of architecture changed. It started with the British adopting motifs and elements which they saw as traditionally Indian — both Hindu and Islamic designs. Luthra compared Kolkata’s Presidency College built in 1817 with the Presidency College in Chennai, which was built between 1865-70. The Madras college had more Indian elements, he concluded.
“The act of getting foreigners to come and contribute to the architectural enterprise in India has been going on for centuries. Many of us have probably been in these buildings without realising this,” said Punita Singh, acoustician and visiting faculty at Ashoka University, who moderated the lecture
Impact of colonialism on built environment
Luthra divided the coming of foreign architects — the Dutch, Portuguese, French and, of course, the British — to India into three phases or waves. The first was the late 19th century when architects like George Gilbert Scott and Fredrick William Stevens put their stamp on Mumbai’s architecture. Scott designed the library building in the Fort campus of Bombay University and the Rajabai Clock Tower, drawing heavily on Gothic styles without visiting India. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus was designed and built by William Stevens.
The second wave saw architects like Henry Lanchester and Walter George establish their presence through buildings like the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, and the Sujan Singh Park in Delhi from the early 20th century to post-Independence years.
The buildings were not just for show, but cemented their position in India. Some were used for government offices, as palaces for viceroys, and others like the municipal corporation headquarters in Mumbai for administration and civic work.
British architect Lancaster designed Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan Palace between 1929-43. “He was not as well known in India because he did only that one building,” said Luthra, who defined the third wave as spanning from the 1990s to the present.
No empire in history has built so variously as the British Empire in India, he said, quoting historian Jan Morris. But the initial architecture was very alien to local sensibilities.
“The upper gentry [of Indian society] who interacted with the British through the years sought to adapt to that lifestyle. How they sat, ate and lived and that was reflected in their palaces and the houses as well,” said Luthra.
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Calcutta to Delhi
Luthra identified Calcutta, now Kolkata, as the laboratory of vocabulary for the British. The colonisers transformed Calcutta into a town and then into a bustling cosmopolitan city.
“Architecturally, Calcutta was a very stable laboratory of stylistic changes over a period of over 200 years,” he said, adding that the initial presence was marked by warehouses and godowns as the British came as traders to India. The Writers’ Building (1777) in Kolkata is an example of this mercantile architecture — it was built to accommodate the East India Company’s clerks and traders.
When George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India from 1899 till 1905, came to India, he was surprised to discover that Watts’ Government House in Calcutta was identical to the Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire.
“It was almost exactly the same,” said Luthra.
By the time the British envisioned New Delhi as its new capital in 1911, there were many architects who had established themselves in India. But then-Viceroy Charles Hardinge gave the commission to a relatively unknown person — Edwin Lutyens.
“He had never visited India before that. But Lutyens was chosen,” said Luthra.
But the decision for a new capital stirred the top British officials who took interest in the design details and the finances of the project.
“It caused a lot of consternation, obviously it has an effect not just on social implications but tremendous financial implications which the city and its traders built upon,” said Luthra, adding that Hardinge was himself involved in the design details.
So when Lutyens was selected, it was felt that he should work with someone more experienced, and that’s how Herbert Baker was brought onboard.
During the audience interaction, a member asked Luthra about how the Indo-Saracenic style became popular. And here, too, politics came into play.
“It was the governmental policy. The Indo-Saracenic is more prevalent in public buildings like the post office, railway stations where the Indians went as opposed to the churches. We did not see that in the churches or the British buildings clubhouses. So, quite strategic,” Luthra said.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)