Indianizing Indian Architecture: A Postmodern Tradition

Author(s): RITU BHATT

Source: Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review , FALL 2001, Vol. 13, No. 1 (FALL
2001), pp. 43-51
Published by: International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments
(IASTE)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41757882

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Traditional Dwellings and
Settlements Review

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TDSR VOLUME XIII NUMBER I 2001 43

Critique
Indianizing Indian Architecture: A
Postmodern Tradition

RITU BHATT

Since the 1980s a tendency to Indianize architecture has emerged in the works of

tectural practitioners in India. What makes this development postmodern as well

Indian is the rhetoric of mythical symbolism that has accompanied it. In this arti

architectural productions: Vistara, a catalogue for the Festival of India; and the Ja

the Center for the Arts and Crafts, Jaipur, by architect Charles Correa. Both pro

very popular, and it is useful to take a closer critical look at them, not so much to fi

reveal some of the latent biases and assumptions such cultural productions engen

Postmodern architecture in the West is characterized by a distinct nostalg

whose references to history are openly and candidly ahistorical. Brightly
facades, pasted columns and pilasters, broken Greek pediments, and arbi
building ornamentation adorn the so-called "Po Mo" buildings. This appro
ing history (while mocking it) emerged as a critique of the earlier banalit
of the 1960s. Buildings such as Michael Graves's Public Services Buildin
Oregon, Philip Johnson's AT&T Building, and Charles Moore's Piazza d'I
such a stylistic revival. Proponents of postmodernism have claimed that t
Ritu Bhatt is a Woodrow Wilson
toFellow at
the decorative and scenographic, buildings become more communicati
In India this version of postmodernism has manifested itself in the wo
the Townsend Center for the Humanities
nent architectural
at University of California, Berkeley. She professionals such as Hafeez Contractor and others wh
torical elements
teaches in the Departments of Architecture, to create fancy housing estates filled with French and co
for India's
Comparative Literature and Rhetoric. nouveau riche. But another tendency has also emerged that de

