Big win

The protracted legal battle ended on a blissful note with the Supreme Court accepting the plea of the institute that it should be allowed to remain on the present premises. However, even as uncertainty over its shifting ended, a political controversy surfaced as charge of “saffronisation” during the NDA regime dented its image. The UPA, which came to power in 2004, sacked the governing body and set up a committee to conduct an inquiry into its affairs. The panel not only found glaring irregularities in the award of fellowships and damning evidence of saffronisation, but also unearthed serious administrative and financial irregularities in the functioning of the institute.

The controversy brought academic activities to a halt and it remained without a regular director after the completion of the term of Bhuvan Chandel in April 2006 for almost 18 months. The institute remained in a state of suspended animation until new incumbent Peter Ranald deSouza took over in December 2007.

With the appointment of a regular director started a new phase both for the institute and the imposing but neglected edifice which housed it. A master plan for adaptive reuse of the complex was formulated and innovative initiatives taken to bring artists, performers and those pursuing other mediums of creative expression on a common platform with scholars and scientists to open up new horizons for intellectual discourse.

The restoration under the plan commenced from the old abandoned fire station building, which also housed a squash court and a swimming pool during the pre-Independence days. The portion housing the fire station was renovated to set up a book store and a coffee shop called “Fire Station Café-cum-Bookshop” in its new avatar to retain the original link. The swimming pool has been transformed into a theatre and renamed “Pool Theatre”, while the squash court has been converted into an art gallery and rechristened as “Court Gallery”.

A neglected portion of the main Viceregal Lodge building, where Myanmar’s democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi stayed as research fellow, is being renovated to house the Tagore Centre for the Study of Culture and Civilisation, set up to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. Another portion on the second floor has been refurbished for the International Centre for Human Development (ICHD) set up under the United Nations Development Programme.

Earlier, the stables of the Viceroyalties, which housed the boys’ hostels of Himachal Pradesh University, were renovated for lodging research fellows and renamed “Sidharth Vihar”.

Tide turns

What is most creditable is that deSouza was able to carry out these major restoration works from the funds available for routine maintenance, without seeking any additional budget. Some of the new additions under adaptive reuse like the pool theatre and art gallery opened new vistas for scholars and scientists to interact with creative persons like artists, actors and film directors and appreciate and critically examine the great works under a new light. Along with the restoration of the complex in a phased manner he implemented his ideas to breathe new life into the institute, which had slipped into academic inertia in the absence of a regular head, and make it pulsate with intellectual energy.

The idea of organising an art school and a seminar annually was mooted by him to bring artists and scholars together to have a more holistic view as artists see the world in an entirely different manner. The first school on the Shimla Conference held in the Viceregal Lodge before Independence focussed on the architecture of the heritage structure. The school on Mahabharata held last year was to “contemporise” the epic and open it up as a resource to help resolve ethical, political and religious issues of the present era. A seminar on Rabindranath Tagore saw a festival of films based on his stories organised simultaneously to add a new dimension to the intellectual exercise being carried out by the scholars.

Institutionalised framework for collaborative research has been provided by entering into agreements with the University of London and Yale University (US) to help the institute evolve into a top global centre of knowledge. However, the major and most important step in this direction was the incubation of the ICHD in India as a project at the IIAS last year. It will serve as a global knowledge-sharing platform to ensure holistic growth through improved development outcomes for the poor and marginalised sections.

“I will like the IIAS to be an institutional home for the life of the mind to answer the deep questions of life that arise from time to time,” says deSouza who has decided to leave the institute before the expiry of his term due to personal reasons. “It has been the most satisfying period in my career as I have been able to achieve the benchmark I had set to develop it into a global knowledge centre and initiate measures for the conservation of the magnificent but dilapidated structure through the adaptive reuse plan,” he adds.

While a firm foundation has been laid for the IIAS to grow into a global knowledge centre, reversal of the physical decline of the grand edifice housing it will be a challenge. Piecemeal efforts will not help and major restoration works to ensure the structural safety will have to be undertaken, for which substantial funds will be required. The immediate need is to repair the roof of the main building to plug leakages which are posing a threat to various parts of the structure. The portion which housed the kitchen block, bakery and laundry of the Viceroy are in extremely dilapidated state.

The institutes requires Rs 90 crore for the implementation of the adaptive reuse plan for the entire complex prepared by conservation experts four years ago. At least Rs 50 crore will have to be provided in a go for undertaking major restoration works. In the absence of support from the Government of India, deSouza had tried to seek the assistance of corporate houses and philanthropists, but the response has been far from positive.