Judge Dredd and ………the demolition men……………….!

The founding fathers of the architectural profession in India were great enough to give us the Architects Act which was passed by the parliament in the year 1972 and thereafter the rules related to the Act to enable to perform its duties. This is perhaps one of the few Acts that have not been amended or the least amended considering the fact that we have traversed a long way since 1972. Today the country boasts of having nearly 450 schools and more than 60000+ registered architects and it certainly has become a daunting task for the Council of Architecture (CoA) to monitor the schools to ensure the quality of discourse of a good standard if not comparable to international level and to maintain the so called profession of architecture. Sometimes we are the laughing stock as we struggle to prove even today that we are great designers and we have the wherewithal and license to design while the other professions cannot. We hardly see how the profession is taking shape globally, either we are blindfolded or refuse to accept our position to encourage a global agenda for our new generation of architects who seek knowledge through higher studies elsewhere.  When I open my FB and other social media networks, I get to chat with students from all over the country. The one thing that is for sure through their conversation is that 9 out of 10 complain about their faculty who fail to inspire and the  schools with no proper infrastructure . Have we ever analyzed this problem?  I thought I faced this some 33 years ago but seems to be a never ending story. Is this a global phenomenon?  It looks like it . But not to the proportion that we face in India.  I always used ask a question.  Has India got any school at all of global standards? I see non on the list. Who is to blame for this? Is it the system? Is it the CoA? Or is it the profession itself which only complains and does nothing about it?

I remember the CoA inspection team in 1983 at the School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University. I was a Teaching Research Fellow and handled the 1^st year Basic Design Course (my favorite) with much of opposition from my senior faculty, who always complained that I am teaching the students more than what they should learn at 1^st year level. But I justified my job and worked hard on evolving new exercises week after week.  Then one day the “demolition men” descended from up above i.e. New Delhi. They inspected all the classes and finally came to my studio. They saw all the work displayed and who studio was full of student work. They were awe stuck and asked me a question. How do you teach Basic Design? Perhaps they were looking at an answer to explain the pedagogy that I would have followed. But my answer was; I don’t know! I still vividly remember that one member liked it so much that when CoA team met the faculty members, they specifically pointed me and declared openly that, I am the only sensible teacher in the whole school. This sent shock waves through the entire faculty community and I was targeted by almost immediately by my senior faculty who decided that I did not do a good job and hence must be stripped of the Basic design Course from my list of favorite subjects for the next academic year. I was so disappointed and felt that these bunch of rascals were chopping off my hands and felt the loss very deeply in my heart. I cried and begged to reinstate with the program but I remember the Acting HoD at that time, who took the law in his own hand like “Judge Dredd” and bluntly refused to budge.  I returned to the hostel with my spirit gone and totally disenfranchised. As I reached the hostel I was handed over with a telegram (these are obsolete now), offering me a scholarship by The Aga Khan Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland which enabled me to pursue my Master’s in Architecture at the Bartlett school of Architecture and Planning, UCL London. What a relief for me. I walked back to the school that afternoon and handed over my resignation as a Teaching Research fellow. This is how you are treated if you are an honest teacher.

In India the CoA has been the validator and monitor of the architecture programs. One feels that there is too much in their palate. The very existence of Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) spread all over India is totally sidelined. If only they worked together to make the system more robust and meaningful. I have suggested in 1995 that The Architects Act 1972 should propose an amendment to establish a Council in every State and to reorganize the structure of such a Council membership to enable to have creditable professionals who are in practice and academicians of good standing, to partake in the process of improving the quality of educational standards and thereby the profession. There is already a growing concern world over that these councils or boards that monitor educational standards or professions act like the “Judge Dredd” in a negative manner and selectively send  their  “Demolition Men” to schools or have disciplinary committees to carry out their  mission.  This is the reason that there have been moves to establish alternative platforms to address the concerns.  In the US there seems to be an alternative to NAAB which is fast emerging and one day we could see this happening worldwide and India as the largest democracy is not far from this phenomenon. So beware “Judge Dredd” pull the strings and be careful the next time you send your “demolition men”.