Indo Saracenic Architecture.pdf

History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

elaborated upon the generic plans of modern of modern European building types such as colleges, hospitals and courthouses. Modeled, in some of its more sophisticated examples, on the actual Indo-Islamic synthesis that had developed in northern India under the patronage of the former Mughal Empire, the style came to be regarded as a particularly apposite means of displaying the evolving policy of the British imperial regime to outwardly assimilate its forms and its rituals to the tastes and sensibilities of its indidenous subjects.” (6) “Major government owned institutional buildings such as administrative and collector‟s offices, law courts, municipal headquarters, railway stations and

universities were built in this style.” (5) “…From this perspective, ‟Indo Saracenic‟ architecture resembles the then British -

Victorian romantic-picturesque imagination of an Indian past encapsulated within the Britisher‟s own buildings” (4)

From the ancient times, Delhi had been a traditional seat of power. There is a saying –“He who rules Delhi, rules India.” The influence of Delhi has dominated over other regions. “The European connections with Delhi ha d been very old. As back as 327 B.C.,

Alexander the Great invaded India and left social and cultural traces which are even visible today. However after the presence of the East India Company in 1714 in Delhi, the English influence became pronounced.” (7) “Delhi had held a special meaning for them since they first took it in 1804. The

spectacle of those crumbled strongholds of the past powerfully appealed to their imaginations, especially their own immediate predecessors, the Mughals, had ended up as shadow monarchs in the Red Fort there .” (2) Page 5 of 32


“However, the city underwent drastic transformations after the war of 1857. One

third of the city was razed to rubble in 1858. The East India Company transferred the rule to the British Crown. Throughout the late 17 th and 18th centuries, European style buildings started coming up, which intercepted the façade of Mughal and Indian architecture. Besides, quite a few townhouses, bungalows, churches and cemeteries were built in European style. .” (7)

Throughout history, Chandni Chowk has remained an important part of Delhi, being the economic spine. The Grand Street, Chandni Chowk was laid out by Jahanara Begum in the year 1600 AD and she built sarai and

garden in it called as Queen‟s Garden...The canal

entered the city near the Kabuli Gate and flowed with very little variation in its course through the city and the citadel and then emptied itself into the river. The houses around Chandni Chowk were of the same height and were ornamented with arched doors and painted varandas…There were total 36 mohallas and houses of

merchants were along river. In the course of the time the entire street was called as Chandni Chowk. (8)

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Figure 2 Chandni Chowk from Lahore Gate Ref: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/ad onlineex/apac/addorimss/t/lar dorimss/t/largeimage55228.html geimage55228.html

Thus, when the British came to India, their interest was also in the economic spine, the great bazaar. “In the early years, the British and their troops settled within the walled city, around

the Red Fort and Kashmere Gate. They improved and partly reconstructed the Old City Wall and developed a residential colony named Mubarak Bagh. To provide drinking water to the old city, Ali Mardan Canal was lined and r eopened.” eopened.” (7) “The structure of the walled city was co nceived with a network of landmarks, focal

points, linear markets and a spatial subdivision. . …The proximity of

the house to the palace determined the status of a person.

Two commercial

centres, Chandini Chowk and Faiz Bazaar were created, of which .” (7)

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“By 1858…The heavily built up area surrounding the Red Fort wa s completely cleared. Almost the entire population of the walled city was ejected….Red Fort and

Jama Masjid were used as military camps. ..Lahore gate and Delhi gates of the Red Fort were renamed as Victoria and Alexandra Gates and a Town Hall was built in Chandini Chowk.” (7)

“On conquering Delhi, the British chose the largest, most frequently traversed, and

beautiful of squares on the Chandini Chowk as the site of a new civic center. The idea that „a municipality represents the advance of mankind from primitive anarchy to civilized order‟ motivated colonial administrators to establish the Delhi Municipal

Committee in 1863. One of the earliest building project of the imperial government in Delhi was the construction of a civic square defined by public buildings and reflecting the new municipal resolve.” (3) A commission was sanctioned to add new government blocks (secretariats) in the region near Chandni Chowk. Along with this, some buildings were added to Chandni chowk too. “The original intention was to make the new capital an organic partner to the

existing walled city of the Mughal, Shahjahanabad- „one city‟, said Lord Hardinge, „not two‟. Actually this was already more racially integrated than most such Indian

cities: the Red Fort was a British barracks, and there were many Anglo- Indian institutions within its walls.” (2) The Town Hall and Queen‟s Garden

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“In the middle of Chandni Chowk, in the main square and on the site of the serai,

municipal funds and subscriptions from wealthy citizens financed a civic monument: the

, later to become known as the

.

