The North Block of the Secretariat building in New Delhi, is the hub of India’s central government administration. There has been considerable interest in its architectural legacy but today we turn to its interiors.
Inside the North block, are important frescoes by artist Samuel Fyzee Rahamin. These have remained restricted from public view and therefore, unappreciated by the general public.
The Delhi Town Planning Committee (set up in 1912) commissioned Fyzee-Rahamin, alongside artists from the Bombay School of Art.
Samuel Fyzee-Rahamin painted frescoes on two domes in the Secretariat Building’s North Block between 1926-29. The domes bear Hindu and Islamic allegories and remain his most significant work.
Art Critic Herbert Furst wrote about the frescoes in the 1929 edition of Apollo. He observed that the artist endeavoured to “breathe the spirit of India both in design and execution” of the work. According to Furst’s record, Fyzee-Rahamin referred to an ancient text, ‘Karmabudihisar’ for technical information that had been lost.
By such means he was able to reconstitute afresh, the ancient technique of mural painting, making his pigments from different coloured stones—not earths—and his vehicle from linseed, gum, sugar, and other ingredients. These colours he applied directly on to the dry plaster of the walls…
In this sense, Fyzee-Rahamin’s resulting creation was different from the European fresco-technique.
The Fresco room, where the Finance ministry convenes, has four main themes painted on the 31-feet wide dome.
On another (smaller) dome, Samuel Fyzee-Rahamin’s fresco focused on Hindu subjects. The dome contains images of the deities Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma around an inscription of Om.
About the artist, Samuel Fyzee-Rahamin
Rahamin was born into a Bene Israel (Jewish) family in Pune, Maharashtra. He received his initial art education at the J.J School of Art, Bombay. He went on to become the first Indian to graduate from the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
On his return to India, Samuel Rahamin was employed by the Maharaja of Baroda as the court’s official art advisor. He distanced himself from the western academic style, adopting instead, the Mughal and Rajasthani style of painting.
Following this engagement and his marriage to Atiya Begum, his network expanded and by the 1920s, he had become well known in both India and Europe.
After the Partition of India, Samuel Fyzee-Rahamin and his wife, Atiya Begum, moved to Karachi, Pakistan.
In the coming year(s), the Secretariat buildings (the North and South block) will be repurposed to form the National Museum Yug Yugeen Bharat Museum. Fingers crossed, we the public would then be able to see this beautiful work!
Photos shared by : Vivek KV (Indian bureaucrat)
