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History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013
British raj- Architecture as an imposing tool
Term Paper for History of Architecture (AP131)
Mayank Shekhawat
Roll Number: 02616901611
Sushant School of Art and Architecture
ABSTRACT
The colonial architecture spanning about 150 to 200 years, representing an
important phase in the modernization of the country, modification of a stark
medieval life style got to ultimately become a democratic one at the dawn of
Independence in 1947. The modern Indian life style, the physical environments
and the very urbanity experienced today cannot be understood without
recognizing the happenings of this historical period.
Historians regard the year 1757 as the starting point of the British Empire in
India, even though large parts of the country remained under the rule of Indian
princes. It took nearly another hundred years for the East India Company and the
British government to extend British rule to northern and western India. Britain
reigned India for over three hundred years and their legacy still remains through
building and infrastructure that populate their former colonies.
The major cities colonized during this period were Madras, Calcutta, Bombay,
Delhi, Agra, Bankipore, Karachi, Nagpur, Bhopal and Hyderabad.
This paper attempts to appreciate and comprehend in brief the British
architecture in the three major cities of India, namely, Madras, Bombay, Calcutta
and understand how it reached its conclusion in New Delhi along with a
comparison between the earlier and the latter and also realize the emergence of
a new urbanity, modernizing forces, urban inserts and a new sense of urban
design, overlaying of the new on the old, extension of cities and the cities of
colonial origin: Bombay, Calcutta, Madras- expression of culmination – New Delhi,
the imperial city- impact of modernist urban design ideology.
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Building Methods, initial role of military engineers, followed by the setting up
of Public Works Department (1862)-introduction of new building practices
affecting rural as well as urban scales, -superimposition, modification and
replacement of existing building practices, introduction of new materials and
building techniques, their impact on architectural form.
Architectural Styles, politico-cultural meaning through built environment-
purposeful stylistic changes in architecture, from neoclassical to Indo-Saracenic-
important architects and their contribution.
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PAPER
Introduction
Indo-Saracenic architecture represents a synthesis of Islamic designs and Indian
materials developed by British architects in India during the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. The hybrid combined diverse architectural elements of
Hindu and Mughal with cusped arches, domes, spires, tracery, minarets and
stained glass, in a wonderful, almost playful manner. Chepauk Palace (C.1768) in
Chennai designed by Paul Benfield is said to be the first indo-saracenic building
in India, referred to as licentious ‘eclectic” incorporating elements and motifs of
Hindu and Islamic precedents. The other outstanding examples are spread
across the country - Muir college at Allahabad, Napier Museum at
Thiruvananthapuram, the Post Office, Prince of Wales Museum, University Hall
and Library, Gateway of India in Mumbai, M.S. University, Lakshmi Vilas Palace at
Baroda, the General Post Office, Law Courts, Museum and University Senate
House in Chennai, the Palaces at Mysore and Bangalore.
The paper is divided into two parts-
1. Indo saracenic architecture in madras, Calcutta and Bombay.
2. The final hybrid, New Delhi.
PART 1
Architecture in madras
Architectural developments in Chennai, formerly madras, during British rule in
India comprised a massive overhaul in every Christian architectural creation that
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was present in the city. Churches were primarily taken into account, giving them
a clean English look, deriving inspiration from their London counterpart. Even
bungalows were built in certain areas to suit their high-flying style. Massive
banquet halls came into being for official evening functions, every nook emoting
out a classical feel.
The colonial legacy of Chennai is most apparent in the vicinity of the port. South
of the port is Fort St George. A little south of the fort, across the Cooum River, is
the Chepauk cricket stadium, another British staple, dating from 1916. North and
west of the port is George Town, where dockyard workers and other manual
labourers used to live. Most of the colonial-style buildings are concentrated in the
area around the port and Fort St George. The remaining parts of the city consist
of primarily modern architecture in concrete, glass and steel.
The Chepauk Palace, designed by Paul Benfield, is said to be the first Indo-
Saracenic building in India. However, most of the Indo-Saracenic structures in the
city were designed by English architects Robert Fellowes Chisholm and Henry
Irwin and can be seen across the city, especially in areas such
as Esplanade, Chepauk, Anna Salai, Egmore, Guindy, Aminjikarai and Park Town.
Prominent structures in the Esplanade region include the Madras High
Court (built in 1892), the General Post Office, State Bank of India building,
Metropolitan Magistrate Courts, YMCA building, and the Law College. Chepauk
area is equally dense with these structures with Senate House and library of
the University of Madras, Chepauk Palace, PWD Buildings, Oriental Research
Institute and the Victoria Hostel. Southern Railway headquarters, Ripon Building,
the Victoria Public Hall, and the Madras Medical College's anatomy block are
examples of Indo-Saracenic-style structures found in Park Town. Structures such
as Bharat Insurance Building, Agurchand Mansion and the Poombhuhar
Showroom are found along the Anna Salai, and Amir Mahal is in Triplicane.
Structures found in Guindy include College of Engineering and Old Mowbrays
Boat Club. Egmore is dotted with several such structures including
the Government Museum, Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Veterinary College,
State Archives building, National Art Gallery, and College of Arts and Crafts. St.
George's School Chapel and the Southern Railway Offices in Aminjikarai are other
examples of the Indo-Saracenic structures in the city.
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Figure 1: Chepauk palaceRef: http://madrasmusings.com/Vol%2019%20No%2024/images/Chepauk%20Palace%20colour.jpg
Figure 2: Senate houseRef: http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2003/06/13/images/2003061301751701.jpg
Architecture in Calcutta
Calcutta during the prolonged British rule of 200 yrs, was a pivotal place, from
where had emerged several legendary freedom-fighters and freedom
movements. As such, the city was an area which the British could not afford to
leave unguarded. Due to British concentration of both civil and military life,
Calcutta during the pre-independence centuries very much mirrored England in
several aspects. Architecture was one such primary sphere. Accordingly
architectural developments of Calcutta under British rule were simply
overpowering, with stellar presence of gothic churches, mansions, boulevards
and governmental office buildings. Great pain and eye was instilled into making
Calcutta an architectural masterpiece.
In 1801, lord Wellesley (1760-1842), governor-general of India, acquired seventy
acres and two bungalows in Barrachpore, west Bengal. Here, he planned a
palatial country house, fifteen miles from Calcutta. The British East India
Company nipped his plans in the bud by recalling him. Some of the plans went
forward, however, resulting in the construction of a main floor for the principal
house and several separate structures for guests. The surrounding landscape
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adjacent to the Hooghly River proved particularly beautiful and much beloved.
Later, the tragic death and burial of lady charlotte canning (1817-1861) in
Barrackpore brought to closure the joy felt for Barrachpore.
Architectural developments of Calcutta under British rulers were given a regal
look, when in January 1803 lord Wellesley opened the new government house
with a great ball commemorating the peace of Amiens. The structure consisted
of a central block of three floors and four wings. It possessed considerably
resemblance to kedleston hall in Derbyshire. As adapted by lieutenant Charles
wyatt(1758-1819), superintendent of public works of the Bengal engineers, it
took him six years to complete at a cost of 167,359 pounds. The renovated
government house possessed an ionic façade. Grey marble from Italy was
imported for the floors and teak wood from Burma for interior finishing. Only
after 1870 did lord mayo (1822-1872) take an interest in landscaping the six-
acre site surrounding government house. Displaying a vigorous interest, he filled
it with trees, flowerbeds and ornamental scrubs. Later still lord Curzon (1859-
1925) added electricity, modernised the plumbing and installed electric lifts and
fans.
In1813, placed on Calcutta’s esplanade, a new town hall was constructed and
placed in service. Colonel John grastin (1756-1820). Chief engineer of Bengal
designed a purely Palladian structure with no local features to moderate the
severities of Bengal’s climate. In 1818, esplanade underwent some significant
overhaul.
Within the period of 1815 to 1818, architectural developments of Calcutta under
britishers saw a sweeping escalation, overwhelming as they were in their work.
The Presbyterian congregation of Calcutta constructed St. Andrews church within
this time. It possessed much resemblance with St. Martins-in-the-fields, London.
The structure proved to have a more coherent expression of classical details
than Calcutta’s St. John’s church.
In the years of 1831 to 1837, the company build a new mint in Calcutta for the
storage of specie and the minting of new coins. It took the appearance of a
classic Greek temple. The years of 1839 to 1847, witnessed Calcutta’s
architectural developments create history, when St. Pauls cathedral represented
the first cathedral built in Britain’s overseas empire. Major-general William
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Forbes (1796-1855) of the Bengal engineers provided its mixed classical and
gothic design. Later the cathedral added some stained glass, executed by
Edward Burne- Jones in memory of lord mayo (1822-1872), viceroy of India, who
was assassinated in the Andaman islands and a statue by Francis Chantrey of
bishop Heber (1783-1826), the second bishop of Calcutta.
Figure 3: Victoria Memorial
Ref: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Victoria_memorial_kolkata.jpg
Figure: St. Andrews churchRef: http://standrewschurch-kolkata.org/image001.jpg
Architecture in Bombay
The energetic Governor, Sir Bartle Frere - of which Scott’s buildings were so
significant a product, launched a public building campaign in Bombay in the
second half of the 1860s. The campaign opened with the Decorated Gothic
scheme for the rebuilding of St Thomas's Cathedral by the Government
Architect, James Trubshawe. This was only partially realized, but Trubshawe
made a weighty contribution, in collaboration with W. Paris, in the General Post
and Telegraph Office of 1872.
Of other landmarks produced by the campaign, William Emerson's Crawford
Markets - in an elementary northern Gothic delineated in the various coloured
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stones, which contributed so much to the success of the Gothic Revival in
Bombay - reflected the ideals of the early design reformers at home more nearly
than any other prominent Anglo-Indian building of the period.
For the Public Works Secretariat, Colonel Henry St Clair Wilkins, Royal Engineers,
followed Scott's lead with a Venetian Gothic design in 1877 and his colleague
Colonel John Fuller mixed Venetian and early English for the stupendous High
Court of 1879. The culminating masterpieces of the series, increasingly hybrid in
style, are Frederick Stevens' works, especially Victoria 51 Terminus (1878-87),
the headquarters of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway.
Stevens was also responsible for the municipal buildings built in 1893 opposite
Victoria Terminus and for the slightly later Bombay, Baroda, and Central Indian
Railway terminus at Churchgate. In these works, he took a still more significant
step towards the synthesis of Indian and European forms with the incorporation
of cusped arches and Deccani Muslim domes.
Following the example, George Wittet achieved a thoroughgoing Anglo-Indian
synthesis for the Prince of Wales Museum in 1905 and the Gateway of India
some twenty-two years later. The Museum, Classical in plan and purpose, prefers
a full-blooded Adil Shahi revival, with its central pavilion modelled on the Gol
Gumbad at Bijapur. The Gateway is Neo-Ahmad Shah, but recalls the Roman
form of triumphal arch as much as Ahmadabad's Tin Darwaza, and substitutes a
Bijapuri central space for the trabeated one provided by the Gujarati builders.
Architectural developments of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, during british rule in
india were significant, standing tall in their regal and neo-classical look.
Churches, town halls and several other structures, bearing semblance with
England counterparts paved a fresh way for Mumbai. Mumbai completely
metamorphosed into a polished city, much to intimidate Kolkata.
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Figure 4: Gateway of IndiaRef: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6051/6363795463_3b21f1d826_o.jpg
Figure 5: Prince of Wales MuseumRef: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/952029.jpg
PART 2
The British response to the uprising of 1857 was to destroy much of the city
Shah Jahan had built and to rename the Mughal monuments that remained after
British monarchs. Overnight, Roshanara Bagh, the Mughal garden built by one of
Shah Jahan’s daughters, became the Victoria Gardens. Half a century later, once
the Mughal dynasty had ceased to be a threat to them, and when it had become
clear that Calcutta was too chaotic to continue as the capital, the British made
plans to move their headquarters back to the traditional seat of government in
India.
On December 15, 1911, King George V and Queen Mary laid the foundation stone
for New Delhi, and did so, ironically, at a darbar modeled on that of the Mughals,
under a purposely built Shah Jahani dome. The message was clear: the British
were the legitimate successors of the Mughals and their new capital was
intended to express the power of the Raj, just as Shah Jahan’s capital had
expressed the authority of the Mughals.
The construction of the new city was an epic project involving no less than
29,000 labourers. Yet one man masterminded every aspect of the construction,
from the shape of the doorknobs in the Viceroy’s palace, to the types of flowers
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suitable for planting in the roundabouts. Edwin Lutyens was a self-taught,
working-class genius of ethnic Dutch origins. After winning the commission to
construct the new capital, Lutyens was presented with the biggest architectural
opportunity offered to any British architect since his hero, Sir Christopher Wren,
set about rebuilding London after the Great Fire.
Lutyen’s Delhi was the last great construction project to be completed by the
British in India. It is one of the supreme achievements of British architecture in
any period of history, and still ranks as one of the most elegant urban landscapes
anywhere in the world.
He planned New Delhi along a rectangular mall surrounded by offices and
crowned by the viceroy’s house at one end and the war memorial at the other.
The plan is purely geometrical. Tree lined streets radiate from the central vista
and converge into hexagonal nodes.
The secretariat buildings were designed by Herbert Baker. New Delhi soon
became the symbol of British imperial power and dominance; monumental,
grand, larger than life city space. Connaught place designed by sir Robert Russel
becomes the central business district.
Figure 5: Plan of Lutyen’s DelhiRef: http://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/419/flashcards/1260419/png/new_delhi1336516061353.png
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Kaul, Chandrika. "From Empire to Independence: The British Raj in India 1858–
1947". Retrieved 3 March 2011
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2. Gast, Klaus-Peter (2007), Modern Traditions: Contemporary Architecture in India,
Birkhäuser, ISBN 978-3-7643-7754-0
3. David Arnold, "The Armed Police and Colonial Rule in South India, 1914–
1947," Modern Asian Studies, (Jan 1977) 11#1 pp. 101–125; Arnold, Police Power
and Colonial Rule: Madras, 1859–1947 (1986)
4. Rajat Kanta Ray, "Indian Society and the Establishment of British Supremacy,
1765–1818," in The Oxford History of the British Empire: vol. 2, "The Eighteenth
Century" ed. by P. J. Marshall, (1998).
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