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Events & Issues
New Delhi, 27 October 2015
Capital Amaravati
SYMBOL OF PRIDE & PROGRESS?
By Dr S Saraswathi
(Former Director,
ICSSR, New Delhi)
The foundation stone for a new capital for Andhra Pradesh
was laid with great pomp and show last week on Vijaya Dasami, traditionally
considered by Hindus as an auspicious day for starting anything new. The
occasion marks an ambitious venture of Andhra Pradesh to build a dream capital of
unparalleled elegance and utility.
Andhra Pradesh comprises the residual part of the earlier
linguistic State with the same name after the bifurcation separating Telangana.
The capital, Hyderabad,
has gone to Telangana due to its location creating need for developing a
capital city. It has virtually opened an opportunity for AP to manifest its
best in all creative arts and science though initially, there were grievances
over the loss of Hyderabad
which has been developed as an IT capital by the united AP.
The new capital is coming up on the banks of the River
Krishna between Vijayawada and Guntur and is named as Amaravati – the name
of an ancient town famous for a temple.
The place was once the capital of mighty Satavahana rulers (3rd
and 2nd century B.C) and had strong Buddhist connections, with the famous
stupa of Dyana Buddha erected by Emperor Ashoka. Its historical and cultural
heritage is expected to make the people happy and proud about the choice of the
site.
The Foundation-laying ceremony presided by Prime Minister Modi
was celebrated on a grand scale. Over 20,000 farmers whose lands were acquired
for building the capital were included among the invitees – a rare gesture
shown with immense political sagacity. The government has to respect and reward
besides giving compensation to those who make building of a new capital
possible.
A green-field capital city in independent India,
Amaravati will have to go through many hurdles. But, Chief Minister Chandrababu
Naidu has already created a record with a plan for pooling over 30,000 acres of
land from farmers and actually pooling already 17,000 acres. Still, the problem
of land cannot be considered as a closed chapter.
Specially designed and “purpose-built” capitals are not
rare. Many of these are also cases of shifting of capitals from one city to
another. New Delhi replaced Calcutta as the capital of the country in
1912. Lutyen’s architectural genius produced Parliament, the secretariat, the
Supreme Court and residential bungalows for high-level officials. Radial roads,
circular colonies, and broad avenue roads are the specialities of the capital.
Amaravati’s contemporary is the proposed new capital of Egypt – a
project announced six months ago. Planned to be constructed about 45 km. from
the present capital Cairo,
the place is said to be largely an undeveloped area. It will be a “smart city”
with “residential districts” and what is called “dedicated districts”. A park
double the size of New York’s Central Park, artificial lakes, technological and
innovation park, a major theme park bigger than the Disneyland, hundreds of educational
institutions and mosques are being planned. It goes to prove that Amaravati is
not a unique venture of an over-enthusiastic Naidu.
Purpose-built capitals include Washington
DC in the US
and Canberra in Australia. In several countries,
capital cities have changed for various reasons. Tokyo
is the third major shift of the capital for Japan. Russian capital moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in
1712 and returned to Moscow
after two centuries in 1918. The capital city of the Philippines
moved from Manila to Quizon
City and returned to Manila in less than 30 years. Nigerian
capital moved from Lagos to Abuja in 1991. The Malaysian capital was
shifted from Kuala Lumpur
to Putrajaya in 2000. The US
capital was originally Philadelphia and moved to
Washington DC in 1800.
Shifting the capital is done many times as a strategy of
nation-building. When Kazakhstan
shifted its capital from Almaty to Astana in 1997, it is reported to have been
done particularly to deal with acute State and nation-building challenges.
Observers even commented that it was “mystifying”.
Between 1950 and 1990, 13 countries shifted their capitals
though it was in every case, a radical and highly expensive project. The shift
was mostly part of the State and nation building effort and not a “Tughlaquian”
phenomenon.
Amaravati has made big news, but its predecessors in the
sense of planned State capitals have also made a mark. Chandigarh
(Haryana and Punjab), Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Bhubaneswar (Orissa) have
undergone planning process to function as capital cities.
Sentiments played a significant role in inaugurating the
Amaravati project. Holy water collected from several rivers and soil brought
from several holy places including Mecca, Jerusalem, Mansarovar,
and Tirumalai were sprinkled all over the proposed capital. Modi too is reported
to have brought soil from Parliament complex, the temple of democracy, and
water from the holy Yamuna. A master stroke indeed! Sentiments do bring people
together and act as a cementing force. It was surely an opportunity to take
people of all faiths in the task of development.
Amaravati is set to be an amalgamation of “navaratnas”
meaning a capital city of knowledge, finance, health, tourism, government,
sports, electronics, justice, and education. The intention is to preserve it as
a heritage city while developing the nine fields on most modern lines. The
concept replaces the established notion about the role of the capital cities as
the seat of government. The capital is being designed to be “the driver of the
economy” of the State.
Opinion may be divided on the advantages of crowding so many
vital activities in the State capital.
Even without deliberate planning, many State capitals have become
centres of more than “navaratnas” by attracting entertainment and sports
industry also.
The combination seems to fit the State Government’s ambition
to build a “people’s capital” and not just its headquarters. From the start,
this capital-building exercise exhibits our attachment to sentiments, our
commitment to development, and our abilities to arouse people’s interest and
support. Symbols do play a role in taking the people along. But, caution must
be applied in over-playing cultural moorings and religious affiliations when the
primary object should be to build a “functional capital” and present a model of
development.
Importantly, the occasion brought together the two Chief
Ministers of AP and Telangana, who had been openly fighting over several
issues. This too is a wise political gesture and contributes to forget for a
while contentious issues. The friendship has to continue between neighbours who
have common resources to share, common language they speak, and friends and
relatives split in the two States. The bifurcation should be treated as an administrative
arrangement though it may have been brought about in the play of politics. It cannot
divide the people of the two States.
Andhra Pradesh is looking towards the East for developing
the capital. A master-plan is received from Singapore. Japan and China are invited to be associated
in a big way in industrial development. Re-inventing Amaravati’s links with
Buddhism is seen as a strategy to attract entrepreneurs and tourists from the
East.
Preoccupation with this “capital project”, one has to hope
will not eat the entire time and resources of the AP Government. There are
backward tracts and cyclone-prone districts and dry Rayalaseema craving for
attention in a smaller Andhra Pradesh. Their claims cannot be kept waiting in
the enthusiasm to build a dream capital and display symbols of pride and
progress. Real progress lies in even development of the entire State. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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