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Reimagining a national icon

As we celebrate the Republic Day today, redevelopment of Central Vista casts its shadow on the prized legacy

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Rajnish Wattas

As the buzz around the proposed redevelopment of the historic Central Vista of New Delhi picks up, it’s important to examine the role of historic public spaces and ensembles of architectural landscapes in shaping the collective public memory of a nation. The Central Vista occupies an iconic space in the national consciousness as all Indians watch the Republic Day Parade and the tableaux of our multicultural nation.

When the Prime Minister lays a wreath at the ‘Amar Jawan Jyoti’ memorial at the India Gate or the President takes salute from the marching drum beats of our soldiers, who remembers that the settings for this spectacle is largely a legacy of our colonial masters and not a construct by us as the people of the nation?

What then is the driving impulse behind this massive proposed redevelopment project to cost thousands of crore of rupees that has set into motion a whole set of controversies, media debates and impassioned view points by architects, planners and citizenry all over the country.

A holistic story: Both National Mall (above), Washington, and Central Vista, New Delhi, bind landscape and architectural landmarks. Photo by the writer

The Capitols in history

Throughout history, the role played by Capitol Complexes and legendary urban spaces world over is to manifest the ethos of a country as expressed through the tools of architecture, space and landscape elements employed. They define, in stone, its quintessential will.

As one compares the Central Vista of New Delhi built by its imperial masters with those of other great democracies — like the ancient Acropolis of the Greeks or the National Mall at Washington or the Westminster at London — the only difference is that the latter were made by the founders and the peoples of the nation themselves, unlike ours.

However, one big commonality in all these examples is the centrality of landscape elements in binding the various architectural landmarks together as one unified spatial ensemble. It is the axial symmetry of the Central Vista and its tree-lined grassy lawns that bring order and unity to the 4-km axis between the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the India Gate. And so does the 3-km reflecting pool and linear parkland between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol Hill, punctuated by the obelisk-like Washington Monument in between. Both the National Mall and the Central Vista are based on the Renaissance period’s formal axial planning embellished with the bilateral symmetry of French Gardens at Versailles or Champs Elysees in Paris with its sweeping vistas. The essence of this planning principle is to establish man’s order over nature’s organic waywardness, symbolising, thus, the belief in his own destiny and the will to shape it.

Need for revamping

According to media reports, the needs of modifying this nearly 100-year-old space in the heart of our national Capital are manifold. One that the Secretariat housed presently in the North and South Blocks is not earthquake resistant and ill-suited for modern office space requirements. Also, various ministries and departments of the Government of India, presently scattered at various places — like Shastri Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan, Nirman Bhawans — are dilapidated and unimaginative faceless buildings built hurriedly in the 1950s to meet urgent needs. They hardly ensure a seamless organisational work space to ensure digital era efficiency. These structures holding significant government records are not fire-resistant and have monkeys and pigeons ensconced happily in their windows and jallis.

Similarly, the Parliament building too is outdated to house the increased number of MPs and has antiquated infrastructure, including its hallmark fans fixed from the floors instead of ceilings, whirring lifelessly in the intense heat generated during the legislative debates!

Essentially, the vision for the redevelopment project developed by architect Bimal Patel of the HCP Design, Planning & Management envisages retaining the present North and South Blocks but putting them to a re-adapted use to house various museums such as one called ‘Museum of India’, another ‘India at 75’ and the existing Parliament building to be converted into a ‘Museum of Indian Democracy’, an idea perhaps inspired by the numerous national museums located along the National Mall at Washington.

The new Secretariat will be in the form of 10 uniform blocks flanking the Central Vista behind the tree line and connected to modern transportation hub to facilitate commuters and office-goers. The new Parliament will be built on a vacant triangular plot with state-of-the-art infrastructure and a central gilded spire in the Indian tradition of embellishing sacred edifices.

Concerns and conundrums

One reassuring thing about the project is that no landscape element of the historic tree-lined green expanse and water canals will be touched. The quintessential Rajpath will remain the same and retain its exhilarating vista towards the Raisina hilltop edifices. Also, no new building will puncture the existing skyline and won’t go beyond eight floors or be higher than India Gate. Their architectural expression will be in continuity with Lutyens’ sandstone facades to be similarly clad in Agra and Dholpur stone — though inside the use of steel and glass will be fully exploited to ensure state-of-the-art modern workspaces.

The relocation of the Prime Minister and the Vice President’s residences to new locations in closer proximity to their workplace is hard to find fault with.

Of course, the bombast about completion of the entire project by 2024 looks doubtful, given the bureaucratic tentacles and CPWD’s tedious tendering systems, etc. Also, the project management would need to ensure excellent phasing of such a large ambitious new construction, given our past track record of inconveniencing public for years and years and dragging on of public works, especially if a new political dispensation takes over. And the big if: from where will the massive funding come.

In conclusion, the collective voice of concern seems to say: ‘make haste, slowly’. We’re dealing here with our national architectural iconography and the Republic’s past. Just because a grandiose construct was made by our erstwhile colonial rulers doesn’t diminish its architectural poetry and symphony of space. Any intervention here, less than perfect, will be failing the nation.

From Lutyens to Patel

The British Raj’s crown jewel, India, got its new capital when it was shifted from Calcutta to New Delhi in 1931. It was primarily the work of British architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, who collaborated with another architect, Herbert Baker, and a horticulturalist, William Robert Mustoe, for the planning and building the various edifices and gardens of the imperial city that were located around Raisina Hill, southwards of the old Mughal capital city of Shahajahanbad. The layout plan for the imperial city was inspired by the ‘Garden City’ movement popularised in Britain by Ebenezer Howard. The architectural style developed by Lutyens and Baker was a hybrid fusion of Western classical styles incorporating token Indian elements like the chattris, Buddhist domes and Rajasthani cupolas, etc.

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens and (right) Bimal Patel

Bimal Patel, now tasked with revamping of the Central Vista project, is based in Ahmedabad, a city famous for having produced numerous brilliant post-Independence architects like the iconic BV Doshi and showcases the works of international modern masters like Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn. Patel is a practising architect, urban designer, urban planner and academic. In 2019, he was conferred the Padma Shri for his work. However, his architectural tryst with destiny lies now at Central Vista. Only history will judge if he was up to it.

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