Evolution of buildings from pre to post-independence: Architects who shaped today’s India

PMO Narendra Modi delivering his speech on August 15 2020 in the Red Fort, one of the most celebrated monuments of our nation.

In the celebration of 75 years of independence, India has several achievements to its credit. It has built a contemporary economy (second fastest growing economy), remained a democracy, lifted millions out of poverty, has progressed in the field of atomic power and developed a strong policy for the better living of the world’s fastest-growing nation.  Seventy-five years ago,  India took baby steps to become one of the most important democracies within the world, overcoming a plethora of challenges to earn global recognition. India has come an extended way since Independence, leaving a string of landmarks that outline its journey from the agony of Partition to a robust, powerful and developing nation.

The concept of India as a territory goes back possibly as far as the third century BC, with the Maurya Empire. Since then, many other kingdoms and empires have occupied an outsized part of the Indian sub-continent, including the Chalukyas, the Vijayanagara Empire, the Delhi Sultanate and therefore the Mughal Empire. Post Maha Janapada Period 600 BC-200AD, saw architecture starting from Buddhist stupa, Viharas, temples (brick and wood), rock-cut architecture, Ajanta and Ellora, step wells, etc. The Middle Age architecture speaks of sculptured temples both South India temples and North India temples. The South India temples had a square chambered sanctuary topped by a 3 spire with an attached pillared mandapa as in Brihadeswara Temple, while the North India temples had elaborated spires, beautiful sculptures, delicate carvings, gopurams and courtyards as in Kailasa Temple, Khajuraho Temple, Konark Temple. The Mughal architecture highlights the Mughal tombs of sandstone and marble which reciprocate the Persian influence as in Red Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Taj Mahal, etc, which are still considered to be a few of the marvels of Indian heritage the nation possess.

Indian architects before Independence were working under British architects and soon after the British left India in 1947, Indian architecture was in chaos. Perhaps, there was an identity crisis, a dilemma whether to adhere to historical precedents or move forward with times using new ideas, images and techniques. While in other fields like art, music and culture, the distinct Indian imprint was more enhanced within the post-Independence period; no such thing was discernible within the case of architecture. It was within the year 1947, towards the midnight of 14th August, the inaugural Prime minister of newly Independent nation India came and gave one among the foremost memorable speech of the century called “Tryst with Destiny” which announced the grand entry of a newly born nation, beginning of an old era towards a contemporary one with new hopes and Identity. This also reflected on the struggle the state will face for the essential need for infrastructure and development. In the grand history of the state we always found our heritage in either Temple, mosques, or other religious monuments or palaces, forts, etc., unlike a city like New York where administrative structures like Railways, colleges, public gardens, bridges, and canals are a part of the heritage and are given equal importance, were developed a bit like the historical monuments.

1st PM Jawahar Lal Nehru’s speech post-independence. 

Jawaharlal Nehru had a far vision for the betterment and development of art and architecture in India. He invited Le Corbusier to style the capital of the state Punjab, Chandigarh. Le Corbusier designed the Secretariat and supreme court and ever since Chandigarh became a robust symbol of the latest India and inspired the architects and thus the general public for a forward-looking Modern Architecture within the Post-Independence period.

The new India had a requirement from government institutions like CPWD and education institutions like IIM’s and IIT’s, to develop modern cities for the longer term like Chandigarh, Bhuvaneshwar, and Gandhinagar, and therefore the responsibility to hold out such huge infrastructure challenge got to architects and designers from India and everyone around the globe.

There came a handful of intellectuals and architects who argued that monuments should be viewed in the context of their times, that they were not be imitated and modern India required modern architectural symbols and forms to precise the dynamism of a free on their march to economic development. While the style talk raged throughout the last decade, the 1950s also saw a big expansion of architectural education. In 1947, there have been three schools: Baroda, Bombay and Delhi. Some of the architects came back to India after education and training in western countries like Charles Correa, B.V. Doshi, Raj Rewal, Achyut Kanvinde which resulted in strong architectural character.