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
44 T D S R 1 3 . 1

consideration. This is evident in work by prominent archi-

bols, myths, and magic diagrams culled from ancient In
tects such as Charles Correa, B.V. Doshi andtreatises
Raj Rewal who This imagery conforms not only to the
(fig.2).
make serious claims to be searching for an stereotypical
Indian identityWestern "Orientalist" understanding, but t
buried under layers of history. This rhetoric centered on
postmodern eclecticism common in the West. In this ar
identity has shifted the discourse of Indian architecture from
I will analyze two architectural productions that exempli
the quasi-scientific social concerns of the early
this postindepen-
approach: Vistara, a catalogue for the exhibition on
dence period to a culturally based search for "Indianness."
Indian architecture prepared for the Festival of India he
This shift was initially coincidental with aBritain,
shift inFrance,
culturalJapan and the U.S. between 1983 and 19
policy during the 1980s, which broadly stated a desire
and to
the Jawahar Kala Kendra, the Center for the Arts an
incorporate India's past into planning and architectural
Crafts, Jaipur, by architect Charles Correa.1 The choice
design at the national level. This included athese
conscious recog- allows me to analyze the formation of
case studies
nition of culture in all aspects of development, such as preser-
Indianized Indian identity, first through a critique of the
vation of cultural heritage, establishment of tual and visual rhetoric produced in a context outside o
organizations
such as crafts museums, organization of Festivals of India,
India, and then though a study of the influence of this
increased spending on tourism, and so forth. By then
rhetoric it had
upon actual building production in India.
come to be recognized that India's blind embrace of mod-
ernism had marginalized traditional modes of arts and handi-
VISTARA
crafts. By linking itself to the modern sector : A POSTMODERN NARRATIVE
of production
and construction, the architectural profession in India (initial-
Vistara is the
ly dependent on the Royal Institute of British Architects) title of the exhibition on Indian architec-
had
also come to marginalize the products of craftsmanship in the
ture prepared for the Festival of India held in Britain, France,
traditional sector. Yet under the guise of using modern
Japan and themate-
U.S. between 1983 and 1986. The exhibition
rials, building construction continued to be presented
based largely on of the history of architecture in India.
a narrative
traditional labor-intensive methods, such as It
the use of
invoked bam-themes, Sanskrit and Hindi titles, and
Indian
boo scaffolding and the carrying of cement to the highest
included sto- neglected vernacular architecture and
traditionally
ries on the heads of male and female laborers (fig.i)from
buildings . In the colonial era in an unconventional, plural-
fact, the Indian cityscape is full of building forms derived
istic approach ( f i g . 3 ) . Well-known proponents of Indian
from high-tech materials, the surfaces of which conceal such
architecture the as Charles Correa and Ashish Ganju were
involved in the creation of this manifesto.
traditional methods of an earlier mode of production.
The discourse on the building of a modern The
India prided
very title of the exhibition and its catalogue, Vistara,
itself on its mediation between the binary oppositions of con-interpretation of Indian architecture as
suggested a spiritual
tinuity and change, traditional and modern, regional
a series and
of epiphanies. Indeed, the various epochs of Indian
international, handicraft and technology, and so forth.
history were presented as a succession of myths - the myth
However, when prominent architectural professionals began the myth of the Islamic period, and the
of the Vedic period,
their inner search for an Indian identity inmyth
the 1980s,
of the most
Modern period - matched to underlying formal
(perhaps quite inadvertently) resorted to an imagery
ideogramsof sym-
which purportedly reflected the "deep structure"
of the society of the time. The Vedic times were character-
ized by the world of the nonmanifest: buildings generated by
magic diagrams called vastu-purusha-mandalas. The intro-
duction of Islam was seen as having caused a fundamental
shift from the metaphysical to the sensual and hedonistic, as
represented by the char-bagh, the paradise garden. Finally,
the coming of the Europeans in the seventeenth century was
presented as bringing in reason, science, progress and ratio-
nality.2 The parallels between these changing myths and
Thomas Kuhn's shifting paradigms are obvious. Just as the
idea of shifting Kuhnian paradigms questions a positivistic
science progressing to a better knowledge of the world, the
exhibition was based on a historical narrative of Indian archi-
tecture that avoided being either progressivist or historicist.3
The presentation categories, which proceeded more or
less chronologically, were given Sanskrit titles such as
"Manusha," "Mandala,"
FiGURE i. " Landscape , Old Delhi." © Raghu Rai/Magnum Photos and "Kund-Vapii," which seemingly
related the entire structure of the exhibition to a coherent
from India: A Celebration of Independence © Aperture, 1997, p. 112

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BHATT: I N D I A N I Z I N G ARCHITECTURE 45

figure 2. B.V. Doshi's render-

ing of a housing complex in the

form of a miniature painting
exemplified the approach of
prominent architectural profes-
sionals in their search for an
Indian identity in the 1980s.
(From C. Kagal, ed., Vistara:
The Architecture of India,
Bombay, Tata Press Limited,
1986, p.201.)

Indian philosophy.4 Categories like "Mandala," "Manthana,"

and "Islam" further served to accentuate the distinction
between "Islamic" and "Hindu" architecture. This distinction
is a legacy of English historians, who used it in an initial effort
to come to terms with the bewildering variety of architecture
on the subcontinent. Ultimately, the categorization of Indian
architecture as Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, and so forth can be
traced back to fames Fergusson, whose pioneering History of
Indian and Eastern Architecture (1876) turned these from mere-
ly stylistic descriptions to operative categories.5 Architecture,
for Fergusson, was fundamentally a "racial art."6 Thus, struc-
tural clarity, simple rhythms, and large expanses of walls were
not attributes of Islamic buildings, but of the very races that
built them ( f i g . 4 ) . Similarly, a Hindu mind considered to be
mysterious, metaphysical, and transcendental was supposed to
have created the complex Hindu forms (FIG.5).
Though such distinctions made stylistic sense, their
attribution to religion fundamentally influenced the percep-
tion of architecture in India. For instance, any building that
represented a mixture of elements from both the styles was
necessarily seen as a confluence of two thoughts. Fatehpur
Sikri near Agra serves as a case in point: here a whole politi-
cal history of the construction of the building complex was
based on a simplified reading of its architectural styles.7
figure 3 . Cover page of the Vistara exhibition catalogue. (From C. Kagal,
ed., Vistara: The Architecture of India, Bombay, Tata Press Limited, 1986.)
Similarly, Datia Palace was projected as the mirror image of

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
46 T D S R 13.1

"For us in India, the answer goes back thousands of years.

