Vile Vandalism of the founding Emperor of "New India": "Redevelopment" of Sabarmati Ashram to follow "Central Vista"
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Sukla Sen
Jul 18, 2021, 1:46:34 PM7/18/21
to foil-l, Say NO 2 UID Core Group
The founding Emperor of "New India" must not only fabricate the immediate present and oncoming future but also radically rewrite the historical past as well.
And, of course, it's going to bear all over the unmistakable imprint of his signature grossness and megalomania.
<<The person under whose watch those [Gujarat 2002] riots took place, the then chief minister, Narendra Modi, was entirely educated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an organisation whose sectarian, xenophobic ideology is utterly at odds with the capacious and open-minded worldview of Gandhi himself. Modi grew up venerating the sarsanghchalak of the RSS, MS Golwalkar, whose detestation of Gandhi is a matter of public record. In a speech in December 1947, Golwalkar remarked: “Mahatma Gandhi could not mislead them any longer. We have the means whereby such men can be immediately silenced, but it is our tradition not to be inimical to Hindus. If we are compelled, we will have to resort to that course too.”
For Modi, Golwalkar was “Pujniya Shri Guruji”, most revered Teacher and Master. Through much of his career, he held Golwalkar in enormous regard while scarcely sparing a thought for Gandhi. In his years as chief minister, Narendra Modi visited Sabarmati Ashram infrequently. However, after he became prime minister, he developed a keen interest in the place. He has personally escorted to Gandhi’s ashram, among others, the prime ministers of Japan and Israel and the presidents of China and the United States.
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... [As] Modi himself knows that Gandhi remains, to use the contemporary argot, the Indian “brand” most visible and most appreciated around the world. So, whether it be Japan, China, Israel or France, or America or Russia or Germany, if Modi wants to make an impression he must cynically, instrumentally, have Gandhi by his side.
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When a regime known for its aesthetic barbarism and its worship of monumentalism uses the word, “world-class”, in connection with the Sabarmati Ashram, it sends shivers down the spine. That the chosen instrument of this “upgradation” is the architect, Bimal Patel, makes one more nervous still. Patel’s work is undistinguished. His cold, concrete structures are cut of a cloth very different from that which marks the homes and dwellings in Gandhi’s ashrams in Sabarmati and Sevagram.
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An Amdavadi colleague jokes that while we may fortunately never have One Nation, One Party, we are heading in the direction of One Nation, One Architect. Now, if a billionaire wishes to have the same man (or woman) design his beach house, his town house, his mountain house, and his desert house, paying for them all with his personal funds, there can be no moral objection. But if a single architect gets awarded all prestigious state projects, paid for by the taxpayer, then there is indeed a problem.
It is only in authoritarian states that particular architects have come to be associated with particular leaders and their cults of personality. That the same person can be seen as uniquely qualified to re-design an ancient temple city, a modern capital, and Gandhi’s
ashram is a commentary on the nepotism and cronyism of the Modi regime. Indian architecture, and India itself, deserve better.
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The ongoing despoilation of New Delhi’s Central Vista has been widely criticised. However, from an ethical point of view, the proposed despoilation of the Sabarmati Ashram is even more worrisome. As an elected prime minister, Modi has some legitimacy in erecting structures – however ugly and costly – on public land in the capital. The case of Sabarmati is altogether different.
The Sabarmati Ashram and Gandhi belong not to Ahmedabad, not to Gujarat, not even to India, but to every human being born or unborn. A politician whose entire life’s work has been antithetical to Gandhi’s, and an architect whose prime qualification is proximity to that politician, have no right to mess around with the most hallowed of all the places associated with the Mahatma.>>
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