Feature

Dhaka's architecture fitting its culture, climate and society took hundreds of years to evolve. It incorporated influences by different elements and styles found in the Mughal period, and later of the Colonial period. Advent of the colonial power created a deviation from the (Mughal) style that existed in the late-seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries, because of impositions by them and changes in the context though attempts were made to fit imported styles and forms. Two centuries of colonial rule severed the continuity of indigenous socio-cultural life and economy, and blocked the development of local architecture. The economic exploits driven devastating activities of the colonizers disregarded the local culture, resulting in a 'rupture' in the overall architecture of the region.

'For the first time since Alexander, the banners of the civilized nations waved along the river,' announced the British after the expedition in Afghanistan, a country which could never be subjugated. They expressed their power and glory by erecting superb neo-classical buildings. However, implantation of a European style in different materials in another climate by adding spaces and modifying function was not easy. Nevertheless, the manipulation of forms and images of glory had a vast appeal to the neo-elite of the Indian society. The emancipated individual in spite of being a native adopted a taste for things western to consolidate his newly acquired status, 'a few very large, very fine, and very dirty houses... the residences of wealthy native,' being the most visible and expressive. The result of filling the gap by cultural efforts coping with the status was a mixed Indo-European architecture where the Indian skeleton was draped with the European skin in a process of trans-creation from classicism to racial classicism that signified the European Architecture of that period. In the semantic aspect of colonial architecture, the Vitruvian doctrine holds its significance from Renaissance onwards, laid down in the prototypes, treatises, and handbooks. Within the code they offered such alternatives as Serillio's Mannerism, Gibb's late Baroque, and acceptance of Greek models by Stuart and Revett. This line of action continued up to the mid-eighteenth century.

During the late eighteenth century by when the British had a firm foothold in India, a new mode of expression paid more attention to the effect then to inherent characteristics. The monumental dimensions and sharp Greco-Roman profiles represented the richest inheritance of the western Neo-Classicism. Architecture was used to manifest their dominance at all levels of life where classical columns became the symbol of progress. A spirit to use Indian forms in local buildings in the late-nineteenth century owes to the foundation of Archaeological Survey of India (1862) by Lord Cunningham, and publication of Fergusson's History of Indian Architecture (1876). Hence, the British architects and Indian builders and craftsmen began to adopt Indian elements to the imperial buildings.

After the 1870s, the debate between the interventionists and the conservatives over the issue of British role in Indian tradition revived and remained unresolved. Even the C&B produced a number of buildings in attempted-Indian style, motivated by the rise of Bourgeois, particularly in Bengal, the prestige attached to the classical style, the government's patronage of westernized upper class, and natives' affiliation towards local building tradition giving rise to an apparent mix of Mughal, neo-Gothic and Renaissance styles developing into the so-called Indo-Saracen style.

This made the adaptation of Indian forms easier, placed in gothic frames replacing its own rich ornaments. Gothic and classical elements could be found in multi-foiled arches, clustered columns, grouped dome like the encrusted carving of decorated Gothic, free-standing minarets, Sikharas and Chatris. The simultaneously Indian and progressive new style quickly adopted by some local royals and the rising elite fulfilled a dual purpose acknowledging local roots and an imperial style approved by the colonizers. As Swamiji said in 1898, 'Two branches of the same human stock had settled in two widely separated land... they were the ancient Greeks and the ancient Hindus, ...but now they were meeting... as a result of English conquest of India, because European civilization was Greek in everything'.

The daughter of a foreign-returned doctor related to Sohrawardi, Shaista Ikramullah's description of their living style in Kolkata in 1915 further explains the attitude, "We had a very nice house and really lovely garden, furnished to look exactly like an English house. In the drawing room, there were heavy sofas, lace curtains, gleaming brass and silver, and knickknacks displayed in cabinets. The dining room had a fairly massive side-board displaying a love of heavy silver. The hall and the study were furnished in the typical English style of the time. We had afternoon tea with hot buttered toast and even at other meals we ate what was called English food." A public school building was built for the prince in Ajmeer in 1875 in the hybrid style by rejecting the classical pattern. This introduced the princely India to the style which was appreciated and extensively reproduced in years to come. Most of the elements and exterior decorations like the dome, the deeply carved Bangaldar eaves, the balconies, the arches, the pierced screens, and the moldings were copied from Indian sources. However, an alien amalgamation presented a lexicon of Indian architecture; Indian facades were given to English country houses, western pattern of scale and proportion contained the Indian social and spatial divisions. Lord Curzon wrote to Max Muller in 1899, "The ancient philosophies are being re-exploited, and their modern scribes and professors are increasing in numbers and fame. What is to come out of this strange amalgam, who can say?"

It was neither an authentic revival of Indian style as the forms were merely clad on Gothic frame, nor a successful fusion of eastern and western tradition as they did not resolve into a single architectural logic. The end was a mixture which was not a mastery of tradition, but plundered it without the impediments of taste and understanding. In spite of this un-masterly mixtures and modifications arising from the response to the attraction of exotics, they possessed undeniable inspiring qualities. Though elements were often wrongly applied, they are usually faithfully copied by local craftsmen. However, un-historically those details are done with great panache- supremely picturesque and boldly dramatic.

All these structures were erected during a time when Indo-Saracen style had set firmly on Indian architecture where classicism became obvious and tradition was revived. Dhaka being an important outpost of the British Empire could not deny the force which found its place boldly in these buildings. They showed traditional courtyard and grouping in their layout and treatment in fenestration within the classical framework of proportion, features and method of construction, as found in large mansions along the river. Go to old Dhaka, you will find hundreds of such majestic buildings standing in neglect and dilapidation, waiting for a developer to come and hammer them down.