ACT-\ 2000 INTERNATlOh-\I CONFtRE\CF - HOhG KONG CHINA il

Cultural Baggage and the White Man's Burden

MARK COTTLE SABIR KHAN Georgia Institute of Technology

The 6rnigl-6 is an emblematic bet under-investigated figure the role$ con~entionallyascribed to wstern expatriates and in the intersecting trajectories of' modernity and tradition. experts. Like the expatriate expert. the foreign-trained local. and. As 6mig1-64 ~bhonot only traveled east - to 'underdevel- more recently. the global consultant, the t2niigl-C is a cultural oped' India - but rlati1.r. thcir liws and uork compli- type that problematizes cross-cultural exchange: thc move- cate our con\entional reading of nati\cs Dec,o~rli/ig/r~otlei-r~: ment of knowledge. skills. and ideologies across geographi- the now well-worn narrative of"traveling west' (Ghosh. 35). cal and cultural time zones. Howver. the transactions literall! and figurati\,ely. for enlightenment. The term. through which 6miprCs negotiate tlie contours 01' going nati~c.references the colonialists' fear of losing their inbetweenness. their unresolved position within. and to- cultural and political distinctiveness through contaniina- ward. the host culture as \\ell as their 'own'. produces a tion by. andabsorption into. native life and customs (Ashcroft. suhjectivitj. very diflkrcnt from the others who. as emissaries 1 15). In British India. n,here the civilizing impulse personi- or couriers. cross borders but do not trouble tlieni. The fied b!, tlie white nian's burden was carried on the shoulders constant recallibration of their position between two cultural of relatively fe~expatriates. there was an ever-present con- poles produces \\or!, with a particular valency. a flickering cern with culhml. social. and racial decorum. While dut) charge that reflects tlicir double orientation. called lor a certain amount of cross-cultural consumption. In this sense being an 6niiprC is as much a matter or a adoption of' native garb and customs. for example. put not particular scnsibilit> 3.4 it is an indication of political status on14 one's own sub-jectivity but also the entire community or cultural prqjudice. When the CmigrC is marked by diffcr- at risk. ences in pigmentation or economic status. the sense of In a similar manner. he rhetorics of becoming modern also belonging and not belonging to Ihcir neh country of resi- play out tlie reconstitution of sub,jectivity and culture as a dence is especially acute. Both settler-colonists and guest- matter of degrees of separation from the cocoon of custoni workers provide poignant instances ol' this. In this paper. and tradition. Subcontinental reformers and modernizers howe\w. \4e are interested in pursuing the notion ofCmigrt2 through out the nineteenth and tnentieth century have been xnsibilitj thri~~~glia rarer (and. it could be argued. more obsessed with indexing modernity to help monitor cross- rarified) set ol'examples: western professionals who moved cultural commerce: neu headgear (Vernaaik. 28): new rc- to the 'third wol-Id' during the first flush of post-colonial gimcs of Furniture: new fashions in don~esticarchitecture. inilepenclencc and ended up spendins their lives there. ctc.. sene as 11iarkc1-sin this rile of passage Pien-c Jeanneret. Laurie Baker. and Joseph Allen Stein In the work of these three architects. the co~nplementar> arrived in India as western experts in the early fifties: they and contradictory tr+jectol-ies of going native and becoming sta>ed on to bccomc conscientious interlocutors 01' Indian modern are intcrt~ined.Their work collapses and merges building culture. Yet they did so not I'rom pos~tionsof disparate traditions in Lvays that are both partial and transfor- unreflccted privilege: they were acutcl! au are ol'the cultural mativc. It is this doubled mo\,ement. this paper argues. that politics oftheir place in independent India. In a manner verb gi\,cs thcir ~vor!, a critical fluidity that sponsors producti\,c difl'erent from thcir colonialist counterparts (n,hether the comparison to a number of different configurations: to technocrats of the British Rai or the \Vorld Bank) their very modernism at Iargc and to modern architecture in India in .M hiteness' became a 'burden'. a markcroft1iei1-outsidcrness particular: to the ~orkofrecognired Indian 'star' architects: in freshly independent India. At the same time they did not and to Indian \crnacular practice. put on the mantle of thc modernis1 missionary. signalling Unlike the work of the vxll-knwvn M,estern 'masters' and instcacl through strategic self-eff'acement thcir abdication of Indian stan. tlie work of Jcanneret. Baker. and Stein is