To the Vedic seers, the manifest world was only a part of
their existence; there was also the world of the non-mani-
fest."" Despite the overt regard, the many references to
mythic heritage (with its attendant themes of timelessness
and ancient wisdom integrating all intruding civilizations)
only helped reinforce the underlying reductionist image of
the "Indian" mind as mystery-loving, nonmaterialistic, tran-
scendental, and so on (fig. 6). Furthermore, the production
of Vistara managed to transform and commodity "nonmani-
fesť phenomena into consumable entities.
The misrepresentations embedded in the history of
architecture in India can be attributed not only to the
Orientalist biases and interpretations of English historians,
butSikri
figure 4. The expansive courtyard of Fatehpur also to embodies
discursive definitions
the embedded in the discipline
of architecture
stereotypical image of Islamic architecture in India . (Photo by in the nineteenth
author ; ) century. Thus, much of the
discussion of architecture in India has been limited to historic
monuments such as temples, mosques and palaces. The
Diwan-i-Khas - for here a powerful Rajput
Vistaraking used
exhibition the fell into this same historio-
and catalogue
graphie mold. Thus,
architectural syntax of Islam (domes, colonnades, while its categories traced shifts in the
structural
clarity) to reinforce the classic mandala succeeding
plan ofmythsHindu and paradigms of formal architecture -
i.e., from
mythology.8 The point is that such readings Vedic simplified
have to Islamic to colonial - all "unselfconsdous"
architecture
complex political realities, and served only was lumped an
to reinforce together in a single ahistorical cate-
gory ("Manusha"). In this way such important traditional and
already overdrawn Hindu vs. Islamic polarity.
It is important to point out that what was largely a stylis-
tic confluence of two building traditions - a trabeated one,
with a plastic aesthetic, from the Indian subcontinent; and
an arcuate one stressing surface decoration and simple vol-
umes, developed in Central Asia - was given the status of a
religious and political statement. Such a reading also con-
cealed the fact that almost all formal Indian architecture of
the present millennium is a product of that confluence,
including such Mughal masterpieces as the Taj Mahal and
the Pearl Mosque, as well as later Rajput palaces. To call
such architecture "Hindu" or "Islamic" is to reinforce an
incorrect and anachronistic understanding.
A further negative effect of the simplified distinction
between Hindu and Islamic architecture has been a consis-
tent depreciation of Hindu art and architecture in compari-
son to the Islamic within Western scholarship. In Much
Maligned Monsters , Partha Mitter pointed out that while
Islamic art in the form of Mughal paintings and architecture
was acceptable to Europeans, and even found admirers,
Hindu art still presented problems of accommodation to
Western aesthetics.9 Most particularly, Mitter attributed the
resistance of Western historians to Hindu iconography and
the profuse ornamental sculpture of South Indian temples to
a fundamental Classical bias in the historical tradition of
Western art.10

In picking up the discursive classification between

Hindu and Islamic architecture, Vistara merely reversed
Western judgements and accorded the qualities of mystery
and transcendence a positive value. For instance, in the figure 5 . The sculpted walls of the Khajuraho Temples embody the
introduction to the section entitled "Mandala," Correa wrote,
stereotypical image of Hindu architecture in India. (Photo by author. )

