An Architectural Masterpiece in Hyderabad

The Nizams, the British and the Politics of Power

The story of the British Residency at Hyderabad is not only one of an opulent mansion, but also that of a political powerhouse. For over 140 years it was the official residence of successive British Residents, men who were not just witnesses of empire, but who actively shaped it. They stood, in the words of the historian Michael Fisher, ‘at the cutting edge of British expansion’ and were the ‘central yet slender thread that bound Hyderabad to the British Government of India’.1

Originally agents of the East India Company, the Residents evolved into powerful representatives of the British Crown and were virtually de-facto rulers – the new policy-makers of the princely state of Hyderabad. Between 1779 and 1947 Hyderabad had 54 Residents, in a chain unbroken for 168 years. Under them, the British influence on the city was not merely political but also cultural and social.

The British Residency building became the visual symbol of power and a monument that dominated the skyline of Hyderabad. Its presence introduced a second node of supremacy in the built fabric of the city, rivalling that of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and swung the direction of urban growth to the north, away from the walled Asaf Jahi capital that was situated south of the river Musi.

In this book a story spanning two and a quarter centuries will be told of the people, places and politics influenced by one magnificent edifice. The first five chapters, covering its construction, its design, its evolution and its historical significance, are followed by an account of the major 21st-century

restoration and the role the building continues to play in the modern Indian context.

The story has its inceptions in the intrigues of the Mughal court. None of the characters central to that plot could have envisaged the dramatic events that were about to unfold.

A Shift in the Wind

‘The star of destiny shines on the forehead of your son,’ exclaimed the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (1658–1707) to a leading nobleman, Mir Shahbuddin Ghaziuddin Khan Feroz Jung. These words were prophetic, for the young boy, Mir Qamaruddin Khan, went on to establish a kingdom that would long outlast the mighty Mughal dynasty itself.

The death of Aurangzeb in 1707 marked the end of the era of the great Mughals. As the central government began to lose authority, three major provinces broke away between 1717 and 1724: Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad. These states were carved out of the subas or provinces of the vast Empire, and their founders had served as the viceroys of these provinces. Of the three, only one would survive until Indian independence: Hyderabad State, established by Mir Qamaruddin Khan in 1724.2

A born leader, Mir Qamaruddin developed all his father’s talents for war and diplomacy. In time he was made the Mughal viceroy of the six subas of the Deccan and was given the Mughal title Nizam ul-Mulk Asaf Jah. Although he never

The north portico, photographed in April 2022.

‘Great House’, as mentioned in the 1797 sentry positions, was constructed by William, although to a poor quality. In a letter to his brother in August 1799, James wrote:

The upper storey you built to the house at the Residency is now scarcely habitable, as it leaks in all parts so that I am obliged to proof it to prevent it falling in on the lower storey, which itself gives strong symptoms of decay. I have been for these two or three months past patching up what the rains have caused to moulder away, but this patchwork is neither durable, comfortable nor creditable, and as I cannot suppose that it is wished that my accommodations should be either uncomfortable or uncreditable, it must end in my sending in an estimate.16

James Kirkpatrick was an aesthete and his correspondence with his family, colleagues and friends demonstrates an appreciation and understanding of architecture and landscape, both European and Indian.17

a B ove: Aerial views of the Residency from the northwest (above) and southwest (below).

o PP osite, a B ove: Plans of the Residency, with the shaded areas showing the initial footprint of the building when it was a rectangular double-storied structure.

o PP osite, B elo W : Here the shaded areas show the extensions and improvements to the Residency initiated by James Kirkpatrick.