Architects who shaped new India

Although we see a serious metamorphosis of architecture ever since 1950 towards modernism, inspired by the renowned International architect’s Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, the identity of Indian architecture is not pure modernism. Most of the successful Indian architects including Charles Correa, Raj Rewal, and B.V.Doshi blended vernacular elements into modernism giving it an upscale flavour that demarcates the identity of Indian architecture. They used deep overhangs, courtyards, shading devices, pergolas, jaali screens to make an aesthetically appealing climate responsive design. Charles Correa features a deep understanding of the cultural values, mythological spaces, and historical architecture of India. He emphatically blended the Navagraha mandalas in two of his projects where the traditional elements cannot be separated from modernism. Raj Rewal was very fluent in using vernacular elements of Jaisalmer town in most of his projects, incorporating the hierarchy of social spaces, street patterns, urban fabric, abstract chhatris, locally available materials. Indian Modernism isn’t almost form, function, materials, structure but it adds another time which is that the feel of fresh air and nature inside the aesthetically profound spaces Indian architecture may be a fine mixture of modernism with traditional insights identified as Critical Regionalism, but it does have a more functional and rational approach to style which is the main language of modernism while incorporating the social spaces, regional vocabulary, economical possibilities, climate-responsive, integration of architecture with landscape, energy efficiency and using locally available materials, which provides a robust identity to Indian Modernism architecture.

India, with several millennia of history, boasts of a diverse and rich built heritage. Each region of our subcontinent boasts monumental buildings and remarkable archaeology. Yet, but 15,000 monuments and heritage structures are legally protected in India—a fraction of the 600,000 protected within the UK. Even those structures considered to be of national/state or local importance in India and guarded intrinsically remain under threat from urban pressures, neglect, vandalism, and, worse, demolition, only for the value of the land they stand upon. Following decades of archaeological effort, we in India boast of several thousand sites contemporary and even grandeur to the well-known Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, as well as hundreds of megalith sites—all unknown to the general public and even the tourism industry. India has currently 40 Unesco-designated World Heritage Sites, with two new sites added to the list in 2021 (Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple at Palampet in Telangana’s Warangal and Dholavira, a Harappan-era city in Gujarat). Thereby, in the celebration of 75 years of our independence, let us reminisce heritage buildings as not just buildings but a cornucopia of artisans’ techniques, exclusive raw materials, patience, reverence, and memory. Such edifices embody memories and emotions and are of inherent value. The richness in the brick and mortar technique or the use of natural healing limestone talks about the progressive architectural and structural elements. They need to be treated as a living resource, that adds value to society and our local economies and not just as burdens of the past. Not all buildings are monumental or great pieces of architecture and thus often become victims of redevelopment. Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for its timelessness, somewhere rightly quoted by Frank O Gehry, which can be linked to heritage and culture and present diversification it holds.

Bibliography : 

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/independence-day-2019-events-that-define-indias-journey-from-1947-to-2019-5906068/
2. https://www.hindustantimes.com/more-lifestyle/independence-day-2020-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-history-and-significance-of-india-s-74th-independence-day/story-KGQdmbXQ5HRTI5DrcmHYcM.html
3. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271860565_A_Many-Cornered_Thing_The_Role_of_Heritage_in_Indian_Nation-Building
4. https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/know-your-architects/a1392-indian-architects-that-shaped-the-face-of-new-india-in-post-independence-era/
5. https://www.artshelp.net/an-introduction-to-ancient-indian-architecture/

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Hello there, I’m Ellora Ghosh…

Born and brought up in the plains of Assam and proudly pursuing her masters in Urban Planning, the young architect believes tangible heritage are the carrier of the past and virtue of timelessness. A writer in practice, she loves to pen what she predominantly observes and seeks to learn.  Her love for travel and authentic French cuisine makes her develop a strong interest in art, culture and heritage and wishes to document every country she travels to.