|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The inauguration of a mega photo gallery recently in the Viceregal Lodge has set in motion the year-long golden jubilee celebration of the founding of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla. Before Independence, the Viceregal Lodge had been the summer seat of 13 Viceroys of India. Set up on the models of advanced study institutes like All Souls College, Oxford, or Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, the IIAS was the brainchild of the, then, President of India, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. After Independence, the Viceregal Lodge (then renamed as Rashtrapati Nivas) became the summer residence of the President of India till 1964. On October 20, 1965, Dr Radhakrishnan gifted it to the nation as a high-level research institution, which has been described by one of its national fellows as ‘India’s intellectual window to the world’. The institute has planned several academic and cultural activities throughout the year. The photo gallery is designed to display on the one hand the historic events and political movements before Independence captured on camera while on the other hand, it also recreates the days of the Raj with antique furniture reminiscent of the colonial era at the Viceregal Lodge, the centre of power of the British Raj expanding from Burma to Yemen.
Most of the photographs on display were painstakingly collected from different sources — the Bowood Estate, UK, which belongs to the second Viceroy, Lord Lansdowne, who had occupied the Viceregal Lodge 1888-90, Middlesex University, the Photo Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, S.M. Bagai, and India Photo Archive, Gurgaon. The photo gallery has been divided into three clusters. The first is dedicated to Shimla, its heritage buildings, forests, architecture and the Viceregal Lodge in the making.The second showcases two important events — Shimla Conference (1945) and Cabinet Mission Meeting (1946) — that took place at the Viceregal Lodge, and the third traces a journey of the IIAS from its inception to the present day.
The pictures in Gallery I are designed to show yesteryear of Shimla. Most of the town is thickly wooded with majestic British architectural marvels such as the Viceregal Lodge, Cecil Hotel, Loreto Convent, General Post Office, Railway Board Building, the Mall and the Ridge, Auckland House and Annandale racecourse. It also showcases several pictures of constituent parts of the Viceregal Lodge, such as council chamber, clock rooms east and west, study room of the viceroy, majestic reception hall and dining hall. The Gallery II has a wide range of pre-Independence era photographs, most of which had been clicked by noted photographer Kulwant Roy, particularly when nationalist leaders gathered here for the historic Shimla Conference, which commenced on June 25, 1945. After the end of the Second World War in May 1945, a weakened British Government had de facto consented to the Indian expectation of independence and invited nationalist leaders and representatives of various political groups in the country for negotiations on new constitutional arrangements.
These photographs document the proceedings of the Shimla Conference at the Viceregal Lodge, which was presided over by the then Viceroy and Governor General, Archibald Wavell, whose handiwork it was. Though Mahatma Gandhi did not participate in the talks, he remained present in Shimla for informal discussions. There are about 60 pictures connected with these two historic moments viz. Shimla Conference and Cabinet Mission Meeting in this section, such as Mohammad Ali Jinnah with Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi surrounded by a battery of journalists at the entrance gate of Viceregal Lodge, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru riding on horse, first Indian Governor General, C. Rajagopalachari, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad with frontier Gandhi, Master Tara Singh, and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. Besides, there are scores of pictures of the Cabinet Mission held in Shimla to chalk out the modalities of transferring power to the Indian leadership.
The third section has pictures of how the institute has grown over the years. In the years since its founding, the institute has been an intellectual home to some of the leading scholars and writers of India and the world. This section has the pictures of Dr Radhakrishnan inaugurating the institute, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed presiding over the Annual General Meeting of the IIAS Society, the first Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Dr Y.S. Parmar, inaugurating a seminar, eminent academics such as D.P. Chattopadhayaya, U.R. Ananthmurthy, Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, Vishnukant Shastri, M.G.K. Menon, Andre Beteille delivering annual Radhakrishnan Memorial Lectures, which is perhaps one of the most important events of academic calendar of the institute. This section also displays a photograph of Aung San Suu Kyi, where the second edition of her book Burma and India — Some aspects of Intellectual Life under Colonialism, is being released by the Vice-President of India, M. Hamid Ansari. The book was written by Suu Kyi during 1987 when she was a fellow of this institute. The institute receives more than 1.6 lakh foreign and Indian visitors every year. This photo gallery, designed and curated by a famous photographer and a trustee of the India Photo Archives, Gurgaon, Aditya Arya, is certainly bound to become an added attraction to these visitors.
|
|||||||
|
|
|||||||
