THE NEW DELHI

Hokitika Guardian, 18 February 1931, Page 2

THE NEW DELHI

(Exchnm-m) From three points oi vie a—th-.' historic, the political and the artisiic—the new capital at Delhi, which has been inaugurated with appropriate ceremony is an achievement of extraordinary interest. Artistically it is one of the most important enterprises of modern times. The British Empire has never attempted anything so large and so important as this building of a capital in open country. The two most prominent English architects of their time, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker, were commissioned to lay out a capital and design a great'series of buildings that would be a worthy political centre for an Empire, a congeries of peoples and creeds w th a history fai older than that of the ruling race. The intention was that the new city should hold 70,000 persons and he capable oi unlimited expansion. In carrying out this huge task the architects have not forgotten Indian history and Indian art. lake all such projects, it has been much criticised. The English official mind docs not like novelty and “bar-rack-like” and “bare” nre said to be stock ep'thets hurled at tho new capital. According to a critic in the “Architectural Review,” “Akabor Shall Jehan wouiu have cried for joy at the seventh Delhi, and have hailed its builders ns their worthy successors”—the exquisite Taj Mahal, thought by many to be the most beautiful building in tho WorlO was built tindei Shah Jchan s direct out —bub Indian princes commiserate with l.mly Irwin on having to live in “such a plain house,” According to the same critic, the sign ’finance of the now Delhi from tho artistic standpoint has scarcely been realised. “Of the o tv’s permanent value as an aesthetic monument posterity must be the final judge. But to contemporaries, and in the darkness of contemporary standards, the event shines with Periolean importance.”

The transfer of the capital of India from Calcutta to its ancient site of Delhi offended the Hindus and p'eased tlie Moslems. “Calcutta, founded amidst the vilest climate, tho remotest marshes, and the most intemperate people of India, embellished and aggrandised by successive viceroys with monstrous buildings and preposterous statues and breathing a preponderantly commercial opinion upon the fate of 300,000,000 people, clamoured to retain tho eminence for which it was so patently fitted.” That was one trouble started by the decision. There has been violent criticism of the cost. The poverty of indn is one of the stock arguments of the Nationalist agitator nil lie is quick to contrast the lot of tho poor with the expenditure of ten millions on a capital. “The educated Indian, soaked iii tho utilitarian doctrines of the West, sees only sweated blood in the gorgeous and variegated buildings that shine o>'" ! h< while the Indian population, • ■" .u'the

fields beneath, possesses a ■ income of £2 a year.” Am Aug to this writer, however, “n<> city in the world exhibiting the least pretension to aesthetic virtue has ever beep created with such astonishing economy.” But, of course, most people interested in India, when they read of this week’s ceremony, will think first of the political conditions in which it has been held. This splendid new capital, built by British and Indians, adorned with Indian art nnd commemorating Indian history, contributed to by the .Dominions, with which India hopes to take rank, inaugurated with such splendour.—what scenes will it witness in the next generation? It is presumably dedicated to democracy, but democracy is a very tendtr plant in a country that throughout the ages has been governed by the opposite principle The only comment that can be made with certainty is that the new Delhi is a magnificent gesture to India’s new age.