Why did India go wrong with urban planning? Why did the inherent aesthetic sensibility of the people across this land of ours allow the crass and ugly intervention of the babu, who rode roughshod over age-old skills to destroy all that was special about India? It takes little time to destroy but renewal and restoration are a long-drawn-out process, the fruits of which do not mature instantly. Sixty years of consistent dilution of traditional and local expertise, whether in building styles and norms or in city planning, has left India poorer and in some ways disabled to deal with a globalized world. This is because in the course of this warped method of ‘modernization’, this country lost its sense of pride and confidence as the democratic rulers and their administrators never comprehended the nation’s great strengths. Ugliness, post- 1947, confronts you everywhere and will be the legacy that we leave for future generations.

As you drive out of Delhi along the Ring Road, with the Red Fort on your left, what sticks out like a sore thumb is the hideous water tower of independent India. That wretched design towering above all settlements is the prime symbol of bad style and modernization. Despite having the best of aesthetics — tried, tested and celebrated — to draw from, government engineers have created ‘monsters’, and all the designs were approved by their uninitiated political and administrative masters. The other horror is government housing that sits on the best locations in our cities and towns. These colonies epitomize bad architecture, alien shapes and forms as well as construction without adherence to any building and environmental norms.

Out of sync

Lutyens’ Delhi has been bastardized by illegal extensions out of sync with the basic design and layout of that meticulously-planned city. The culprits are government babus and politicians who have, over the years, broken their own rules, proving that they do not work for the people but alas, for themselves and a breed of people who are increasingly becoming illegal in their operations. The public, with the backing of the judiciary, are protesting and, hopefully, a leader will emerge who will stop municipal corruption. The newer colonies of the capital, professional ghettos of modern India, are planned with no access roads for fire engines, ambulances and so on. Green spaces are few and far between and garbage piles up at road corners.

The hills of Manali, hitherto unspoiled by the ugliness of what India thinks is ‘modern’, is now choking with ugliness. There are no urban norms, no building restrictions, nothing. Juxtaposed with the monstrous ‘new’, is the delicate and wonderful indigenous architecture that has withstood time and the ravages of weather. Why does the authority not allow the local design to prevail? Why is the area not deemed a conservation and heritage zone for both the natural and man-made environment and habitat? This one decision would provide for the employment of the local skilled workers — people who have aesthetic sensibility flowing in their veins. People want to visit beauty and have a share in it. People want to imbibe their past. Many have to be led into that experience and it is for the privileged, the leaders and the entrepreneurs, to take the initiative. No one wants to wade through muck.

If the Himachal government wants to lead India by example into the next more dynamic phase of growth, it should conceive a fresh grand plan for the state, involve the best minds from outside the monolith of government ‘expertise’ and set an unmatched standard. In fact, all Congress-ruled states should forget pandering to various sections of society for votes and get on with laying the foundation for the future, a future that could make India a truly proud and vibrant state.