Last week, Sir Edwin Lutyens was all in the news, around 81 years after he died. His bust was removed from the Rashtrapati Bhavan as a means of cleansing us of our colonial past – or so it was claimed. In his place will be C Rajagopalachari aka Rajaji, one of the greatest leaders India had. Which is all to the good. In the defence of Lutyens’ banishment, it was cited that no other building has a statue of its architect and the man was a racist anyway. That does not detract from his genius and the great building and city he designed for us to delight in.
Madras too had its Lutyens connect. He did not like the city, or its people, which was understandable given that his wife was here all the time in an admiration for J Krishnamurti that bordered on obsession, leading to the neglect of her family. But he did design a plaque for the Madras Club in memory of its members who died in WWI. That was when the Club resided at what became Express Estates. From there the plaque travelled with the Club and came to rest in the present premises. It still is on the club wall. And we copied his design of New Delhi, scaled it down, and called it T’Nagar. We present maps of both to establish this claim.
