Recently the mass media reported about the current move of the government to put a statue of Mahatma Gandhi atop a teela (hillock) being raised behind the imperial canopy and the stadium at the India Gate end of the Central Vista. Its annavaram (unveiling) is scheduled for Oct. 2, 1995 commemorating the Mahatma’s 125th anniversary. Seemingly innocuous, the entire project seems inane and misconceived; it is in poor taste. Moreover, it reveals an abysmally low level of understanding of both the Mahatma’s philosophy and the significance of Central Vista as part of Delhi’s centuries-old-heritage-a city once considered as Sher Alam Mein Intikhab - a city select in the world and recognised for its grace, beauty and manners. New Delhi’s Central Vista-originally called Kingsway and renamed Rajpath is one of the most elegant malls created by any city-planner for any city in the world. It is held in high esteem by city planners the world over. To spoil a heritage is not difficult but to maintain it in its original form is becoming increasingly difficult. while it was in tune with the times to hold the Republic Day parades making the emergence of India as the new republic, and while it is lovely to see families and children gathering around the precincts of India Gate during summer evening, none of these things have mutilated the formal design of the place or its ambience and atmosphere. One must appreciate the carefully crafted geometry of the hexagon that served as the basic module on which Edwin Lutyens designed New Delhi. It is sad that virtually the entire area north of the Central Vista has been destroyed by development, so that the surroundings of Connaught Place look like a jungle of ill-conceived, fire-prone multi-storeyed buildings of dubious character reflecting the lust and greed of the new predators who have arrived on the Indian urban scene. They have destroyed the city and created nothing but a quagmire of endless traffic jams. Given the present situation, the only area of less; than a 1,000 acres that can still be saved is “the bungalow area” South of Rajpath. And what is a thousand acres in a metropolis of over 1,20,000 acres-practically all “concretise”. New Delhi’s Central Vista is one of the two carefully conceived elements of urban design, the other being Connaught Place. Well, as of now, Connaught Place has been spoilt beyond redemption, therefore, let us ensure that the Central Vista is saved from further mutilation. Within the carefully conceived geometry of the hexagon, the formal setting of India Gate including the imperial canopy (now empty)-is in itself a silent but eloquent reminder marking the departure of the British Raj. It has an elegance and ambience in the setting not to be found in any capital city in the world. It forms a significant part of Delhi’s historical heritage and its multi-faceted culture is a unique plan with the Purana Qila serving as a backdrop to the bygone ages, nonetheless part of an ever-expanding metropolis. Through the central Vista, Lutyens provided “a visual-mystical linkage of the present with the past with the Raisina Hill monuments at one end and the Purana qila (a la Mahabharata) with river Yamuna behind it”. The proposal to raise an artificial mound of some 10 metres (35-40 feet) high, to be topped by a gigantic statue of Mahatma Gandhi (five to six times life size) is, in my humble submission, bizarre in the extreme: ironical, out of place and out of context. Would it not be visual insult to the memory of the Mahatma? It seems those at the helm have lost all sense of proportion and, in a sense, reveal their fake attachment to the ideals of Gandhi. The current craze of putting up huge billboards, especially giant size cut-outs at strategic locations like the ones noticed recently at Windsor Place, York Place (nay Motilal Nehru Place) are nothing but a crude attempt to disfigure some of the more beautifully landscaped roundabouts of New Delhi. To show off their proforma commitment to the Father of Nation was incidentally made apparent to all those who happened to watch the Republic Day parade, 1995 when a horrendous hot-air balloon of Gandhiji was displayed! It was an ugly display and in very poor taste. But, then, nobody cared or commented on this outrageous vulgarity. Mercifully, it was only for one day. However, the project to convert all the area enclosed by the great hexagon of India Gate into a Quit India’42 (august Kranti) Park, the creation of an artificial hillock with a statue of Mahatma Gandhi-reportedly being cast in bronze (some-where in Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka?) would be incongruous, a display of the same kind of mentality that currently disfigures the main streets of Madras and Hyderabad. If carried through in the form envisaged, it would most certainly be an everlasting mutilation of an carefully designed asset of our nation’s capital. Delhi’s Central Vista has a scale and design geometry that took sensitivity and deliberate planning to create, an invaluable heritage that should not be tampered with. Edwin Lutyens created a visual delight connecting the present with the past. This needs to be appreciated and conserved. The creation of an artificial teela would uglify the entire area that is defined by the formal geometry of landscape and urban design. A giant-size statue of the Mahatma atop this artificial mound would be “out-of-sync”-totally misplaced. But as is our wont, we have seldom cared for his ideas and ideals. Rather, we choose to take the easy option to remember him by installing a statue. To deify the great soul that he was, would be a tragedy, for that way we could worship him yet not follow his ideals in our own lives. I appeal to all concerned to conserve and nurture the noble legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and all those interested in conserving the unparalleled heritage of Delhi, to pause and reflect as to all that has happened to the many giant-size statues of Hitler and Mussolini and, more recently, of Stalin and Lenin in the erstwhile USSR. And what Bal Thackeray has done by renaming an ugly flyover previously dedicated to Moraji Desai only a few days ago in Bombay. We should remember the Mahatma and pay homage to him in a manner and style that would have pleased him. Could we not develop a large beautifully landscaped garden in one of the new areas being built in the Delhi metropolis? Or is it that the only choice left is to go on piling up everything in New Delhi as if it is the new Lal Qila of the new Republic. q Courtesy : Hindustan Times, July 23rd 1995 |
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