By Kai Schultz, Sreeja Biswas and Satviki Sanjay
For nearly a century, Indian officials debated the fate of the world’s largest democracy from Sansad Bhavan, the British-designed parliament building in the heart of Delhi, its colonnades and classical architecture reflecting colonial tastes.
Now, as India increasingly asserts itself as a global power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged the citizenry to shed a “mentality of slavery.” His plans include a controversial $2 billion project to modernize the capital and soften the influence of foreign aesthetics. Major government offices constructed under the British Raj are to be replaced — including Sansad Bhavan, whose rowdy halls, which once echoed with the distant sounds of bombs hurled by freedom fighters — may soon become a museum.
“Today, India is once again turning that glorious stream of ancient times towards itself,” Modi said at the May inauguration of the new parliament complex, where legislative proceedings are expected to shift this month. “The new Parliament House has become a living symbol of this effort.” The speech also made appeals to recall a time when India’s architecture, from domed Mauryan stupas to elaborately carved Hindu temples, was a marvel to the world.
The reimagining of central Delhi, with its tree-lined roads, bureaucratic chambers and discreet bungalows for the elite, comes at a time of dramatic transformation in India. The prime minister and his Bharatiya Janata Party have improved India’s physical infrastructure since 2014 faster than any recent government, with highways, air travel and access to water vastly expanding.
But the finer details of India’s nation-building have also raised concerns. Roads named after Muslim rulers have been changed, and the BJP has spent millions of dollars erecting massive statues depicting Hindu gods and leaders. Defenders say India is simply reclaiming its history, but critics worry that they reflect an exclusionary mindset that leaves minorities out of Modi’s articulation of the new India.
These suspicions spilled over during the parliament building’s inauguration. A large mural depicting a map of India with extended borders prompted an outcry from its neighbors — members of Modi’s party praised it for evoking the expansionist idea of “Akhand Bharat,” or Undivided India. The idea has been endorsed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a far-right organization affiliated with the BJP.
Also at the inauguration, Modi carried a gold scepter given by Hindu priests in 1947 to India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, an exchange that symbolized a transfer of power from the British. Critics say Modi’s reembrace of the staff represented another rebirth, and the reclaiming of a Hindu glory stifled by India’s secular structure.
“The opening ceremony was a classic example of how religion has been mixed with politics,” said Arati Jerath, a political analyst based in Delhi. “The building is another step in the government’s attempt to portray themselves as saviors.”
Others have turned their criticisms to the scale of the project itself.
A G Krishna Menon, a prominent Indian architect, called the new parliament a “decorative shed” of questionable functionality. The building, which cost $120 million, spans 65,000 square meters (700,000 square feet), or about three times the size of the old complex. Over the next few years, new ministry offices will also open near it, along with modern residences for Modi and the vice president.
“It is like someone coming to meet you for a conversation in a wedding dress,” Menon said. “Certainly it looks opulent, but what is the need?”
The government has argued that the new parliament complex, designed by Indian architect Bimal Patel, was long overdue. The old building couldn’t comfortably accommodate the lower house’s 543 officials, a number that will likely grow in the world’s most populous nation. Pieces of the ceiling would fall on legislators, the air conditioning sometimes smelled and the building wasn’t resistant to major earthquakes.
A spokesperson for Patel’s firm, HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd., wrote in an email that the new parliament isn’t intended to erase the past. Instead, the project is an opportunity to “harmonize the building with its historic neighbor” and showcase India’s diversity. The ceiling of the lower house evokes the feathers of a peacock, India’s national bird, and the complex incorporates materials from across the country, including granite from Rajasthan, woodwork from Maharashtra and carpets weaved in Uttar Pradesh.
Nalin Kohli, a spokesperson for the BJP, declined to comment. To rebut criticism that the inauguration hinted at Hindu supremacy, ruling party lawmakers have highlighted that the ceremony included an interfaith prayer service.
Supporters of the project also note that Delhi has been looted, conquered and rebuilt many times, creating a cityscape stamped by some of history’s most powerful empires.
For more than 200 years, the Mughals held court, leaving behind grand sandstone tombs that now border upscale markets. The British used Delhi as their administrative base, and in the final years of colonial rule famous English architects like Edwin Lutyens turned their eyes to the city’s core, designing structures including Sansad Bhavan, which opened in 1927, and India Gate, a monument dedicated to fallen soldiers.
On the sprawling lawns near India Gate, Ravi Kumar, who’s run a snack shop in the area for 20 years, called the new parliament “a building for the people” and said another cycle of change has begun. Delhi’s central vista, a strip of sidewalk connecting the monument to the presidential palace, is better managed these days, he said. Nearby infrastructure was also recently renovated, and new museums, art galleries and other public spaces draw millions of tourists.
The changes also come as Modi positions India as a new center of gravity for global trade, pitching it as a place with a long history of business, cultural and artistic achievement that has for too long been underestimated and stymied by the wider world.
Om Prakash, a rickshaw driver parked near the parliament complex, said that the building “will make our country proud.”