History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

Evolution of Architecture in India under the British

Term Paper for History of Architecture (AP131) Shivika Gulati
Roll Number: 02016901611 Sushant School of Art and Architecture

ABSTRACT
British rule in India began merely as a trading exercise under the Mughal period in early 17th century. The English East India Company, founded in 1600, gained a foothold in India in 1612 after Mughal emperor Jahangir granted it the rights to establish a factory, or trading post, in the port of Surat. By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being increasingly blurred, the English East India Company had established coastal outposts. The Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology allowed it to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies subsequently enabling it to annex most of India by the 1820s. India was then no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials. By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and itself effectively made an arm of British administration, the Company began to more consciously enter non-economic arenas such as education, social reform, and culture. The rebellion of 1857 led to the dissolution of the East India Company and to the direct administration of India by the British government. This paper aims to understand the development of architecture in India under the British influencehow social, political, economic and other factors prevalent through the almost 200 years of British invasion of India evolved their architecture in India. When the British first made inroads into India, little impact had been, was, or even intended on being made. Structures were mainly reflective of their functions, simple warehouses and a number of rather temporary administration facilities with residences remaining few in number, these kept to the traditional and vernacular. However, as British interests in India expanded and grew into a more political and governing role, control and influence slipped away from the East India Company to a more direct subsidiary of the British government itself.

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History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

As the British presence grew and larger, more permanent structures were required to facilitate the infrastructure of the new British Raj- symbols of their new status as the power seat; a sense of permanence and prominence. Symbols of empire and British majesty and power quickly flooded their new edifices and this growth spread these ideas and notions all through their new imperial realm. This was at first a coincidental bonus for the British but soon it was observed, studied, and eventually exploited and used in a much more deliberate way through and by a number of rather noted British Architects: Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker; case in point: New Delhi.

The paper also aims to understand the new architecture that the British brought with them -laden with its own imagery and symbolism as well as more technologically advanced building methods and materials that the native Indians adapted to their own directly or modified to fit their own social and cultural constructs. While the British held deep admiration for the ancient Indian culture and its relics, including architecture, even to the point of maintaining much of its unique traditions and aesthetics, they both inadvertently and intentionally introduced new philosophies, symbolisms, technologies, materials, and building methods to the Indians. These new ideas and elements that the British brought to Indian architecture fundamentally changed not only the general appearance, but also the meaning, function, and how architecture was viewed by the Indians.

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History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

PAPER
The British East India Company established its first factory at Surat in 1613. Many more trading stations were initiated in the next fifty years or so, some of which very quickly began to develop into settlements both within and without the fortified enclosures. This led to the birth and development of the cantonment and the eventually the typical bungalow.

The Cantonment and the Bungalow

Figure 1: Kabul Cantonment

Ref: http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=1008

The Cantonment was a British military settlement which was to spread out all over India wherever the British were present in sizable numbers. Originally conceived as a military base for British troops, the cantonment also began to house civilians who were associated with servicing the military, and developed into a full-fledged mini-city of its own. The second half of the 19th century saw this transformation complete. Bangalore cantonment had, for example, a population of 100,000 by the early 20th century and consisted of public offices, churches, parks, shops and schools. It was an entity distinct from the old city traffic between the two had to stop at a toll-gate and pay entry tax. The cantonment thus developed into a European town in India, whose main house type was the bungalow.
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History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

The bungalows design evolved as a type over a hundred years. While the actual model for a bungalow remains controversial, it appears to have dual origins: the detached rural Bengal house sitting in its compound (from the word root bangla from Bengal), and the British suburban villa. It was a fusion of these two types that led to a building form which would later become an enduring symbol of the Raj.

Figure 2: Example of a bungalow built under the East India Co.

Ref: http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=1008

The first bungalows inhabited by the East India Company agents were initially the same as the kutcha local ones, but gradually outstripped their origins to become an accurate reflection of hierarchy amongst the English community. The typical residential bungalow for the wealthy, for example, was set back from the road by a walled compound. The amount of land enclosed was a symbol of status. For a senior officer a ratio of 15:1, garden to built form, was appropriate, while for a beginning rank it could even be 1:1. In this sense the British showed a hierarchical system no less developed than the complex caste system which they ascribed to India. The early bungalows had long, low classical lines and detailing. The Gothic revival in England brought about a corresponding change in bungalow design spawning buildings with pitched roofs and richly carpentered details including such features as the monkey tops of Bangalore. The Classical bungalow with its Doric, and later, in New Delhi for instance, Tuscan orders became a symbol not only of a European heritage but also of the military and political might of Britain. That the bungalow continues to evoke associations of wealth and power is evident from its continued relevance as a building type in India today.