Initial

East and west rooms are rectangular in plan

Possible line of building on the first floor; walls visible in lower ground floor below

Bifurcated dog-leg staircase

Extension to Lower Ground Floor

Construction joints visible

Extension to Upper Ground Floor

Construction joints visible

Rectangular east and west rooms become oval

Addition of staircase

Portico extended: New dimensions match durbar hall

Metal ties from Corinthian columns to durbar hall external wall

Twinned Ionic columns added in the durbar hall

Construction joints along south wall

West wing added

Construction joints along south wall

East wing added

New staircase

Initial footprint of the building: Lower Ground Floor

footprint of the building: Upper Ground Floor

The south staircase, viewed from the upper ground floor.

staircase at 20 Portman Square and the staircase at Hyderabad, where a single flight of stairs divides in the middle and continues in two curved sweeps, with recesses in the walls for statuary. Adam’s staircase is lit by a glass dome, whereas the one at Hyderabad has windows on the upper storey and a small skylight at the apex of the dome. The treatment of light renders the places different in appearance and experience, and such a large glass structure would not have been practical in the climatic conditions of the Deccan. Davies also compares the staircase to that by William Kent (1685–1748) at 44 Berkeley Square. However, Davies writes, ‘The Hyderabad

interiors are more plainly treated though none the less creditably executed by native craftsmen.’

The Residency’s magnificent staircase also bears a resemblance to that at Attingham Park. The latter building, completed in 1780 to the designs of George Steuart (1730–1806), has been compared with Carlton House. In 1805, John Nash (1752–1835) intervened on Steuart’s original and installed a new staircase at Attingham as he designed a Picture Gallery in the centre of the house where Steuart’s original staircase had been. Nash’s staircase bears a striking resemblance to those at Carlton House and at the Hyderabad Residency, where it appears a similar solution was used when the interior was rearranged. Nash was familiar with Holland’s royal commissions and had succeeded Holland as the Prince Regent’s architect. He later advised the Prince (by then George IV) to demolish Carlton House and reused some of Holland’s Carlton House features at Buckingham Palace.

Similarities abound between the neoclassical manor houses of Britain and the Residency at Hyderabad in their layout, design and details. In Hyderabad, as in Britain, they were designed to showcase wealth and power both within and without, to inspire awe and establish position. In both continents, they achieved their object.

The primary difference between the two lay in the purpose of construction. At the Residency, the British created a new architecture that symbolised power as they knew it. This was the first step towards the imperial vision. At Hyderabad, as in the other princely states, the only role of the Nizam and his subjects was that of spectators. Ironically, it was the Nizam who had funded this building activity and it was constructed on his land.

Cementing this vision was the fact that the British primarily used elements of classical architecture as precedents. For British designers in India, it was ancient Rome that symbolised imperial power, and this influence was to be transplanted as their Imperial vision for India.

The structures they constructed were symbolic of this authority. The British rejected the vernacular Indian style, with its open courtyards and verandahs within and without, despite there being a precedent for such structures in the Residency grounds. Instead,

The great staircase at Carlton House, in a watercolour by Charles Wild, published in William Henry Pyne’s History of the Royal Residences (1819).

iii: The Construction of the Residency

As a result of the revelations that emerged layer by layer during the conservation process, it is possible now to state that while the architectural vocabulary of the Residency is European and the materials of construction are local, the techniques used in its construction and interventions are a hybrid of the two cultures.

The built fabric of the erstwhile Residency is a combination of stone and brick masonry. The ground floor, constructed with local grey granite, is

adequately ventilated with large fenestrations, which are well secured with iron gates and grilles as the place once housed a treasury. The security was further reinforced in 1857. The ground floor has a stone vaulted roof that spans in the east–west direction. The piano nobile, constructed in brick and lime, is reached by a majestic open flight of steps to the north and an equally grand stairway inside a central bow to the south. The columns of the hexastyle Corinthian portico to the north are a later addition

The circular staircase to the south is supported by these columns in the basement.

and are tied back to the external façade of the durbar hall using metal tie beams. Similar tie beams brace the Composite columns of the central bow to the south. Uncommon in India, the tying back and securing of these columns to the main building appears to be a British import.