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BHATT: I N D I A N I Z I N G ARCHITECTURE 47

grate traditional Indian elements into contemporary arch

ture and so produce an "Indian style," while denigrating
efforts of talented architects such as Lutyens, who strug
to redefine his Classicism in the context of India (figs. 8
Indeed, Vistara called Lutyens' s incorporation of Indian e
ments "an architectural pastiche involving superficial tra
fer."12 Racist rejection of Indian architecture should have
earned Lutyens criticism, but to discredit his work purely
these grounds, with no appreciation of its architectural q
ties, could only indicate an inconsistency in the criterion
judgment. It is further interesting that Vistara chose to v
erate the arrival of Europeans on the Indian subcontinen
bringing an age of reason, science, and industrialization.
Quite ironically, such a view promoted the colonization
hypothesis of an irrational and mysterious India brought
new age through a contact with Europeans.'3
In hindsight, Vistarďs pluralistic approach - the idea
using underlying myths and Sanskrit titles to capture and p
sent the shifting discourses on Indian architecture - can
interpreted on two levels. On the one hand, it placed the c
logue in the larger postmodern discourse on myths, memor

figure 6 . Central to the exhibition stood Purusha - a large-scale

replica of an ancient Jain icon representing man in his two principal
aspects: human and cosmic. (From C. Kagal, ed., Vistara: The
Architecture of India, Bombay, Tata Press Limited, 1986, p.j.)

informal housing productions as the round huts of Banni,

Kutch, squatter settlements in Bombay, and the urban shrines
of Jaipur were seen as timeless and unchanging (fig. 7). Cut
off from the larger formal argument of succeeding myths,
they continued to represent a marginalized front within the
larger discourse on Indian architecture.
Furthermore, biases in reading political content into
stylistic choices were apparent in the section on colonial
architecture. In particular, Vistara praised buildings by archi-
tects such as Chisholm, who made explicit efforts to inte-

FiGURE 7. Squatters
in pipes, Bombay. The
Vistara exhibition

lumped aü nonformal

architecture together in a figures 8(top), 9(bottom). Senate House, Baroda; and

singe category. (Photo Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi. Vistara praised such buildings by
from Charles Correa, Chisholm, while denigrating the efforts of Lutyens, who was struggling to

Bombay, The Perennial redefine his classidsm in the context of India. (From C. Kagal, ed., Vista
Press, 1996, p.rji.) The Architecture of India, Bombay, Tata Press Limited, 1986, pp.105,

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
48 T D S R 13.1

and identity in the West.'4 On the other, it represented a cri-

tique of earlier universalist values blindly borrowed from the
West, and offered a statement of renewed confidence (however
stylistic) in Indian values. Furthermore, it is interesting to
note that Vistara classified rationality and modernity as a
"myth." This placed the whole enterprise of the exhibition yet
again within a larger postmodern discourse and made it more
acceptable to a Western audience. With its criticism of posi-
tivism and rationality as universal values, the exhibition dis-
carded the idea of historical progress. Myths were simply
shown to have replaced each other, with new ones born, assim-
ilated, digested, and finally transformed into new architecture.
This critique has thus far focused on the contention that
several stereotypes about Indian architecture went unques-
tioned in the conception of the exhibition. The distinction
between Hindu and Islamic architecture was reiterated; the
idea of Europeans introducing an age of reason was cast as a
major theme; and the discussion of traditional architecture
figure io. Plan of Jawahar Kala Kendra, showing the "misplace-
promoted the image of a timeless and
ment" unchanging
of one of nine squares inIndia.
the mandala.On
(Courtesy of the office of
that front, Vistara has emerged as anCharles
iconic Correa,representation
architect, Bombay. ) of
how "notions" and "images" of Indian built form have
recently been perceived, categorized, and congratulated in
the West. As a part of the "exhibition" of India, the
vastu-purusha-mandala ( f i catalogue
g . 1 1 ) . He described mandatas as
"square diagramson
was structured to fit within a larger discourse subdivided symmetrically about the center,
architecture
creatinglong-standing
and on India, and helped promote certain series of 4, 9, 16, 25 ... up to 1,024." Although
Western stereotypes, biases and misconceptions. However,
they may form the basis for architectural plans, he also noted
the story presented by Vistara was alsothat
themandolas
very aresame
"not plans; but that they represent energy
history
that architects were seeking to construct
fields."15
toFurthermore,
legitimize he explained
theirthat the Jawahar Kala
agendas within the profession in India.
Kendra makes a very specific reference to Sawai Jai Singh's
design for the old city of Jaipur.

