History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

Indo Sarasenic Architecture in Chandni Chowk

Term Paper for History of Architecture (AP131)

Prashansa Sachdeva
Roll Number: 04216901611 Sushant School of Art and Architecture

ABSTRACT

Indo saracenic
Indo Saracenic architecture was a post 1857 effort by many administrators and architects to show that their work belonged to India. Major government owned institutional buildings such as administrative and collectors offices, law courts,
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municipal headquarters, railway stations and universities were built in this style. It was employed particularly widely in Chennai but there are also important examples in Mumbai and Vadodara. Kolkata remained largely faithful to the classical until well after Independence. (1) Despite of the fact that major Indo Saracenic work happened in Chennai, Mumbai and Vadodara, changes were planned to Delhi.

Figure 1 Old Chandni Chowk

Ref: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Chandni_Chowk%2C_Delhi%2C_1863-67.jpg

Why chandni chowk?

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 a their own immediate predecessors, the Mughals, had ended up as shadow monarchs in the Red Fort there. (2) 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.

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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 s uch Indian cities: the Red Fort was a British barracks, and there were many Anglo- Indian institutions within its walls. (2) Four months after the start of the 1857 uprising against the colonial presence in India, the British gained control of Delhi city. Following the siege, substantial properties to the north of Chandni chowk were destroyed, or confiscated.Lands belonging to the Mughal royalty such as the sarai at Chandni chowk and the gardens came under British proprietorship. (3) Today, though the region has a mixed heritage, the British buildings of the old times still persists.

Methodology
The aim of the paper is not only to study the landmark buildings(ex: Old Town hall) but also to study the immediate fabric, which might not mark as important buildings but exhibit the Indo Saracenic features. Examples of buildings lying in the near by areas (ex: old British Embassy, Anglo Indian schools, etc) will be mentioned. Beginning with a time before Indo Saracenic it will be followed with the early inventions leading to the changes in the common fabric.

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PAPER
Delhi has been home to many dynasties. The British being the last, when India got its democracy. The British rule, affected Indians in many ways. The paper focuses the affects of the British Raj on Delhi and majorly its affect on people of Chandni Chowk, the economic spine of the city through ages.

The Indian Saracenic: Mughal, Gothic, Victorian

Indian Saracenic, is a term coined by the British upon a mixed architecture, of Mughal and their own. The British indiscriminately called all architecture of Muslim countries, from Moorish Spain where Europeans first encountered an Islamic society to Mughal India, Saracenic. (4) The architectural period beginning in the 1870s and lasting, despite competing revivalist ideologies, until Independence in 1947 and thereafter, in attitude if not in name was the Indo Saracenic era. In the nineteenth century, British architects used the term to describe buildings that visually amalgamated elements of Indian architecture with fairly standard generic British buildings. Indo Saracenic

architecture was a post 1857 effort by many administrators and architects to show that their work belonged to India. In this sense it was similar to Indo-classical architecture but Indo-Saracenic buildings combined diverse architectural features of Mughal antecedents with Gothic and Victorian elements and spatial planning. (5) Indo- Saracenic was inexplicably the favourite generic name for these

combinations, but the Hindu Gothic, the Renaissance-Mogul, the Saracenic-Gothic, even the Swiss- Saracenic, were all identified at some time or another as architectural types. (2) The Indo Saracenic style had diverse manifestations, but has generally been described as a hybrid idiom of free-style Indic ornamentation and structural forms
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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 collectors offices, law courts, municipal headquarters, railway stations and universities were built in this style. (5) From this perspective, Indo Saracenic architecture resembles the then BritishVictorian romantic-picturesque imagination of an Indian past encapsulated within the Britishers own buildings (4)

Indo Saracenic Delhi: Why Delhi?

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 had 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)
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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 17th and 18th centuries, European style buildings started coming up, which intercepted the faade of Mughal and Indian architecture. Besides, quite a few townhouses, bungalows, churches and cemeteries were built in European style. Even the narrow streets of the walled city were visible with the imported architecture. (7)

Why Chandini Chowk?