The edifice was intended to beautify the city; British architects, Messrs Mandreth and Cooper, prepared the design. At a time and a place when British military engineers were responsible for much building design in India, the hiring of professional architects architects of repute from the metropole itself indicated the importance of the building. In I n addition to the offices of the recently established Delhi Municipal Committee, the Town Hall consisted of a college, a museum, a library and reading room, a hall of trade, a „Darbar‟ room for seni or British administrators to hold public audience, and a „pleasant suite of rooms used for dances and other social reunions of the English residents‟. Mandreth and cooper redesigned the paradise gardens of Jehanara Begum which were renamed Queen‟s Gardens.” (3)

“The Town hall was designed as a two storied brick and plaster building. The

rectilinear masses were simply proportioned with neoclassical symmetry to create a horizontal and substandial presence on the swuare, the design echoed, in some ways, town hall facades prevalent in England at this time.

. The building was set back from the square and the surrounding buildings. Rather than enclosing the public space, the building created a

. The use of

The formal, symmetrical entrance of the building

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framed a statue of Queen Victoria to the north, symbolizing the political change of guard. ” (3)

Figure 3 Town Hall Present Ref : Http://sarsonkekhet.files.wordpr Http://sarsonkekhet.files.wordpress.com/2012/08 ess.com/2012/08/chandni-04-01-01.j /chandni-04-01-01.jpg pg

“At the centre of the square the Victoria Clock Tower superseded the bells and drums in the naqqarkhana of the king‟s palace and the muezzin‟s call of prayers from the mosques in marking time…With the clock tower, the physical and symbolic

reconstruction of the central urban space of the city was complete. The stated intention was to design the structure in what the British charecterized as the prevailing „mohammedan‟ style of architecture while still being distinctly modern in construction.” (3)

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Figure 4 Pediment Town Hall Ref: Self

Figure 5 Semi Circular Arches; Columns Ref: Self

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Figure 6 The Viceregal Procession passing the Clock Tower and Delhi Institute in Chandni Chowk, 1877 Ref: http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/ http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/stories/rohatgi/p stories/rohatgi/procession187 rocession1877resized.jpg 7resized.jpg

Figure 7 Chandni Chowk 1880s –the same location as the 1877 procession photo Ref: http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/sto http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/stories/rohatgi/de ries/rohatgi/deendayal188 endayal1880resized.jpg 0resized.jpg

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Figure 8 Chandni Chowk 1910 Ref: http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/ http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/stories/rohatgi/cc stories/rohatgi/cchowk1910resi howk1910resized.jpg zed.jpg

i n 1890 was opened to public around 1903. “The old Delhi Railway Station was built in The architecture is of Gothic style but made with sense of complimentary to Chandni Chowk and other surrounding Mughal architecture. ” (9)

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Figure 9 Interiors of Railway Station Ref: http://www.sodelhi.com/churches/372-st-step http://www.sodelhi.com/churches/372-st-stephens-church. hens-church.

“The British colonial era left a lasting impression on Delhi‟s character by way of its

unique architecture which was manifested in the buildings & complexes that were built during those times. It was most evident in the churches built during the British period, a showcase of their devotion & also a vital instrument in spreading the message of God. The church lies in a wide bustling street in Old Delhi, near other colonial era buildings such as the Old Delhi Railway Station & the Town Hall. The church has been built in typical Gothic style which was the prevalent style of that era. The interiors of the church feature arched windows, ornate columns, walls adorned with intricate motifs & carvings and stained rose glass windows, which is a unique feature of this church amongst all others built here during the same time. The exterior of the church is painted in blood-red paint, which signifies the

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bloodshed & martyrdom of St. Stephen. The church, in keeping with the baroque style also has a bell hanging on a high tower.” (10)

The British built many important landmark public buildings for people of Delhi, so they did for those in Chandni Chowk. Imposing their power, and giving a sense of their culture in their buildings, they developed the Indo Saracenic style. Which was, indeed, a representation of their earlier rulers, the Greek and the Romans. The public buildings, the town halls and stations all represented typical Greek and Roman features. Pediments, colums, varandas, no inner courtyard to name some. (Refer to sections above) During the 1900s, when India got its India got its independence, major changes happened in the society of Chandni Chowk. “Through the entire planning process(of New Delhi), the integration of the existing

old city was conspicuously neglected. Old Delhi was still the commercial hub of Delhi, where most of the „common folk‟ continu ed to reside; however, the