The largest areas on the piano nobile are the double-height portico and the durbar hall, which are held up using a combination of king and pratt trusses that span the combined width of both spaces. Corrugated mild steel sheets are used as roofing, with a channel of galvanised iron running on all four sides as a gutter. False ceilings conceal the roof structure: while the portico ceiling has embossed metal panels, the durbar hall ceiling is covered in papier-mâché, in elegantly coloured, floral-motifed panels with gilded borders.

The portico has a patterned black-and-white marble floor, and the durbar hall has a timber floor with a parquet border, suitable for ballroom dancing. To either side of the durbar hall the timber floors continue on to the east and west oval rooms, the roofs of which are held up using a Madras Terracing system.

The oval rooms, themselves a later intervention, lead to semicircular balconies on the sides, the floors laid with the encaustic tiles of the British company Minton.

The curved architraves of these balconies and that of the hexastyle portico are composite timber. Here large sections of teak were proportioned to the requisite size, strapped in metal and laminated over with timber planks, and the assembly was then concealed with lime plaster. This technique of spanning large spaces seems to have been developed by

Behind the simple vaulted structure in the basement are additional walls and buttresses that support the additions on the floor above.

the second application, suggesting that these were painted over in situ. The panels would originally have been painted prior to their installation, and fixed to the auxiliary roof using nails in a random order with an emphasis on fixing at the borders. Measuring approximately 1.5 cm in length, these cast-iron nails are irregular in size and appear to be hand-forged, in a method typically associated with 19th-century manufacture. This contrasts with the nails found on the gilt beading, which are wellrounded cast-iron ones with a consistency in size suggesting they are machine-made. The beadings of varying sizes were originally gilded and used to hold the panels in place, highlighting the ceiling decoration. They also appear to have been used during the second phase to hide any imperfections remaining after filling any gaps between panels.

A thorough investigation of the panels enabled the conservators to assess the condition of the individual panels and strategise and prioritise their repair. Various levels of deterioration were observed, from dust and dirt accumulation, flaking of paint, warping, and delamination of the layers of papiermâché, through to partial or complete loss of the individual panels. It was decided to repair the panels in situ, removing only the heavily damaged panels to be consolidated in a laboratory.

The paint layer was stable, and any loss of paint from flaking or surface cracking appeared to be localised and therefore not connected to generalised deterioration, quality of paint or painting technique. Grime was observed where there was water ingress and this had led to some panels being warped. These were, where possible, secured to the auxiliary support using unbleached cotton belts, gently dismantling them in a phased manner to conserve them. After these panels were cleaned using a soft brush, they were exposed to moisture under controlled conditions to soften them, following which they were weighed down to flatten them. Weakened edges and delaminated layers were glued back using conservation-compliant resins, the same adhesive being applied to flaking paint too.

Each panel was individually and painstakingly cleaned, tears were mended and losses filled in. Additional backing was provided to support tears in the panels, and missing layers of paper were replaced

with conservation-quality, acid-free paper. Any minor retouching to the paint was carried out in a similar manner, using compatible paints.

Where the panels were missing, high-resolution digital prints of the missing panels were processed matching the original paint colours. These were printed on a pre-primed canvas using optimum image quality and colour permanence, then fixed in place using the original beading. Where the beading itself was missing, new lengths were fabricated in teak.

The majority of the painted ceiling panels were repaired in situ: cleaned chemically, repaired as necessary and retouched with paint. Working on the ceiling was more time-consuming than working on panels dismantled to be repaired in the laboratory.

The phased and systematic conservation, meticulously executed, has brought back to life a breathtaking example of craftsmanship, which, like the building it is housed in, is an amalgam of two cultures.

left: The geometric patterns on the ceiling.

o PP osite: A detail of the ceiling that combines geometric and arabesque motifs and which was, in all likelihood, manufactured in Britain for the Indian market.

B elo W : The vaulted section of the ceiling consists of cusped arches with floral motifs, whereas the flat ceiling area consists of tessellated geometric patterns.