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 Queens 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 varandasThere 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/onlineex/apac/addorimss/t/largeimage55228.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 reopened. (7) The structure of the walled city was conceived with a network of landmarks, focal points, linear markets and a spatial subdivision. The Red Fort, the Royal palace was a climax and a focal point for the fashionable Chandini Chowk . 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 Chandini Chowk was developed as a dominant central axis of the city. (7)

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By 1858The heavily built up area surrounding the Red Fort was 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)

Indo Saracenic Chandni Chowk : Impacts of the British Raj

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 Queens 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 Delhi Institute Building, later to become known as the Town Hall. 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 of repute from the metropole itself indicated the importance of the building. In 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 senior 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 Queens 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. Rectangular windows punctured the walls and jack arches and pediments accentuated the openings; a classical portico adorned the entrance area. Ornamentation was limited to rustication in the plaster in the lower parts of the buildings in Delhi, the structure was remarkable for its lack of stone and carving. The building was set back from the square and the surrounding buildings. Rather than enclosing the public space, the building created a visual focus. The use of gabled roofs, cornices, porticos, and false pediments over the windows made refernces to Greek and Roman classicism and were unlike local architecture. 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.wordpress.com/2012/08/chandni-04-01-01.jpg

The Clock Tower

At the centre of the square the Victoria Clock Tower superseded the bells and drums in the naqqarkhana of the kings palace and the muezzins call of prayers from the mosques in marking timeWith 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/stories/rohatgi/procession1877resized.jpg

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

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Figure 8 Chandni Chowk 1910

Ref: http://www.dadinani.com/images/img/stories/rohatgi/cchowk1910resized.jpg

The Railway Station

The old Delhi Railway Station was built in 1890 was opened to public around 1903. 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-stephens-church.

St. Stephens Church

The British colonial era left a lasting impression on Delhis 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 common Fabric

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 continued 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 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
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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 Delhis vernacular 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 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.

STREET A

STREET B

Ref: https://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl=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

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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 Fabric - Semi Circular Arches and Pilasters

Towards Art Deco

At the beginning of the twentieth century the classical inheritance was clear and continued in modified form, particularly in New Delhi until the 1950sThe

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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Bibliography
1. Madhavi Desai, Miki Desai, Jon Lang. The Bungalow in Twentieth Century India. Farnham : Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-4094-2738-4. 2. Morris, Jan. Stones of Empire: The Buildings of the Raj. s.l. : Oxford University Press USA, 1983. ISBN 978- 0192805967. 3. hosagrahar, Jyoti.

Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating Architecture and

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

4. Carey A Watt ; Michael Mann. Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial

South Asia. London : Anthem Press, 2011. ISBN- 10:1 84331 864 4.
5. Desai, Madhavi, Desai, Miki and Lang, Jon. The Bunglow in Twentieth Century

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

6. P. Scriver; V. Prakash. Colonial Modernities: Building, Dwelling and Architecture in

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

7. Jain, A K. The Cities of Delhi. New Delhi : Management Publishing Co., 1994. ISBN : 81-86034-00-5. 8. Mohan, I. Environmental Issues and Urban Development of the Walled Cities. New Delhi : Mittal Publications, 1992. ISBN 81-7099-319-9. 9. Bheda, Jayesh. Waiting room, Old Delhi Railway Station. Panoramio. [Online] 15 June 2011. [Cited: 9 October 2013.] http://www.panoramio.com/photo/54239981. 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. Kanuri, Chaitanya and Ganesh, Jayesh. Resilience through urban flexibility. The

case of Chandni Chowk, Shahjahanabad. Paris : Essais des tudiants des masters
urbains de Sciences Po, 22013. 12. ROHATGI, VIJAY. Memories of Chandni Chowk and Indias 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-chandni-chowk-and-indias-first-independence-day-byvijay-rohatgi. 13. Corbusier, Le. Towards a New Architecture. reprint. s.l. : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011. ISBN: 1466216395, 9781466216396. 14. Cumming, Elizabeth and Kaplan, Wendy. The Arts and Crafts Movement. London : Thames and Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0-500-20248-6. 15. Duncan, Alastair. Art Nouveau. London : Thames and Hudson, 1999. ISBN 0500-20273-7. 16. Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. s.l. : Thames & Hudson, 2007. ISBN 0500203954, 9780500203958. 17. Marshall, P. J. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire. s.l. : Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0521002540, 9780521002547.

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Figure

Old

Chandni

Chowk

Ref:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Chandni_Chowk%2C_Delhi% 2C_1863-67.jpg [online] ......................................................................................... 2

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.com/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 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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