Never before in the history of Independent India has such a plethora of experts, who know so little, have had such nuisance value. Ignorance or semi-knowledge is the politician’s playground and architecture is the latest bastion being stormed.
A BJP-worthy from Telangana has vociferously and vehemently objected to the domes on the new Secretariat building. His beef with the state government and architects is that they remind him of the Taj Mahal. Anyone who is offended at the sight of the Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and the only one in India, must possess an incomprehensible aesthetic sensibility. If the Secretariat’s domes are objects of ire, bus stands weren’t spared the wrath of the saffron architectural Renaissance either.
Another BJP design expert’s warning was enough for Mysuru civic authorities to remove a couple of cupolas from atop a bus stand: news reports noted that the bubbles burst overnight and were to be seen no more. Incidentally, the architect of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya envisaged five domes instead of three so that more devotees can be accommodated. The War of the Hemispheres has begun and the sphere of influence of India’s new architectural saviours is wide and vigorous.
Romila Thapar mentions somewhere that today’s historians are forced to respond to people who aren’t history experts. In fact, such expertise is frowned upon by contemporary ideologues because they don’t fit the new narrative since most netas, irrespective of political affiliation, are ill-informed.
The anti-dome brigade is protesting not because of any architectural predilection, but because it wishes to be noticed by the leadership. Local Indiana Joneses and the Temple of Dome are signs that the second Indian social evolution has begun, with a new generation in authority, unsure of its power being forced to simplify India into a binary trope.
Never mind that there are domes on top of the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Supreme Court; they are simply ‘non-Indian’ or, to clarify matters, anti-Hindu to some. Shoot-from-the-mouth Wiki historians are unaware that domes are part of Hindu architecture, too—pre-Mughal temple architecture sports lotus designs on squat, circular domes topped by orbs.
Hindu domes can be seen in the Qutb complex in Mehrauli, Delhi, where temple architects used half-spheres atop numerous pillars. In fact, Muslim conquerors had to hire Hindu artisans since they were woefully short of their own builders—armies don’t usually travel with architects and city planners.
Subversive Hindu architects hence cleverly leveraged indigenous designs by placing hemispherical structures on square edifices. The cupola runneth over. Domes predate Islam: the dome of the Roman Pantheon, 142 feet wide and 71 feet high, is the largest unreinforced dome in the world.
The great dome of the Sanchi Stupa located in Madhya Pradesh is a marvel of Buddhist architecture. The Jain temples in Mount Abu constructed by Vimal Shah have domed ceilings. More recently, the landmark dome atop Hungary’s 96-m tall parliament building is one of the largest in the world.
The geometry of populist politics, which plays fast and loose with history, is skewed by the opportunism of ignorance much like squinches that can change a square into a circle to fit the base of a dome. Until an exasperated prime minister tells them to zip it, like he told the #BoycottPathaan bores, attention-seekers will scream away about domes. They are fitting metaphors of the anarchic architects of nation-rebuilding today.
Ravi Shankar
ravi@newindianexpress.com