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History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

Churches
Churches built in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in Calcutta had a strong neoClassical influence e.g.: S. Johns Church (1787) and the Presbyterian Church of S. Andrew (1815). The former was built by James Agg (1758-1828) wherein the tower was originally at the rear of the building, but the entrance was moved to a position below it towards the end of the eighteenth century. Additional shade from the sun was provided by adding colonnades on the north and south sides of the church in the nineteenth century. The latter was borrowed heavily from S. Johns- notably its Tuscan Doric order- and returned more nearly to the London prototype.

Figure 3: S. Johns Church, Calcutta (1787)

Ref: http://www.oldindianphotos.in/2009/07/st-johns-church-calcutta-kolkata-1865

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century picturesque Gothic churches began to appear, albeit slowly, because the style was thought to be unsuitable to the Indian climate. E.g.: S. Peters Church, Fort William, Calcutta (1835): a Collegiate Gothic building with octagonal corner towers.

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Figure 4: S. Peters Church, Fort William, Calcutta (1835)

Ref: https://debanjan87.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/once-upon-a-time-in-kolkata/

This style continued until a decade or two until the appearance of buildings which demonstrated a more rigorous understanding of the principles underlying the medieval styles. A more vigorous attitude towards the Gothic style began in Bombay just before the centre of British activity in India began to move from the eastern to the western seaboard and at the beginning of the imperial period. E.g.: Church of S. John the Evangelist, Bombay (1858). The church has a high nave, a belfry and a tall broach spire. Windows are placed so as to assist cross-ventilation.

Figure 5: Church of S. John the Evangelist, Bombay (1858)

Ref: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/4812843090/

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History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

Secular Buildings
Although Surat had been established over twenty years earlier, Madras was one of the first to develop as a settlement. The house in a garden compound, was characteristic of the growing Madras, and smaller flat-roofed private residences with Classical and Palladian detailing grew in popularity, for example, the Madras Club (1831).

Figure 6: Madras Club (1831)

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_Club

Robert Chisolm was commissioned to modify and extend an 18th century, Islamic style palace into the offices for the Board of Revenue (1870). The result was a mixture of late Islamic forms, motifs and details with Victorian Gothic, in keeping with the existing turreted tower with its superimposed dome raised on an octagonal plinth. Following the Regulating Act, the East India Company began to turn more attention to Calcutta, which was named as the location for the seat of the new Governor General. Calcutta Town Hall (1813) was built in the Palladian mode-another Tuscan-columned structure facing the maidan. It was not until well into the 19th century that the Greek revival style was introduced, for example, in the Silver Mint, Calcutta (1820) and the Public Library, Calcutta (1844).

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Figure 7: Calcutta Town Hall (1813)

Ref: http://www.oldindianarts.in/2010/06/view-of-town-hall-calcutta-kolkata-by.html

It was only after the transfer of power from the East India Company to the government at the end of 1858, that mid-19 century eclecticism influenced Indian neo-Classicism. This is evident in the work of Walter Granville (1819- 74) who moved from the Classical style used in the Post Office, Dalhousie Square, Calcutta (1868) into the Gothic used in the High Court buildings, Calcutta, also built in the 1860s. Victoria Railway Terminus (completed 1887), by Frederick William Stevens, is one of the best examples of secular Victorian Gothic buildings in Bombay. Though influenced by British railway Gothic, it is splendid in its own right. The Gothic presidents of the Victoria Terminus exist alongside the minimal introduction of Indo-Islamic character-a reflection of Stevenss interest in linking indigenous to European forms. Even during the second half of the 19th century, however, neo-Classical and Italianate buildings were built. In the towns, barracks had a simplified arcaded style, for example, Chevron Barracks, Colombo, Sri Lanka (early 19 century). Other urban buildings, which helped determined the character of towns in the late 18th and the early 19th century were hotels and department store, for example, Grand Hotel, Calcutta and the Taj Mahal Hotel, Bombay. The integration of Islamic and Hindu architectural character with the European styles has been best expressed in the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta (complete in 1921).

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Figure 8: Victoria Memorial, Calcutta (complete in 1921)

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_of_interest_in_Kolkata

New Delhi was developed as a combination of domes, minarets and Renaissance details. The administrative centre follows Classical axial principles with the main axis running east to west. The axis then rises westward between the twin buildings of the Secretariat, towards the vast Viceroys House (Rashtrapati Bhavan 1920-31). The brilliant use of colour-red sandstone with lighter coloured stone bands- in relation to the simple outlines and the combination of local techniques of providing essential shade with Indian motifs in the detailing define Lutyens architectural achievement. The British brought new ideas and elements to Indian architecture which fundamentally changed not only the general appearance, but also the meaning, function, and how architecture was viewed by the Indians.

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Bibliography
1. Cohn, Bernard S. Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1996. 19. 2. Metcalf, Thomas R. Architecture and the Representation of Empire: India. 1860-1910 in Representations No. 6, 37-65. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Spring 1984. 52. 3. Brown 1994. pp. 8586 4. Fletcher, Banister. A History of Architecture. 20th ed. Architectural Press. 1261-1274

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