Every night, for about 20 months, after the city shut down, transit mixers would lumber down the capital’s roads carrying concrete from a ‘batching’ plant in west Delhi’s Kirti Nagar to the site of the new Parliament, 11 km away.
Nearly 1,200 km away in Bihar’s Madhubani, 75 women artisans from across the country were working through the night to create an 80-feet long ‘people’s wall’ for the new Parliament building as 70 sculptors toiled away at Odisha’s Lalitgiri Village to give life to the six ‘guardian statues’ which flank the six entrances to the building.
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A top official of the CPWD, the nodal agency for the construction work, said the biggest challenge was that the construction was taking place at such a busy and historically sensitive place. The old Parliament building continued to heave with MPs and visitors going in and out daily. Behind tall blue screens, yellow cranes worked, amidst puffs of dust.
“Before excavation work began, censors carried out a vibration analysis at the old Parliament building and only new equipment was used to minimise noise,” a top official at Tata Projects that implemented the construction work said.
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The triangular plot of land on which the new Parliament stands left a very small sliver of land to manage the logistics, which is why the entire unit was set up in Kirti Nagar, where concrete was blended in the day and night shifts and special permission was obtained for its transportation at night. The cutting and bending of the 23,045 MT of steel used was also done in Kirti Nagar.
To visualise the space, 3D printing and virtual reality models were used. Computer Numerical Control (CNC) that programmes tool movement and precision was used to carve the traditional details used in the building.
In February 2022, a committee headed by Union Culture Secretary Govind Mohan met for the first time for the planning and implementation of all the artwork, which collectively cost approximately ₹200 crore, said sources in the Ministry of Culture.
Outside and in
The six guardian statues — Gaja, Ashwa, Garuda, Makar, Shardula, and Hams — which man the ceremonial and public entrances were made in Lalitpur, 120 km from Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The three ceremonial entrances on three sides are for use by the President, the Vice-President, the Lok Sabha Speaker, and the Prime Minister.
“A team of 70 sculptors worked in three shifts 24 hours a day for three months to complete the statues,” says sculptor Rajesh Kumar Maharana, whose company, Umma Handicrafts, undertook this project. All the sculptors, most of whom belonged to Mr. Maharana’s extended family, live in and around the village, which helped to finish the work to deadline.
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Procuring the stone called Dholpur Beige from which the statues are cut, from Rajasthan to Odisha was a big challenge, says Mr. Maharana.
The signature wall called the Jan Janani Janmabhoomi, which adorns the central foyer was similarly made off-location, at a workshop set up at Nari Shishu Kalyan Parishad located in Madhubani in Bihar. Up to 75 women artisans from across the country created the wall made of banana fibre pulp with representative crafts from 28 States and 8 Union Territories.
Pulping was done all over a plywood surface across 26 panels assembled into an 80-foot by 9-foot cohesive artwork. Along with layers of banana pulp, tamarind seed powder, multani mitti, fenugreek seed powder, cow dung, acacia (babool) glue, and other natural gums were used.
Lalit Kala Akademi’s Sharad Kumar, who was one of the anchors of the project, said, “Banana pulp has a special adhesive quality which can hold the piece together.” To colour the work, natural pigments were derived from red oxide (geru/lal mitti), yellow ochre (pili mitti), black soil (kaali mitti), white clay (doodhi mitti), flowers and leaves.
Art of the matter
During architect Bimal Patel’s presentation on the layout of the new building, he broadly outlined two themes: ‘Unity in Diversity’ and ‘Freedom Struggle’. The project was to be executed by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture.
“It was at the second meeting itself of the high-powered committee that I presented my thoughts on the themes of the craft work and was immediately tasked with curating it,” says Jaya Jaitly, who was instrumental in the formation of Daskari Haat Samiti.
The gallery Shilp Deergha (crafts gallery) was conceptualised with eight themes: Parv (festival), Swabalamban (self-reliance), Prakriti (nature), Ullas (joy), Gyan (wisdom), Samrasta (harmony), Astha (faith), and Yatra (journey). As with the other projects, about 255 crafts were sourced from around 400 artisans from across the country.
For example, Ullas (joy) was depicted through motherhood. Quilts embroidered by women from 45 areas across the country were stitched together to portray their happiness at being blessed with children.
For Gyan (wisdom) art, craft, and calligraphy were drawn together through scripts that convey knowledge in the 22 official languages of India. This also included Braille. Sanjhi paper craft, popular in the Braj region, was designed to showcase the integration of all sentient beings to depict nature.
“Through faith, we wanted to depict faith in the soil of the country. So, we sourced pottery, ceramics, and terracotta artwork from across the country. In places where there was no traditional pottery, we got soil. This includes soil from the jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where many freedom fighters had been incarcerated,” said Ms. Jaitly.
“Each of these artworks is original. In fact, some pieces are historic, like the golden, one-of-its-kind facade of the ghats of Varanasi, woven in pure silk and zari threads,” she added.
For another gallery, the Sangeet Deergha, eminent artists and their families donated instruments: Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s sarod, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s flute, Ustad Bismillah Khan’s shehnai, Pandit Ravi Shankar’s sitar, and dancer Birju Maharaj’s ghunghru (anklet bells).
“Each of these instruments had been used by the musician or dancer while practicing their art during their lifetime,” says Prof. Sachchidanand Joshi, who heads the IGNCA.
As with the billions of voters, it is the unnamed workers who have created the temple to Indian democracy.
