A New Parliament

Supreme Court judgment giving go-ahead to Central Vista revamp is a missed opportunity

- Arghya Sengupta

The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution called on Nandalal Bose to adorn its pages with illustrations that would capture the essence of the new republic. Bose’s choices were a mélange – mythical figures – Krishna, Arjuna, Rama, Sita; sovereigns – Ashoka, Akbar, Tipu Sultan, Shivaji; freedom fighters – Rani Laxmibai, Gandhiji, Netaji all found place alongside motifs from Ajanta, Mahabalipuram and Harappa and India’s natural endowments, its oceans and mountains. Yet Bose omitted representing the lives of ordinary Indians from his mélange – no hardworking farmers, brave soldiers or unnamed revolutionaries made it.

His vision was at once awe-inspiring – marvelling at the hallowed past of this supposedly new nation, and top-down – looking at India from the lens of its nobility. This is not to fault Bose’s choices. In fact, the new republic that came into existence in 1950 was in many ways a continuation of the old. Colonial ways of thinking about India as a space ruled by a succession of kings cannot overnight transform into a celebration of subaltern voices.

Similarly, symbols of colonial power do not, at the stroke of the midnight hour, become monuments of liberation. India’s appropriation of the buildings of empire in the Central Vista as its seat of power – the Viceroy’s House, Parliament House, North and South Blocks may have been pragmatic at the time. But architecturally, much like Bose’s illustrations, they inspire awe and pride, rather than freedom and equality, which animated the struggle for Independence.