July 27, 1998
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My
Mansion, My Universe A look at the quaint but animated life behind the haveli's serene facade. By Narayani Gupta INDIAN MANSIONS: A SOCIAL HISTORY
OF THE HAVELI
European visitors -- many of them women who enjoyed access to the zenanas -- did describe vividly, often over-vividly, the details of life in havelis. A century and more later, Ahmed Ali, Attia Hosain and Rama Mehta were to do likewise. There are people living today who will recognise in Sarah Tillotson's narrative aspects of their own lifestyle, but most of us will read with astonishment and enlightenment of a way of life that has gone with the wind. Tillotson uses interviews, observation and a wide range of reading -- from the easy-going Bernier to the sanctimonious Victorian ladies -- to produce a gentle account. With photographs and plans, this book will be of interest to historians, sociologists, architects and, of course, general readers. Over the past 20 years, as havelis, like so many aspects of the vernacular, faced the threat of demolition, they were rediscovered by Francis Wacziarg and Aman Nath (Shekhavati) and Pavan Verma (Delhi). Also came surveys and conservation proposals sponsored by the Ford Foundation and intach. The ingredients necessary for a policy of conservation -- information, nostalgia and a sense of the possibilities of "heritage tourism" -- are all in place. The word haveli is in use in a swathe of the country, from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab through Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Lacking the permanence of ownership enjoyed by their British counterparts, the rich and famous built these for their lifetime, not for posterity. Even so, lucky families were able to keep their havelis for generations. Architects are coming to appreciate the virtues of havelis in terms of use of space, elements of design and response to climate. Stephen Blake -- and Tillotson -- show how the nobleman's haveli was often a smaller model of the king's palace, in its gradation from public to private spaces, interiors and lifestyle. