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Journalism of Courage
The Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Raj Bhavan share a unique relationship. When the president of India visits a state, he usually stays at the Raj Bhavan. Most of the Raj Bhavans have a separate presidential wing and suite. It is not unusual to come across presidential orders and letters issued with a postscript “Rashtrapati Bhavan, camp office Raj Bhavan”. For the duration of the president’s stay, the Raj Bhavan ipso facto becomes the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
There is another interesting facet of this relationship between the bhavans. Five of the fourteen presidents of India have been former residents of Raj Bhavans. Zakir Hussain was governor of Bihar from 1957 to 1962; VV Giri had three tenures as governor, of Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and Mysore state between 1956 and 1967; SD Sharma also had three tenures in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra from 1984 to 1987; Pratibha Patil had been governor of Rajasthan before her appointment as president in 2007 and President Kovind was serving as governor of Bihar when he was announced as the 14th President in 2017.
Since we are used to seeing the Rashtrapati Bhavan as the grande dame of the government residences of our country, it would come as a surprise to many of us that some of our Raj Bhavans pre-date the Rashtrapati Bhavan by centuries and are considerably grander and more luxurious. The history of these Raj Bhavans and how they came to be offers fascinating glimpses into the lives of the men and women behind them and our journey as a nation.
The oldest Raj Bhavan is perhaps the one at Panaji, Goa. A two-storeyed structure with red-tiled roofs built in Portuguese style has its origins as far back as 1540. The “cabo” (cape in Portuguese) was initially a chapel of Our Lady of Cabo. The Portuguese first built it as a monastery for Franciscan monks. Fortifications were later added as the spot was surrounded on three sides by water and situated on a laterite hill. It proved to be an excellent site for placing cannons and guarding the harbour. The strategic location ensured there was no need for a soldier to stay guard. In case any suspicious ship was spotted, there was sufficient time for the friars to send word to the Portuguese garrison located outside. The soldiers would fire warning shots from the four bronze guns placed strategically on the roof. From 1866 until 1961, the cabo served as the official residence of the Portuguese governor and from the time that Goa became part of India, the cabo has been the Raj Bhavan. Although it has changed hands and nations (for a brief period between 1799 and 1815 it was also occupied by the British), the cabo has not lost its charm and mystique.
Completed in 1803, the Raj Bhavan at Kolkata was the first government house built as the residence of the governor-general. However, it also caused the ignominious exit of its first inhabitant, Marquis Wellesley, who had subdued Tipu Sultan in 1799 at Seringapatnam, Mysore. He desired that the governor-general reside in a palace, befitting his title, rather than in country homes. The cost of construction proved so exorbitant though that he was soon recalled to London in 1805, amid charges of mismanagement of the Company’s funds. The government house, as it was initially called, became known the world over for being one of the most beautiful and impressive palaces. This building had numerous innovations like the first electrically operated elevators in any building in the country, in 1892 by Otis. Lord Curzon, in his memoirs, gives details of other modern amenities that were introduced here for the first time: piped gas in 1863, electric bells in 1872, and electric lights and fans in 1899 and 1900. The government house which after independence became the Raj Bhavan still holds fascinating relics from our past. One of them is a Chinese cannon in the north of the building. The cannon, embossed with Chinese inscriptions and mounted on a winged dragon, was brought from China after the battle of Nanking in 1842. The combined forces of England and British India had defeated Imperial China in a series of naval battles resulting in an indemnity of 21 million dollars, the ratification of the cession of Hong Kong and declaring open, for the first time, Chinese ports for foreign trade (later these came to be known as Treaty Ports, Shanghai being one of them).
The Raj Bhavan of Lucknow, in the city of nawabs, is a majestic Kothi built in the late 18th century. The Kothis of Lucknow were houses built in a distinctly classical European style of architecture. Called the Kothi Hayat Baksh, this beautiful three-storey building was built by Major General Claude Martin under directions from Nawab Saadat Ali Khan. Major Claude Martin was a Frenchman, who served in both the French and the British armies in India. Arriving in our country at the age of 17 as a soldier, he rose to the rank of major general in the British Army. Although he made India his second home, Martin remained a Frenchman until his death in 1800. He lies buried in a special vault in Constantia House (currently La Martinere college, named after Martin) in Lucknow. Martin designed and built several buildings in Lucknow and was also a prominent educationist and philanthropist. Chandan Mitra in his book Constant Glory: La Martiniere Saga, 1836-1986 (Oxford University Press, 1987) quotes from Martin: “I have always refused to give up French nationality, but of which France do I belong? That of Louis XV, where I have only known misery before embarking on the L’Orient? That of philosophers, of terror bathing in blood, or that of Bonaparte whose eastern dream has just been dissipated, after leaving Tipu Sahib alone against the English? I have collaborated for his defeat and then after he lost, I have been rewarded by some gold sprinkling on my uniform – a vain plaything for my vanity. By my perseverance and hard work, I have accumulated a fortune from this country which is my second motherland. I have not cheated the people who have passively succumbed to the yoke of corrupt men.”
A telling commentary of this period in our history when loyalties shifted with changing fortunes.
Another Kothi that later was also to become Raj Bhavan was the Lal Kothi in Bhopal built in 1880 by Nawab Shahjahan Begum. The building got its name from its distinctive red china-clay roof. Also built in the classical European style, by French architect Austate Cook, the Lal Kothi served as the residence of the British political agents posted in Bhopal. Shahjahan Begum’s reign from 1868 to 1901 was a remarkable period when many important buildings were constructed and administrative reforms undertaken. A rare woman Muslim ruler, she was much loved by the people of Bhopal state. Before she died in 190, due to oral cancer, she published a message in the local newspapers of Bhopal seeking forgiveness from her subjects for any wrong she may have done.
Although most Raj Bhavans now are well-known buildings of tourist interest, some still harbour hidden secrets. The Raj Bhavan in Mumbai was built around 1880 at Malabar Point by Richard Temple, the British governor of Bombay. A commanding citadel, it proved to be an effective safe house for the governor, fortified naturally by the sea on three sides. In 2016, during regular maintenance the Public Works Department stumbled across an underground bunker with 13 rooms used to store ammunition and cartridges. The bunker was also an escape tunnel from right beneath the residence of the governor. The bunker was converted into a museum and inaugurated by President Kovind in 2019.
The Raj Bhavan at Patna shares an unique history with the Rashtrapati Bhavan. During the Delhi Durbar of 1911, not only was the shifting of capital from Calcutta to Delhi announced, leading to the laying of the foundation stone of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, but in the same durbar the creation of a new province of Bihar and Orissa with its capital at Patna was also announced. Viceroy Lord Hardinge was instrumental in not only the initial construction of the Rashtrapati Bhavan but also laid the foundation stone for the Patna government house in 1912. However, while the government house of Patna was completed by 1917, the Rashtrapati Bhavan could be completed only a decade later. Today, near the main gate of the Patna Raj Bhavan is a prominently placed statue of the first president of our country, Dr Rajendra Prasad.
Most Raj Bhavans that were built by the British in the 19th century as residences for British governors were built in an imposing Palladian architectural style with arches and stone pillars. The idea then was to impress the Indian subjects with imperial power and dominance. The present-day Raj Bhavans at Chennai (1820), Nagpur (1891), Dehradun (1902) and Bengaluru (1842) are notable examples of this trend. A perplexing question asked after our independence was: to what extent do these overtly colonial symbols need to be preserved? The answers haven’t always been easy. For instance, in 2013, a group of residents in Bengaluru, who called themselves the “Cubbon Park Walkers Association” insisted on garlanding the equestrian statue of Mark Cubbon to commemorate his 238th birthday. They felt that Cubbon had a big contribution towards building their city. The function evoked strong responses from many who were opposed to the garlanding of British statues. Cubbon Park, in the centre of the city, had already been renamed Sri Chamarajendra Park in 1927.
At present, there are 38 Raj Bhavans in our country, with some states having more than one. Maharashtra with four Raj Bhavans has the most. The Raj Bhavan of Andhra Pradesh in Vijayawada is the newest since it was converted in 2019 from an irrigation department guest house. Built by Portuguese, French, British and Indians these houses represent the diversity that our nation came to be born out of.
Today, as residences of governors and sometimes the president, these Raj Bhavans are reminders that we may come from different eras and places, and maybe even born in different circumstances but our destiny now is to be together as one nation, guided by our Constitution.
(Praveen Siddharth is private secretary to the President)