separation of its inhabitants from the world of the higher classes was physically reflected in the spatial isolation of the old city, with its poor connectivity to the new heart of the city. Thus, the royal city of the Mughals which once excluded the lower classes from residing within its walled paradise became a peripheral zone to the glory of New Delhi….. Delhi received the largest number of refugees for a single city- the population of Delhi grew from under 1 million to a little li ttle less than 2 million in the period 1941-1951, the majority of which increase can be attributed to the Partition… And Chandni Chowk, without an option of expanding growth, grew denser. The residential neighbourhoods left vacant by the fleeing Muslim families Page 15 of 32


were overrun with the thousands of refugees flooding in from what had become Pakistan.” (11) “Street vendors began to line both sides of Chandni Chowk, and the street became

so crowded that the trams had to be discontinued .” (12) “In same time, in New Delhi where Lutyen had left streets for construction of new

bungalows, the argument of traditional Indian or Indo Saracenic was on. By then, Indo Saracenic was also moreover equivalent to Delhi‟s ver nacular architecture.

However, the new bungalows were made more to reflect the British education to the Indian fabric. „The roots of the bungalow in India lie in the early attempts of British

military engineers in the eighteenth century to design a standardised and permanent dwelling based on indigenous domestic structures for the East India Company when the British were still traders in the subcontinent. In its later version, the archetypal bungalow in the nineteenth century consisted of a low, one-storey, spacious building, internally divided, having a symmetrical symmetrical layout with a veranda all around, situated in a large compound. This basic model was also adopted with modifications almost everywhere British imperial rule existed at that time. ” (5) A similar thought process can be analysed about the people living in Chandni Chowk. The buildings near to the main civic centre built by the British (town hall) show a clear adaptation over the year.

Ref: https://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl= https://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl=en&tab=wl en&tab=wl [ONLINE]

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Figure 10 Street A

Figure 11 Street B

Figure 12 Old Cinema

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Figure 13 Eaves and Segmented Arches

Figure 14 Segmented arches and bands

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Figure 15 Adjacent to cinema

Figure 16 Pilasters and small balconies ; Patterns of Art Deco seen

Figure 17 Eaves seen repeted in nearby buildings Page 19 of 32


Figure 18 State Bank's Building

Figure 19 Semi circular arches; keystone

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Figure 20 Flat arches and Bands on walls

Figure 21 Eaves (shading device) on the side walls

Figure 22 Flat arch Windows

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Figure 23 Balcony Railings

Figure 24 Central Bank

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Figure 25 Corbelled Brick Arches

Figure 26 Semi Circular Arches- Light Windows

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Figure 27 Gothic Arches - Surrounding Buildings

Figure 28 Punjab National Bank- Semi Circular Arches, Columns and orders followed

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Figure 29 Allahbad Bank- Gothic Arches; Carved Balconies

Figure 30 Gothic Arches; Surrounding Buildings

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Figure 31 Surrounding Surrounding Fabric - Semi Semi Circular Arches and Pilasters

“At the beginning of the twentieth century the classical inheritance was clear and continued in modified modified form, form,

particularly in New Delhi until until the 1950s…The

classical and the Indo Saracenic styles were, however, paralleled in time by the Carpenter Gothic style – also a residue of the nineteenth century. They both gave way to Art Deco and later to Modernist designs.” (5)

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Figure 32 Repeated Patterns over Parapets

Figure 33 Rounding Of Corner Buildings

Over the years, Chandni Chowk saw many changes, and its story of development and improvement of styles and typologies carry on. Ref Figures 10-33 : Self

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1.

The Bungalow in Twentieth Century India.

Farnham : Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-4094-2738-4. 2.

Stones of Empire: The Buildings of the Raj. s.l. : Oxford University

Press USA, 1983. ISBN 978- 0192805967. 3.

Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating Architecture and

Urbanism. Abingdon : Routledge, 2005. ISBN 0-203-02273-4.

4.

Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial

South Asia. London : Anthem Press, 2011. ISBN- 10:1 84331 864 4.

5.

The Bunglow in Twentieth Century

India. Farnham : Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-4094-2738-4.

6.

Colonial Modernities: Building, Dwelling and Architecture in

British India and Ceylon. Abingdon : Routledge, 2007. ISBN 0-203-96426-8.

7.

The Cities of Delhi. New Delhi : Management Publishing Co., 1994. ISBN

: 81-86034-00-5. 8.

Environmental Issues and Urban Development of the Walled Cities. New

Delhi : Mittal Publications, Publications, 1992. ISBN 81-7099-31981 -7099-319-9. 9. 9.

Waiting room, Old Delhi Railway Station. Panoramio. [Online] 15

June 2011. [Cited: 9 October 2013.] http://www.pano http://www.panoramio.com ramio.com/photo/5423998 /photo/54239981. 1. 10.

St

Stephens

Church.

So

Delhi.