JAWAHAR KALA KENDRA: NINE-SQUARE HOUSE Maharaja Jai Singh, who founded the city, was also a
OF CULTURE renowned astronomer. ... In the planning of Jaipur, he
embarked on a truly extraordinary venture. He sought to
The context for the production Vistara was not just the
combine his passion for the latest tenets of contemporary
overt Festival of India, but also the construction of a histori-
astronomy with the most ancient and sacred of his beliefs.
cal narrative that would serve to legitimize specific The
architec-
plan of the city is based on a nine-square mandala
tural agendas in India. A case in point is the Jawahar Kala
corresponding to the navagraha or nine planets. The void
Kendra, a state-sponsored institution, designed by architect
in the central square he used for the palace garden.
Charles Correa, built in the city of Jaipur, and devoted to the
(Because of the presence of a hill, a corner square was
preservation and promotion of traditional arts and crafts. In
moved diagonally across.)'6
this structure the agendas presented in Vistara are used to
formalize theories about an Indian architecture. The build- Similar to Sawai Jai Singh's plan in which one square is
ing's design is based on a theme of myths embodied in the slightly shifted, Correa dislocated one of the nine squares of
nine-square plan of vastu-purusha-mandala (with one of its his plan (even though there is no hill in sight). By shifting
squares wittily "misplaced") (fig.io). The nine squares pre- the northeastern square (which houses the auditorium) diag-
sumably also reflect the nine-square plan of the city of Jaipur. onally, he allowed a space for the entrance. Correa claimed
Each square in the building is thus associated with a specific these design gestures were not mere transfers of imagery,
planet and myth: for instance, the northern square, called the but transformations of a deeper order. Much like the refer-
Mangal Mahal, or the palace of Mars, expresses power and ences in Vistara, the story of symbolic references is meant to
houses the administration; while the central square signifies impart "Indianness" to the design.
the creative energy of the sun and houses an open-air theater. At a very basic level the correspondence between the
Correa has claimed that the inspiration for the building mandala and the plan of Jawahar Kala Kendra is very evident:
was derived from the cosmic diagram of the nine-square they both have nine squares.'7 It is known that Hindu tem-

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BHATT: I N D I A N I Z I N G ARCHITECTURE 49

figure il. Vastu-purusha-mandala. Hindu temples are based on

mandalas, but the relationship is ordinarily an approximation.
figure 12.
Marídalas represent the ideal, unmanifest order of cosmos, Krishna
while in Ketu, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur. The
temples
tectural
are particularized, manifest embodiments. (From C. Kagal,symbolism employed in the building is displayed as if on a b
ed., Vistara:
(From Charles
The Architecture of India, Bombay, Tata Press Limited, Correa, Bombay, The Perennial Press, 1996, p.229
1986, p.37.)

pies are based on mandalas, but the relation isAnother

normally one of the search for Indianness, and a co
aspect
of approximation. Thus, if mandalas represent thepostmodern
tion of ideal, thought in architecture in general, h
nonmanifest order of cosmos, temples are the
particularized,
latent theme of the autonomy of architecture.'9 In th
manifest embodiments of mandalas. In fact, as material
Jawahar Kala Kendra it is very evident in the stress on the
manifestations of an order that must by definition remain
mal aspects of architecture. Most particularly, the singul
ideal, the plans of the temples are actually emphasis ofgeo-
derived by the building on displaying its names - its
metric displacements that ensure that temple
tics walls do notand its lack of interest in social, econom
and syntax,
occupy the ideal geometry of the mandala. functional issues, make it an ideal case for postmoderni
Correa' s reference to the mandala functions in just the
opposite way. By making a literal reference, Correa's plan eas-
AFTERWORD
ily corresponds with the nine-square diagram. It is easily
readable, comes with a simple message, and is up for display
- much like Robert Venturis billboards. Furthermore, iden-
From the above two analyses, it is evident that the histo-
ry as
tifiable stereotypical "Indian" elements, such presented to the
jharokhas West in Vistara was the very story archi-
and
Jain paintings, decontextualized from theirtects needed
original to legitimize their architectural agendas within
sources,
the profession
are recontextualized in the Indianized postmodern in India.
interiors of From this angle, the perpetuation of
thecolors
the building (FIG.12). With its bright Indian stereotypes that underlie the exhibition, and that surface
and over-
in the images
sized billboards, the building is literally designed of cam-
for the the Jawahar Kala Kendra, are no longer sim-
plifications that
era.18 The calculus here is the same as in advertising: its make the narrative more contextual for the
West;
fundamental focus is imageability, playing the rather,
game they are evidence of appropriation of history to
of grafted
"create a tradition,"
simulation - a game that allows it to be completely obliviousas Eric Hobsbawm has discussed in The
to the real needs of those whose traditions Invention
are displayed in it.
of Tradition.20 The theme of myths as a criterion for
Thus, the Museum of Indian Culture becomes a classic
describing and evaluating buildings is an illustration of one
such "invented
theme-park building. Without having to interact with thepostmodern tradition." In colonial histories
it has been
complexities of Indian cultural history, its design seen
allows as crucial to discuss paradigms and stereo-
visi-
types,
tors to consume all aspects of Indian culture which
in one help legitimize the ideological and political posi-
visit.

