Author Pilar Maria Guerrieri discusses with ANANYA BORGOHAIN how the maps of Delhi from the 19th century onwards document the evolution of the Capital through the Mughal era, pre and post colonial periods, and the contemporary times
Please tell us a little about yourself.
I am an Italian but since my childhood, I have seen my parents travel to India. I graduated in Architecture at Politecnico di Milano in Italy and joined the PhD programme immediately after. I got my PhD with honours in ‘Architectural Design, Architectural Composition, Criticism and Theory’ from Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage in Delhi and Westminster University in london. My PhD thesis was focusing on the megacity of Delhi pre and post Independence and in particular, the impact of British and American cultures on its urban planning and architecture. My guides and mentors have been Prof AG Krishna Menon, Prof Paolo Ceccarelli and Prof Daniele Vitale.
Since I finished my PhD, I have been teaching, currently as an Associate Professor in Delhi at the Italian-Indian GD Goenka University, branch of Politecnico di Milano in India. My teachings focus on Research Methods, Urban Studies and Cross Cultural Habitat Studies in the field of urban planning and architecture. At the moment I am also part of the UNESCO international project for conservation and regeneration of minor settlements: “Creative Small Settlements — Culture-Based Solutions for local Sustainable Development”, and I have been nominated as an International Advisory Council Member of the Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development (ITRHD), which is specifically responsible for development of villages in India. I have been leading and teaching environmental-based courses on Indian villages sites, taking the students for field researches and design workshops.
Your book, Maps of Delhi (Niyogi Books), is a grand narrative of Delhi’s demography and evolution. It’s historical, geographical, socio-political, all at once. Above all, it’s the first of its kind. How did you come up with this ideaIJ
I came to Delhi to do my PhD research, which was focusing on pre and post Independence architecture and planning of Delhi (1912-1962). While I was studying the Capital, I realised that even among scholars there was a lot of confusion on the development of Delhi pre and post Independence, so I began to look for maps to fill this gap. While I was searching specifically for the pre and post Independence maps in several Indian archives and institutions, I gradually found and started collecting all the other documents.
How did your association with Delhi startIJ
While studying architecture at Politecnico di Milano, the relationship between tradition and contemporary design was very much valued; it is still so. The effective metaphor “We are standing on the shoulders of the giants” was one of the sentences I have heard the most at school. I always embraced the historical inclination of Politecnico towards architecture. Italy as a country is not growing much; it is more focused on conservation and reuse of existing structures. During my PhD, I was looking for a country which had a very strong tradition but at the same time was everyday challenged to decide how to build its contemporariness. Delhi is the vibrant growing Capital of India; not to mention the fact that it is a very interesting case study to analyse the relationship between the past and present. This curiosity kickstarted my journey/association with Delhi.
How did you research for this bookIJ
The book came naturally out of the PhD. It took me a very long time to collect, select and put in order all the maps scattered in several Indian archives. It was an incredible experience sitting for hours in dusty but very rich archives, discovering precious maps, and every now and then drinking powder milk chai with those people taking care of the documents. This was the book I wish I had in my hands when I started studying the city of Delhi. I am sure my research would have been much easier if I would have had a book like this at hand, and so I wish it will now be helpful for other scholars as well.
The book takes into account maps published from the 19th century onwards. How old is the earliest map of DelhiIJ
Different maps of Delhi are dispersed in all kind of archives, nationally and internationally, and it is very difficult to locate and say which is the ‘earliest’ map. The first map of this collection dates at the beginning of the 19th century, which is around when we know the British reached Delhi and the Anglo-Maratha War occurred. It is clear though, even from the book Mapping India by Manosi lahiri that “mapping” began and is actually linked with colonialism. Mapping, knowledge and power have always been related.
How did you choose your mapsIJ
I chose those maps that were able to explain the major steps of the development or growth of the city, from the architect/planner’s point of view. In fact, with the same maps — which are valuable primary sources — a historian or a cartographer could have written a completely different story.
As someone with an insightful understanding of the city and its growth over the centuries, how do you look at contemporary Delhi in terms of its housing facilities, pollution control measures, overused landfill sites, and population explosionIJ
Nowadays, I am actively working on contemporary Delhi from 1991 to now, trying to understand more of all these topics you mention. History and ancient maps are particularly meaningful when they become active tools to understand the roots of contemporary developments. I have realised that many problems of the contemporary megacity lie in the wrong application of models (most of the time Western) to the local context. There is not enough attention towards the local context — its geology, climate and culture — in the field of architecture and planning. Moreover, there are not enough efforts of architects to work bottom up instead of top down. Clear demonstration of what I am saying are the latest, completely out of place, new, glossy, unsustainable glass and steel architectures of Gurgaon or Noida. Moreover, among young architects, there is still a strong aspirational value towards foreign models; their own history/heritage is not enough integrated in the syllabi of schools of architecture. Getting inspired and copying is fine as long as the young architects know what or why they are copying and if those choices really meet the needs of the people. Unfortunately, this awareness is often not present among the youngsters.
During the course of your research, which map fascinated you the most and whyIJ
The maps I like the most are the earlier ones, beautifully drawn by hand. In particular, the ancient map of 1807 makes me dream of Delhi when it was an amazing land of villages, waterways, canals, and fields. The ancient map shows the great respect urban planning had for geology/topography and how ancient cities like Delhi were actually built in tune with nature and not against it. See for example, the choice of Shahjanabad’s location: On a hill, naturally protected from floods. I believe architects and planners should be deeply inspired by the relationship the ancient Capital had with nature and work towards making a better and more environment-oriented city. Understanding and seeing Delhi’s beautiful past and maps may be a good booster.
Please tell us a little about what you found most interesting about the map in the chapter ‘Siege of Delhi 1857’. How does it enlighten us about the First War of Independence and its consequencesIJ
The map ‘Siege of Delhi 1857’ shows the first position and settlement of the British cantonment. The cantonment were placed north of Shahjahanabad, protected by the Ridge, and characterised by a very simple and functional grid pattern. More interesting to understand the Siege though, is the ‘Plan of the British Position at Delhi, June 8-Sept 14, 1857’, where the military event of the 1857 Mutiny is actually described in much more detail. The military maneuvers are visibly marked on the map, be it the ‘enemy’s trench’, the position of specific batteries or the indication ‘left Breach’ or ‘Right Breach’. Here, the individual batteries are marked and designated as are the names of their commanding brigadier, showing a picture of the First War of Independence battle field.
What do we learn about the present day mohallah system in Delhi from the map of Shahjahanabad published by William MackenzieIJ
We could learn from old Delhi and the ancient mohallah subdivision of the city of Shahjahanabad, the concept of shared space, of neighbours, embrace the mix of activity (production/commercial/residential), and experience a pedestrian city.
Also the bazar model that characterises the ancient Indian cities and the complex segregation/organisation of different types of activities/products. All concepts that seem to have gone lost with the zoning principles and the colonies town-planning model.
Delhi today is overpopulated; its landfill sites are outdated; its drainage system and water conservation facilities are questionable; its real estate industry has been accused of being corrupted and even dangerous; and so on. Do the maps give us an idea about when these problems started and whyIJ
The maps show when and why the problem of drainage system and water conservation facilities may have started. Since the British era, planning was most of the time done in contradiction with the geology/topography of land. The British were great engineers and the drainage systems carefully designed by them were actually good enough not to generate issues.
Plans of the colonies, instead, most of the times built in a hurry, are clearly superimposed on land and not in harmony with the characters of the territory, causing flooding and drainage problems.
Walking in the city, one can clearly see the problems but cannot really understand why; analysing maps instead allows clarifying the cause of it and the disconnection between planning and geology/topography. More attention and study of the context is needed in order to solve and prevent these issues.
As a researcher, could you suggest ways as to how these problems could be handledIJ
Much more awareness and studies of the context/environment/geology/topography/citizens, I believe, is the way to handle many issues of the contemporary city development.
Any interesting anecdote that you would like to share with us that you found while working on this bookIJ
There are many small fascinating historical events hidden in the maps that I discovered while writing this book: For example the sentence ‘Where Nicholson fell’ in map ‘Delhi 1857: A Plan of the City and its immediate surroundings, drawn in the Quarter Master General’s Office in the British Camp on the Ridge’ or the two small crossed swords marking the location of the Anglo-Maratha battle in map ‘The campaigns of lord lake against the Marathas: Battle of Delhi’.
After you completed writing the book, how did your understanding of the city changeIJ Did it also help you contemplate anything at a human levelIJ
The maps are visualising those theories of Delhi being a ‘city of cities’. Delhi is a city made of distinct parts, each with its peculiar characters and features; so peculiar that we are actually able to identify those parts as ‘micro cities within the city’. Not every city developed like this, by additional separate different nuclei, a city like Milan, for example, developed gradually just from one Roman ancient core settlement.
The nuclei way of development was there in the ancient cities of Delhi as much as nowadays. On a much larger scale, we can consider Gurgaon or Noida ‘cities within the contemporary megacity’ of Delhi. The seventh city of Shahjahanabad, the Civil lines area, the eighth city of Delhi, each and every colony etc could be identified with their very peculiar location and characters in terms of planning.
Different types of planning unveil different ways of how humans interact and experience the urban environment. In fact, we don’t have the same interaction among humans in the houses of Old Delhi and in the single-family houses of Sundar Nagar Colony.
Which areas of Delhi would you call historically very fascinating, not just rich, and whyIJ
Delhi is so stratified and its layers of history are so many that it would be impossible to choose one specific area. I would say the whole of Delhi, in every small corner, hides a monument with a fascinating story to tell.
It is just a matter of being curious and starting to explore.
What have been the responses to the bookIJ
Very good so far, surprisingly from both academics and non-academics.
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