While I welcome Rajaji’s statue at Rashtrapati Bhavan, removing Sir Edwin Lutyens’ bust is deplorable. Yes, he was racist. But he was also a brilliant architect. He gave our capital its distinct character. His work marked the final great architectural stamp on that historic city. It stood second only to the Mughals. Rashtrapati Bhavan, which he designed, remains a national symbol. We continue to flaunt it with pride.
Lutyens and the Madras Club Plaque
Lutyens’ links to Madras came to mind when I read the news. The memorial plaque he designed for members killed in the First World War still hangs at the Madras Club. It is an elegant piece of marble. J Fenn & Co of Madras executed it.
Lutyens stayed at the Club when it stood on Club House Road off Mount Road. Later, the Club shifted premises. The plaque was moved too. During the move, it developed a visible crack.
Lutyens, Lady Emily and the Theosophical Ties
The plaque itself now faces the Adyar River, in the direction of the Theosophical Society, a religious order that Lutyens looked at with mixed feelings. His wife, Lady Emily, daughter of former Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton, was an ardent Theosophist who spent months on end at Adyar. This Sir Edwin did not like, for he felt that her place was by his side when he visited each year during the winter months from England to oversee the progress of New Delhi.
And even on the few occasions she was in Delhi, she could, at a moment’s notice drop everything and rush off to Madras. As she once wrote, the call was too powerful. Too powerful even to overlook a dinner with the viceroy.
Lutyens and the Krishnamurti Episode
Lady Emily had been made a member of the Theosophical Society by Annie Besant no less. In 1912, just a year after her husband had bagged the contract for New Delhi, she was playing an important behind-the-scenes role in getting J Krishnamurti and his brother Nityananda to London so that they could be shielded from the famed adoption case of Besant vs Narayaniah, in which The Hindu had a powerful role to play. It probably bankrolled Narayaniah as well in the litigation.
Lutyens looked askance at his wife’s adoration of Krishnamurti. The messiah-to-be declared that he had found in her a mother’s love. Even after 1929, when Krishnamurti broke with the Theosophical Society, Lady Emily remained his champion and friend. This meant a complete severing of ties with the Theosophical Society, all of which is documented in the book Candles In The Sun that Lady Emily co-authored with her daughter Mary.
Lutyens and the Indo-Saracenic Debate
But that was not the end of Lutyens’ troubles with Madras. He came, saw, and hated Indo-Saracenic architecture. For that matter, he hated Mughal architecture and perhaps if that had been better known, his bust would have been spared. His initial idea for New Delhi was neo-classical for he believed that was best suited for an imperial capital city.
But then, when news broke about this, Robert Fellowes Chisholm, the father of Indo-Saracenic in Madras was at hand in England to protest. He wrote letters to the press stating that what was needed was an idiom that had plenty of Indian elements in it so that ‘natives’ would have a sense of affinity to the building. And this idea soon gained support at the highest level, including Queen Mary.
Lutyens and the Making of Rashtrapati Bhavan
Lutyens had to redesign and it is interesting that what we love most today about Rashtrapati Bhavan, is its great dome, inspired by the stupa at Sanchi. To give Lutyens credit, he did not use Indo-Saracenic but evolved an Indian style of his own, and built a landmark that was to last, and awe in its scale.
Lutyens may not have thought much of Madras architecture, but it was an architect from our city who got credit for the first building of New Delhi. This was E Montague Thomas, consulting architect for the Government of Madras, and he designed what is now known as the Old Secretariat, Delhi, which was the first seat of the Government in the new capital. Sadly, he died in 1915.
Lutyens and the Unfinished Madras Plan
Among Lutyens’ papers is a plan for the development of Madras. Not much is known of what it contains or for that matter why it was abandoned. But someone, somewhere, copied it. T Nagar in its plan is nothing but Lutyens’ New Delhi at a scaled down level.
This article appeared in The Hindu –https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/british-architect-sir-edwin-lutyens-and-his-madras-connection/article70672524.ece
My book, Chennai, A Biography can be ordered-https://sriramv.com/2021/12/27/how-to-buy-autographed-copies-of-chennai-a-biography-from-outstation/20.ece
