A bloody mess

June 18, 2021 11:11

"The greatest products of architecture are not individual but social creations, the offspring of nations in labour, wrote Victor Hugo. Like childbirth, construction is hard work, replete with blood, sweat and tears. And from that bloody mess, something beautiful emerges. There is consensus, celebration and excitement that only something new can give rise to.

"This is how it should have been with the rebuilding of the Central Vista in New Delhi. Reconstruction of a capital city is the apogee of architectural achievement -- the construction perceived as a microcosm of national identity set in stone. Lutyens' Delhi, for all its unquestioned grandeur, was the colonial architect's vision for India -- a proud British government discharging its civilizing mission by towering over an ancient people," writes Arghya Sengupta. Read the column here

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