Indian Summer

by Robert Grant Irving

Book Overview

Book by Robert Grant Irving This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300031289
• ISBN13: 9780300031287
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 406 Pages
• Weight: 2.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The best book on the planning and design of New Delhi

Delhi has laid claim to be the capital of India since the earliest days of Aryan civilisation in the great North Indian plain. Rajput kings and Muslim invaders alike have built large planned cities and strong fortifications. Delhi has attracted many because of its strategic location: defended to the west and south by quartzite ridges that are the last spurs of the Aravalli ranges and to the east by the great Yamuna river, which has also ensured it plentiful water. To the east lies the fertile Gangetic plain and to the west the rich lands of Punjab with its five rivers. From Delhi pressure can also be exerted to the south on Ajmer, the gateway to the Rajput kingdoms. No fewer than 15 cities had been built on this spot beforethe British rulers of India decided to move capital here. By doing so they wanted to lay claim not only to the vanished Mughal empire, which had its brilliant court in the Red Fort in the heart of the city of Shahjehanabad on a site northward of Delhi, but also impress upon the people that they were the legitimate heirs to the great empires which had ruled from this spot. Imperial Delhi, then, was to, from thebeginning, be a city that would awe the beholder. It was to be the expression of British might in India, of its stable policies and enlightened views, and of its respect for law, order, reason and tolerence. It was also to be a city that would in its architecture display a synthesis of Classical and Indian design elements, thereby symbolising the progress and harmony that was to be had out of co-operation with the rulers. This book is one of the finest chronicles of the process of planning New Delhi and its principal monuments. It covers the original vision for the city, several alternate sites and plans, and the eventual outcome of the co-operation between Lutyens and Baker. New Delhi's systematic lay-out is the highest evolution of rational principles. The Vicregal Palace together with the Secretariat blocks occupies the highest point- Raisina hill. In defence of !this site Lutyens quoted from the Bible ' the city on the hill cannot be hid'. A great east-west axis- the Kingsway- proceeds from Raisina to the Yamuna and the oldest city of all Indraprastha. Wide green lawns, straight avenues of trees and long reflecting pools border this principal axis. The Kingsway is cut at right angles by the other axis of the city- the Queensway. At the heart of the city stood a statue of the King-Emperor, while arrayed around the hexagon around it that delineated Prince's Park, were the palaces of the Maharaja's friendly to the British. The whole thus expressed a rational, well-planned city, where the Viceregal Palace symbolised the paramountcy of the British empire over the native rulers, who affirmed their loyalty to the King. With its wide, straight, tree lined boulevards the city has often been compared to Haussman's Paris. The resemblance is strengthened by the enormous All-India War Memorial Arch that stands in Prince's Par