T. M. Samyuktha Krishnan

HR4001

The project reconsiders the centricity of the architect Edwin Lutyens along with his companions and addresses the void in the existing public scholarship by locating archival resources that indicate the role of the native labourers in the workforce in the making of the Colonial Capital (1911-1931). The research also tries to identify the skills and knowledge transfer among these historically lesser-known informal bodies of Indian construction labourers that led to the shaping of the built environment. The research uses archival photographs during the construction, various contemporary writings on the labour histories during the colonial period, and archival documents on the various aspects to understand these construction labourers. The project identifies how people and materials moved through the larger systems of architecture and construction but in varied ways.