[Online]

[Cited:

10

october

2013.]

http://www.sodelhi.com/churches/372-st-stephens-church.

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11.

Resilience through urban flexibility. The

Essais des étudiants des masters case of Chandni Chowk, Shahjahanabad. Paris : Essais urbains de Sciences Po, 22013. 12.

Memories of Chandni Chowk and India‟s First Independence

Day, India of the Past. Dadi Nani Foundation. [Online] 2011. [Cited: 10 October 2013.] http://www.dadinani.com/capture-memories/read-contributions/life-backthen/230-memories-of-cha then/230-memories-of-chandni-chowk-an ndni-chowk-and-indias-first d-indias-first-independenc -independence-day-bye-day-byvijay-rohatgi. 13.

Towards a New Architecture. reprint. s.l. : CreateSpace

Independent Publishing Platform, Platform, 2011. ISBN: 1466216395, 9781466216396. 14.

The Arts and Crafts Movement.

London : Thames and Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0-500-20248-6. 15.

Art Nouveau. London : Thames and Hudson, 1999. ISBN 0-

500-20273-7. 16.

Modern Architecture: A Critical History. s.l. : Thames &

Hudson, 2007. ISBN 0500203954, 9780500203958. 17.

The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire. s.l. :

Cambridge University University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0521002540, 9780521002547.

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Figure

1

Old

Chandni

Chowk

Ref:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/com http://upload.wikimed ia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Chandni_C mons/e/ea/Chandni_Chowk%2C_Delhi% howk%2C_Delhi%

............... ................................ ................................. ................................. ......................... ......... 2 2C_1863-67.jpg [online] ............................... Figure

2

Chandni

Chowk

from

Lahore

Gate

Ref:

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/addorimss/t/largeimage55228.html [ONLINE] ................................................................................................................. 7 Figure

3

Town

Hall

Present

Ref

:

Http://sarsonkekhet.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/chandni-04-01-01.jpg [ONLINE] ............................................................................................................... 10 Figure 4 Pediment Town Hall Ref: Self ................................................................... ................................................................... 11 Figure 5 Semi Circular Arches; Columns Ref: Self ................................................... ................................................... 11 Figure 6 The Viceregal Procession passing the Clock Tower and Delhi Institute in Chandni

Chowk,

1877

Ref:

http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/stories/rohatgi/procession1877resized.jpg[ ONLINE] ................................................................................................................ 12 Figure 7 Chandni Chowk 1880s –the same location as the 1877 procession photo Ref: http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/stories/rohatgi/deendayal1880resized.jpg[ ONLINE] ................................................................................................................ 12 Figure

8

Chandni

Chowk

1910

Ref:

http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/stories/rohatgi/cchowk1910resized.jpg[ON LINE] ..................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 9 Interiors of Railway Station Ref: http://www.sodelhi.co http://www.sodelhi.com/churches/372-st m/churches/372-ststephens-church.[ONLINE] .................................................................................... 14 Figure 10 Street A ................................................................................................. 17 Figure 11 Street B.................................................................................................. 17 Figure 12 Old Cinema ........................................................................................... 17

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Figure 13 Eaves and Segmented Arches ................................................................. 18 Figure 14 Segmented arches and bands ................................................................ 18 Figure 15 Adjacent to cinema ................................................................................ 19 Figure 16 Pilasters and small balconies ; Patterns of Art Deco seen ....................... 19 Figure 17 Eaves seen repeted in nearby buildings ................................................. 19 Figure 18 State Bank's Building.............................................................................. 20 Figure 19 Semi circular arches; keystone ............................................................... 20 Figure 20 Flat arches and Bands on walls .............................................................. 21 Figure 21 Eaves (shading device) on the side walls ................................................ 21 Figure 22 Flat arch Windows.................................................................................. 21 Figure 23 Balcony Railings ..................................................................................... 22 Figure 24 Central Bank .......................................................................................... 22 Figure 25 Corbelled Brick Arches ........................................................................... 23 Figure 26 Semi Circular Arches- Light Windows .................................................... 23 Figure 27 Gothic Arches - Surrounding Buildings .................................................. 24 Figure 28 Punjab National Bank- Semi Circular Arches, Columns and orders followed ................................................................................................................ 24 Figure 29 Allahbad Bank- Gothic Arches; Carved Balconies ................................... 25 Figure 30 Gothic Arches; Surrounding Buildings .................................................... 25 Figure 31 Surrounding Surroundin g Fabric - Semi Circular Arches and Pilasters ....................... ................ ....... 26 Figure 32 Repeated Patterns over Parapets ............................................................ 27 Figure 33 Rounding Of Corner Buildings ............................................................... 27

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Indo Saracenic Architecture.pdf

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