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
50 T D S R 13.1

tions. One thus finds that even in postcolonial revisions

In an insightful the
piece published in the Spring 2001 issue of
same stereotypes are used to pave the TDSR,
wayAnanya
for Roy
new ideologi-
offered the possibility of discussing the mod-
cal landscapes - new vistaras - that appropriate the
ern through the trope past which
of tradition, to she claimed to be inher-
create a program for the future. ently inauthentic. She argued for an epistemological framework
This critique is particularly pertinent in the
in which context
the categories ofmodern and the postmodern can
of the
contemporary debates about the impossibility of representing
be accepted as always incomplete and always contested. In doing
the "self" and the "other." Both the modern and
so, she suggested postmodern
that the future can be made possible through
representations of Indian architecturethe
are invariably
impossibility tainted
of remembering an authentic past.21 If so, the
with ideological agendas. Both undo the very
questions that premises they
surface are these: Can Indian architects indeed
claim to seek. There is nothing that can be claimed
draw upon to be
their past (however impossible it might be to remem-
truly Indian or truly Western - both ber
legitimate the
it)? Would it allow Other
them to make claims to their cultural her-
through unequal power relationships. What
itage happens
without falling into the when
traps of legitimating stereotypes? Is
we begin to accept the integral nature of
therethese binary
an epistemological cate- that will allow us to distin-
framework
gories? Can we ever undo their politics?
guish aCan
"more we everembrace
appropriate" grasp
of history and tradition from
anything called a pure "authentic" tradition? Or,one?
an inappropriate are all refer-
In answering this question, it may be pos-
ences to tradition bound to be mere "inventions"? sible to create the space for a new vistara for architecture in India.

