Cultural Baggage and the White Man's Burden
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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'es<ional idioms. Hc is sought out by \vith ~er~ants.and having to conform to a rigid class and non-governmental organizations who ask him to build their racial code that determines M hat L\ as Done and not Done. socially progressi\,c proiects: literacy villages. psqchiatric \\hat was expccrcd behai.ior for an Englishman in India: hospitals ctc. 111 1961 he mo\es to Tri~anclrum.in the riding a horsc uah appropriate but not a bicycle. dressing for southern. and tropical. statc of Kerala. 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.