pitch. He is sent to live with an elderly ~iiissionarycouple to in building ~vitlilocal materials and techniclues results in his "learn the ropes". This comes with unexpected shocks to his being seen as an interlocutor. someone ~vhocould bridge scnseof self'. Hc finds himselI'a"sa1iib". li\ ingin a bungalo~ betbeen local and prof'esKerala. Hcrc he begins the dinner mas mandatory (Bhatia. 223). process of learning a complctcly dii'l'crent construction and His n ork. rehabilitating old leper as\lums into hospitals. material vernacular. But h! thi\ time he has distilled his raises other quc\tions. He wonders \vho his r~'a I c.I' lcnts are: cxpericnces into operati~eprinciples: that buildings should the mission. the doctors. or the patients thcmsel\es. The he simple. efficient and incxpcnsive. and that their design buildings. the construction methods. and the materials he is should drab\ from. and extend the vernacular. \vIiich embod- faced vAth 1eaL.e him feeling quite alien: ies hundreds 01' years 01' research in building methods. Working on a dailq basis nith clients ~.itlicxtreniely Durin: those first few months I I'elt increasinglq igno- limited means. on projects \\,here architects and engineers are rant and helple$s. I felt less knowledgeable than the not required - for. as he says. nothing "either can do is stupidest \,illage idiot ...I had brought with me my i~suallj~built for four or fiw thousand rupees" - doesn't reference books and construction manuals. hut a bundle result in aromanticizatinnofthe vernacular. On thecontrary. 01' comic strips woulcl have been as helpful (Bhatia. he is acutelb aware of market forces: the rise ol'labor costs. 225). the scarcity of'non-reneu able. and even renewable materials Gradually he au,akens to a different paradigm. rebuilds (like timber I'or roofing). and the loss of certain cral'ts as a himwlf from the ground up. discovers the basis for another socicty clevelops. Thesc pressure help him conceptualire approach to architectural practice. He's friscinatcd by the tradition. as well as his place within it: skills of ordinary poor village people who are able to make My observation is that \,ernacular architecture almost useful. everyday things and houses from whatever materials always haapt solutions to all our problems oi'build- are around thcm: ing. All that is required is to go a step further u ith the Slowly I realized that many 01' the answers to m! research our forefathcrs have done - that is. add on problem.. . lay before me.. .that wherever1 went I sa\z. our twentieth century experience to inipro\e on what in the local indigenous stylc of architecture. the results alread) ha\ been accomplished. But this addition of thousands of years of research on how to use only should be a contribution. not a contradiction (Bhatia. immediately awilable local materials to make struc- 237). turally sound buildings that could cope with local Tradition as an unfolding. a bearing forth from the past climatic conditions. uith the local geography and into the present. rather than as a calcified authenticity. in a topography. . . that could accommodate all the require- kaught balancing act with an equally monolithic modernit!. ments of local religious. social. and cultural patterns of It doesn't come as a surprise. then. that his relationship hit11 living (Bhatia. 226). the allure of'the modern and the ei'li.cts of moilerni~ationare Transforming thcsc discoveries into useful knowledge. quite conflicted. He looks at the examples of modern howe\,er. is another matter altogether. He says. "I realized I architecture around him and f'inds it an arrogant. anonymous. mas merely a uitness to thcse apparently endless indigenous senseless jumble. ~vithno harmon!. imit). or honest! with shillx and uas in no wa? capable of implementing them so itsell'. with its ne ighhors. or its en\ iron~nent.Modern appur- early after my 'discovery' [oi'the~n](Bhatia. 326). It is at this tenances simply efface or neutralire iss~~esof climate or point that thc long slow apprenticeship starts. the gradual social patterns. assimilation of local knoa ledge. and the identification u ith He singles out the use 01' concrete as particularly perni- the indigenous. cious. "Moclern Portland cement came anel suddenly our slow. steady e\,olutionar) building process came to a de\,as- I tried to design buildings in such a n,ay that they woulcl tatinghalt ... Can't n,e be modern uith other materials besides not be ofl'cnsiw or unacceptable to mq real clients. the reinf'orccd concrete. g1as.s. and aluminum trimmings'? (Bhatia. iisers of'thc buildings. and so that they would meet their 212). He i, particularl! critical ol'the formal flourishes ol' needs and not be an offensc to the eyes of the people modem architects: the "i'unctionlcss protrusions. I'l-ills. and with whom I had chosen to live (Bhatia. 216). I'ins" (an ob\ ious reference to thc wholesale adoption ol'thc During his first sevcntcen years in India he li~eswith his brise soleil). the cladding that hicles. the un\,sr!,ing use ol'a Indian doctor cvifc in a remotc Himalayan \,illage helping plastic material such as concrete in gridular fl-ames. anel the build hospitals. schools. and houses. "During this period". gimmicks foisted upon b! architectural masters. he says. "I actually did acquire quite a lot ol'thc skills which "One man pi~tsin two Iargc circuI;~rholes in functionless had so fascinated me" (Bhatia. 227). His increasing expertise walls. and in no time thc whole city produccs round holes in 51 CKOST CI RRt\TS TRANS-CLILTL RAL AKCHITtCTLRt tDUCATlOh 4ND URRlYlTM functionless walls" (Bhatia. 755). TIIOLI~IIhe rarcl! makes Fath . I'orcxarnple. This is not surprising. for in crucial ways. references in inter\~iem,sto the Indian work ol'Corbusicr and Baker's u,ork was never positionctl the same way as Fathy's. Kahn. statements such as these clearly conwy what hc thinks Fathy. after all. u,as an insider. someone rcvi\#ingtraditional of the ~vorkproduced b> the itinerant masters ol' modern form and crafts in terms that a western audicncc undcl-stood: architccti~rc. Yet. despite this antipathy. both his dcsign romanticized and high-minded transpositions of folk forms. procedures and the high mot-al tow of his rhetoric contain arccuperation of'the ethnic authentic in thc face of modernity 's signil'icant \,cstiges ol'his architectural training in the heroic depradations. age of modernism. (He n,asin school during the thirties). His As an outsider working thc inside. an emissary neither constant rel'rain ol' honest!: to materials. to the clients' t'rom. or to. the u,est. as a dcracinated n~odernarchitect who nceds. to the desired function: his abhorrence oi' applied rc-I-ootcd himsell'. Baker's allegiances are both narrower and decoration. and ornamentation: in his oun words. his "anti- more radical. Bearing ncithcr the burden of a white man's facadism." modernism. nor the albatross of authenticit!. Baker maneu- Likc other moclern Indian architects. he sidesteps the \.ers in a l1~1id.and vital. borderland. Working Ivithin the whole issue ol'decoration. the worhcd richness and clabora- grain of a particular vernacular. he has rcterritoriali~cdhis tion that is a mark of pre-colonial Indian architccturc. For suhjccti\ity. demarcating for himsclf a rich architectural hini. in a sensc. architectural design ought not to bc primarily terrain as well. a vehicle for extra-architectural symbolism. As an outsider. certainly. to wade into these murk? waters would be danger- PIERRE JEANNERET ous. His religious buildings stay clear ol' iconograph!. Pierre Jeanneret was Sil'ty-Sour when he came to India as preferring toessay the spiritual through a material directness. part ofhiscousin's team. Ironicallq it was in Chandigarh. the as he does in a11 his buildings. high noon of heroic modernism. that hc was able to I-elease Over the past forty years. and through well o\ era thousand himsell' from the shadon. of his older cousin's influence. as prqjects. Laurie Baker has distilled a limited set of building b.cll as from allegiance to thc cmancipatory polemics of elements and Ibrmal and site design strategies. His Sragmen- modern architecture. It is in India. during the last fifteen years tary and idiosyncratic compositions result I'rom a strict of his life. that both he and his work co~neinto their own. adherence to a code of minimizing cost and sitc ~ork.Trees incorporating the modest and diffident voice of the Crnigrk are never cut. nor is the sitc regraded. The serendipitous rather than the trumpeting of'the reforming expert. a posture plasticity of the forms anci the spaces rcsults horn the rigors he never was quite comfortable inhabiting. that this modernist fakir imposes upon himself. Arriving in India uas a revelation and it results in a Some of the characteristic elements ol' his \,ernacular: reorientation of his sub,jcctivity and of his concerns as an load-bearing brick wlls (single-brick bonds. nine-inch rat- architect. He writes to Jose Luis Sert soon after his arrival: trap. or 4 112 inch stretcher bond): endless variations on hall'- "h1j greatest concern now, is to employ as many men as brick screens bet~veeninside and outside spaces: doublc possible. After having for years tried my hardest to find ways walls with occupiable cavities: brick corbelling or lintels of replacing human labor with machinery. I never thought I over windows and doors: unplastered or white-washcd brick would one day be reconsidering the problem Srom adif'ferent surfaces: integral decorative patterning by varying the pro- angle: that of trying to give work to the greatest possible portion of mortar to brick: cur\.ilincar. segmented plan number of men." (Cauquil. 105). shapes (for structural support. reducing thc surface arcaol'thc He sets himsell'to learning the ways of life in northern envelope. working around existing sitc conditions): con- India. and the spccil'icities of Indian construction. His close crete roof slabs (~vhennecessary) but usually folded platc. and empathetic observation of local techniques. of climate. with the space betueen the reinforcing bars filled with brick of nlaterials. inl'orrns his desire to work within the "ethical or broken cla! tile. reducing the cost by a third): built-in and technical context of the country". Clay brick. river stonc. ful-niturc Lvorked into the segmented plans: overhanging and a limited use of pref'abricatecl reinforced concrete ele- eaves. ments become his palette from u hich he develops a I'ormal Thc cost reductions are radical: savings of 80 perccnto\er language that aff'ords easy implementation. reduced cost. conventional building costs. Needless to say this requires and rapid execution. him to ~,orkoutside the conventional structures of the building industry and its protocols. Over the \ears hc has Brick is the most suitable material 1'0s Chandigarh. It trained his own teams of carpenters. masons. anci bricklaycl-. is not the over-compressed type but rather it is oven- While periodically officialdom has made overtures. his ac- bahcd. having a lo\,cly color and lined texture. similar ti\,ism. too. has put him bcyond the pale. too natiw I'or cwn to thc palm of the hand and to my mind vcry beautiful. the nati\,c elite. I hax used this brick as much as possible. to erect clay In the 1970s. when interest in intermcdiatc. adapti~e.or u 311s and sun-breakers. to make walls which let through appropriate technologies captured the interest of the archi- thc air while keeping the sun and rain out: walls which tectural mainstrea~n.his ~borkachicvcd a certain disciplinar! give shade. which have reccsscs and pro.iections. and currenq. 4ct never to the same degree as the work ol'Hassan l'or Iloor co\erings and pillars. ~.ith~~~tshying away ACSA 2000 IUTEKh'ATION4L CONFERENCE - HONG KONG CHINA i i

from their large sections..the more and bigger the! are ideals of ser\,ice. Slcin's inspirational mix was a headier the better they keep the sun out: in fact all wrts ol' recipeof mid-centur!, American can-do. internationalist shapes. but always close to the realities ofconitruction spirit. and Nehru\ian promise. Ncnly-independent India (Cauquil. 107). N'ih Passage\ such as thcsc index both his sensiti\,it> to his "a~erystimi11atinp.eutraordinarily interesting time ...it adopted landscape as u,cll ai the lens ol' the aestlietc - (01' \\as likc coming to the United States when Thomas line. form. and color - that he shared nit11 hi< cousin and Jcf'ferson was alive ... Nehru n'as Prime Minister. nlio other modernists. And in a sense it is this doublcd pcrspicu- mas an outstanding mn. He had his Slaws ...but he \\,as it!. the abilitb to look at things from both near and I'ar awa!. an extraordinarily beautii'ul and intelligent man. and that gives the idiom he and his colleagues de\,cloped for he cast an aura over India that mas \,cry attl-actile" C1~ndiga1-11its I'ormal coherence and its material anci rlictori- (White. 35). cal richness. By using the limited illaterials at their disposal From the \,erl beginning of his carecr in India. Stcin in many different combinations. the! developed a pattern identified with anci participated in this vast nation-building book I'or uwving the fabric of a city built horn scratch. enterprise. As the perf'ect go-between. (the ccestern point In putting together a nen idiom for architecture based on person with contacts at the highest lewl within the political local materials and techniques. and respectl'ul ofcultural and and cultural elite in India and amongst the architectural budpetary restrictions. Pierre Jeanneret took on a trenien- lu~ninariesof the West Coast ). Stein received many commis- dous task. equal in importance to the rhetorical brawra oftlie sions from American non-profit foundations that became the language Le Corbusier unleashed in the buildings of the basis of his practice. Yet what makes these projects unique capitol complex. While Corbusier's heroic idiom in con- is that he did not turn them into either exercises in the crete. to quote Charles Correa. proved to be a catalyst of pro,jection of a Pax Americana. nor attempts at articulating staggering import. the Chandigarh pattern book Mas more a modern Indian style. Instead they are part of an iciiosyn- modest. conflicted. and porous to \,arialion. It cvas almost cratic and non-partisan exploration that neither identifies immediately assimilated into the vernacular of the indip- with particular architectural camps nor stakes a polemical enous builder-contractor. position I'or itself. finding its.justification in its dispassionate Both Laurie Baker and Jeanneret assembled \t.rnaculars yet intimate relation to local and contingent conditions: the for popular use. Yet the procedures each followed illustrate people for whorn it is built. the ruaterials ofconstruction. thc their indi~idualtrajectories. Where Jeanneret drew upon the qualities of the site. tropic range of early modernism to assemble his elements. In contrast to the more isolated practices of Jeanneret and Laurie Baker reconfigures the everyclay environment of his Baker. Stein has been part of the mainstream of Indian clients in endless idiosyncratic combinations. practice. Over the past forty years he has had his own New While fifty years of li~ingand working in India have Delhi-based firm. ~vorkingin partnership with Indian pccrs gi\.en Laurie Bakera sense of thc legitimacy of hisendeavors. (Doshi. Bhalla) and morc recently. with younger partners Jeanncret at the end 01' his life remained unsettled. As the who apprenticed n,ith him. Thc work pt-oduced ranges hagiography surrounding his cousin, the modern master. widely: Srom the showcasc institutional work mentioned continued to grow. it eclipsed his own uork in Chandigarh above. to factories. and low-cost housing prototypes. With and his sense of it. In a poignant, final intervieu hc said. each Stein has experimented with aparticular formal vocabu- "The approach I discovered in India taught me self- lary. construction technology. and material and tectonic esteem. after the many failures encountered in France. language. In its range and variety. the work exemplifies a Yet. when all is said and done. 1 tliinkLe Corbusier was personal dictum: to "seek thc cliaractcr of the solution in the right: conveniences. wbsistence. these are not solu- nature of the problem" (White. 23). Unlike the pre-packaged tions. . . we should have struggled for the conditions of solutions ol'the global superstar. or thc elixers of the tra\~el- civilization.. . he. whoalways referred to a higher logic. ling salesmen. the careful intcr\,entions ol' Stein exhibit the could lie forgive niy drawing so close to thc Indian 6migrC's postul-e of detached engagement. ol'a commitment metliods of execution. and my team work with them'?" to place without the rhetoric of belonging, (Cauquil. 109). What makes an &nigrb stab.'? For unlike the exile. the 6nligl-6 can pack her bags and make on. Cultural affinity plays apart. as in the case ol'thcse three. One could arguc tliat JOSEPH ALLEN STEIN thcir cultural and intellectual biographies pretlisposeci them to an appreciation ofthe Indian milieu: that each wai already Of the three it is perhaps Stein's career in India tliat best displaced and was looking for where that displaccment illuminates the relative position of the bmigrC in a centur! would I'ind itself'at home. Certainly an ability and a desire dcl'ined b! nation-states and other imagined communities. to sort through one's own cultural baggage is crucial to an Unlike Baher whose relocation to India anti commitment to understanding ol'onesell'and u,herever one happens to be. In particularco~iimunitieswas inspired b) Gandhian and Quaker response to a much-asked question. Stcin says: "Why do I i 6 CROSS CLRKEYTS TRAY'? CLI TURAL ARCHITFCTL RE EDUCATION AND I'RRAhISLI

contin~leto live and worh in India'? 1 think India ol'l'crs the received recognition in the west they left behind: even in great possibility ol'beauty ~vithsimplicity. This is a rare and India their reception is muted and limitcd to narrow circles. little understood thing in the world today: yet one sees it here But perhaps this is to be expected. for to bc an dniigri is to in so many different waqs" (White. 35). jlip through the cracks. Thc vancay of' the irniyrt: offers a particular strategy for cross-cultural engagement. In talking 01' Stein. thc Indian BIBLIOGRAPHY architect Balkrishna Doshi says: Ashcrcoft. Bill Kc>! ('011( cJl)i,\i11 Po,\i-Ci~/i~~~rci/Si11rIic3 iLund~>~i: Joe looked at India. he looked at the heritage of India. Iioutledpe. 1998 ). Bhatia. Gautam Leilrric. BiiXcr: Lilc~.Il'orA H;rriirig.c (Ne\i Iklhi: at the Indian climate. the Indian ethos ...hut he was Vikinp Penyuin. 10') I I. never o\jerpo\vered bq these. That is thc reason he ... Cauquil. H6li.n~"Picrrc Jcanncrct in India". Arr/ii/c~c~tlcr~irr Iriilici docs not inake an attempt to look back to the Indian (Paris: Electa. I085 ). tradition the nay we would see it. Because we are more Clifford. James Koilicc : Tiri~~c~ltr~ir/T~~~i~i~lcr/ioriiri r11ccLeirr T\~~cwiic~rlr concerned ~'ilhthc identity ofIndia in term\ ol'oi~ro~n CCII~LII.\.iCnmhridge: Hanard Uniiel-it) Press. 1997). nostalgic \,aluc. and we have to prove our identity. He Eienson. Norma Clieiriclipiir~li(Kerkcle! : Iln~versilyof California Press. 19661. has not to prow an identity because after all he is Ghosh. Arnitai 111 ciri Ariiiil~lc,Lurid iNeu York: Knopf. 199.3). hiinelf different ... So if Joe looks at architccture. he Soshi. Kiran Iloc~~riiirrriirigClicriirligrir.11 I Ahmedabad: hlapili Pub- can look at it as it is there. He has to learn something lishing. 1 999 ). from these things. but he does not have to beenamoured hlumtar. Karnil Khan .Ar.c,l~i/rc.t~li.c,ir~PriXiciorr i Singapore: Concepr hledia. 1985). b! them (White. 17). Vernaaik. Oscar ;I Prol1/c~of'/2/lipr~cirits(.Amsterdam: VU Uni\el-sit) Ultimatelq. lio\rl(Kew Delhi: Oxford Univer- highest honor India bestou.s on I'oreigners) and other acco- sity Pres5. I993 1. lades. the work ol' Stein. Jeanneret. and Baker has not