Secretariat Building (New Delhi)

Brief Information

The two identical Secretariat blocks stand not in front of the presidential residence, but on either side of it, on opposite sides of Rajpath Avenue. Because of this, the administrative building became part of the main composition of Raisina Hill: the North and South Blocks not only frame Rashtrapati Bhavan, but also change how it is perceived from the distant approach. In the architects’ dispute, height prevailed, as a result of which the Viceroy’s House was partly obscured: from afar, only the upper part of its dome is visible.

This effect is no less important than the date of construction. The Secretariat was conceived as a building of British colonial power, yet just 17 years after its opening it became the workplace of independent India’s government. Its symmetry and heavy official character can therefore be read in two ways: as an imperial design and as an inherited stage for state power.

What to Notice First

It is worth comparing the two main forms: the blocks, square in plan, and the domes above each building. This geometry makes the Secretariat not a single facade, but a pair of balanced volumes, between which the axis of the avenue and the proximity of the presidential residence become legible.

The material also contributes to this impression. Red Dholpur sandstone is used both for the buildings and for the foundation; the same material links the Secretariat with the former Viceroy’s House. In the details, a mixture of architectural languages is visible: the building’s basis is classical, but motifs of Mughal and Rajasthani architecture are incorporated into it. The chhatris, domed pavilions for shade, recall that decorative form here is connected with the hot sun, not only with ceremonial display. At the main gates, the four “Dominion columns,” gifted by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, add a meaning of their own: they record the colonial context that was later incorporated into the symbolism of an independent state.