REFERENCE NOTES

i. Also see R. Bhatt and S. Bafna, "Post-Colonial

Study of Indian Architecture, pp.3-49. Robert Krier, Leon Krier, Robert Venturi,
Narratives of Indian Architecture," Architecture
7. Vistara, pp.80-83. The tradition of study- Charles Jencks, Charles Moore and so forth.
ing Fatehpur
+ Design, Journal for the Indian Architect, Vol.12Sikri as a confluence of Hindu See, A. Rossi, The Architecture of the City
N0.6 (Nov.-Dec. 1995), pp.85-89. and Islamic styles was criticized in an issue of (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982); C. Jencks,
2. C. Correa, "Introduction," in C. MARG
Kagal,
entitled "Akbar and Fatehpur Sikri," What Is Post-modernism? (London: Academy
Vol.38 No. 2 (Bombay, 1986). This approach
ed., Vistara: The Architecture of India Editions, 1987); K.C. Bloomer and C.W. Moore,
(Bombay: Tata Press Limited, 1986),
was p.8.
found to be too simplistic to define the Body, Memory, and Architecture (New Haven:
profusion of styles in Akbar' s palaces.
3. T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Yale University Press, 1977); R. Venturi,
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962).
Fatehpur Sikri's eclecticism was attributed to Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
4. Kagal, ed., Vistara, p.5. several factors: the formative character of the (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1966).
5. J. Fergusson, History of Indian and Far court, Akbar's support for experimen-
Mughal 15. C. Correa, "Public, Private and Sacred,"
tation in the arts, and his fascination with his
Eastern Architecture (London: J. Murray, Architecture + Design, Vol.8 N0.5 (1991), p.92
1876), however, later recognized theTimurid
simplifi-
ancestry. Furthermore, some 16. Ibid., p.96
cation that such classification entails. In a authors have suggested that the British pro- 17. In 1970 Kulbhushan Jain, a professor at
lecture given to the Royal Society of Arts enti- jection of Fatehpur Sikri as a representation the School of Architecture, Ahmadabad,
tled, "On the Study of Indian Architecture," of the Akbar's religious tolerance was politi- proposed that the plan of the city of Jaipur
Fergusson said, "I learnt that there was not cally motivated. Its role was to legitimize was significant because it was based on the
only one Hindu and one Mohammedan style British rule over India. See, for example, T. nine-square mandala. He also stressed its
in India, but several species of class; that Metcalf, An Imperial Vision (Berkeley: importance because in practice it embodied
these occupied well-defined local provinces, University of California Press, 1989). a secular adaptation of the underlying cos-
and belonged each to ascertained ethnologi- 8. Kagal, ed., Vistara, pp.84-85. mic principle. K. Jain, "Morphostructure of
cal divisions of the people." Reprinted in J. 9. P. Mitter, Much Maligned Monsters a Planned City: Jaipur, India," Architecture +
Fergusson, On the Study of Indian (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977). Urbanism (August 1978), pp.107-20.
Architecture (Varanasi: Indological Book 10. P. Mitter "Western Bias in the study of 18. V. Prakash, "Identity Production in
House, 1977), pp.5-6. However, it was not South Indian Aesthetics," South Asian Postcolonial Indian Architecture: Re-cover-

long before architectural historians were Review, Vol.6 (Jacksonville, FL: South Asian ing What we never Had," in G.B.
casually writing about two fundamentally dif- Literary Association, 1973), pp.125-36. Nalbantoglu and C.T. Wong, eds.,
ferent architectures in India, each identified il. Kagal, ed., Vistara, p.33. Postcolonial Space(s) (New York: Princeton
with a religious community. See, for exam- 12. Ibid., pp.105-6. Architectural Press, 1997), pp.45-50.
ple, B. Fletcher's History of World Architecture 13. Ibid., p.94. 19. It may seem paradoxical to assert that
on the Comparative Method (London: 14. This is particularly true of the architectural the recognition of the autonomy of architec-
Scribner's Sons, 1899), pp.889-909. discourse of the late seventies and eighties in ture is an aspect of the postmodern dis-
6. Fergusson, "Introduction," in On the the West, which was dominated by Aldo Rossi, course and a search for Indianness. It must

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 BHATT: I N D I A N I Z I N G ARCHITECTURE 51

that
be pointed out that this awareness forhas
theled to an increased autonomy of
Settlements Review, Vol.12 N0.2 (Spring
"cultural" has replaced the earlier
theemphasis
architectural object. 2001), pp.7-13. See also the other articles
of the sixties on the "social" role 20.
of architec-
E . Hobsbawm, "Inventing Traditions,"
in the issue, several of which were original-
ture. Most architects today are in
concerned
Hobsbawm and T. Ranger, eds.,
ly presented
The as papers at the IASTE 2000
with addressing issues of cultural meaning,
Invention of Tradition (Cambridge and New in Trani, Italy, organized around
conference
the theme
York: Cambridge University Press,
which manifests itself in a preoccupation "The End of Tradition?"
1992).
with visual and iconic aspects of 21. A. Roy, "Traditions of the Modern: A
architectur-
al form. It is this emphasis on the visual
Corrupt View," Traditional Dwellings and

This content downloaded from

99.81.149.184 on Tue, 11 Oct 2022 05:09:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms