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by Sanjeeb Mukherjee
The Rashtrapati Bhavan, Rajpath, India Gate, Parliament
House and Teen Murti are a part of the capital better known as Lutyens
Delhi, which is in the eye of a storm as it is the latest entrant in the
list of the world’s 100 most endangered sites.
Year: 1911.
L-R: The Parliament House and
the Secretariat under construction; Rajpath (King's Way), The Rashtrapati
Bhavan (in the background), and the Parliament House in late 1920s.
(Pictures Courtesy: www.parliamentofindia.nic.in)
Sir Edwin Lutyen, British
architect and visionary, was called upon to design a new capital for the
British rulers of India. His brief was unambiguous, the new capital should
match, if not improve upon, the grandeur and vastness of the world’s best
cities, yet capitalise on the intricacy of the Indian architecture.2800
acres of land was carved outside the old city, away from the hustle and
bustle of Chandni Chowk and the ramparts of the Red Fort.
With a free hand to draw as he
pleased, Lutyen sketched out the flowing lines of New Delhi - the
Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s House), the Parliament, the magnificent
drive or Raj Path from the President’s house to the India Gate and the
Canopy beyond for the statue of King George.
Offices of the British Resident,
the North and the South Blocks, flanking the side of the Rashtrapati Bhavan
melted into the buildings that housed the local administration. Deep set and
overlooking the large greens dotted with small streams and fountains and
planted with the saplings of the shade-giving and water-conserving Jamun
tree, the gracious India Gate lawns were regal in their splendour.
It took nearly twenty years to
construct these and the 112 bungalows, built beyond the President’s house,
with pillars and porticos that provided shade during the scorching summer
months. Truly it was the most beautiful city planned by the British. The
city was completed in 1931.
Seventy years later, it is on
the endangered list of 100 sites recently published by the World Monuments
Fund, New York.
Gone or going are the shady
trees and the green grasses, the sense of space and ambience that one would
expect. Crowding them out are the tall skyscrapers, the monstrous modern
monoliths that are completely at variance with the rest of Lutyens
architecture.
Today Lutyen’s Delhi spans only
0.6 percent of the total area of the city that has overflowed its boundaries
and gobbled up adjoining agricultural lands. Real estate prices are looking
skywards and the land mafia in cohorts with unscrupulous elements in the
local authorities has arrived on the scene, irreparably altering the skyline
and razing down the old spacious bungalows.
Within the span of one generation, Lutyen’s dream appears to have been blown
to smithereens and at the mercy of a vicious government-builder-politician
nexus, which has literally left no stone unturned in destroying the unique
architecture of the place.
Successions of urban development ministers have paid scant attention to
protecting this heritage of India. Nearly 20 bungalows have been erased from
the original plan in the last fifty years and replaced by concrete multi-storyed
buildings of the The State Trading Corporation, Hotel Le Meridian, Hotel
Kanishka and more recently the Indira Gandhi National Centre Of Arts (IGNCA)
that rubbled six of these old bungalows. Beautiful monuments like the Jantar
Mantar are overshadowed by the cluster of tall and unsightly office
complexes that have enveloped it.
Says eminent conservationist and author Patwant Singh, " These high-rise
buildings have not just ruined the sky-line of this area, they are so ugly
that if this trend continues, then in few years the whole bungalow zone will
be lost and in its place we will see huge, blocks of concrete and steel,
staring at us from the skylines."
The Lutyen’s Bungalow Zone [LBZ], besides being historically significant has
tremendous ecological value. With its huge green cover it acts as the city’s
lungs, repairing air damaged by pollutants, giving Delhi the unique
distinction of having an inner city area cooler than the outer edge.
|
Lutyen's Delhi - A
Nightmare - 2 Lutyens Delhi, Colonial
houses, Central Delhi, Gracious living |
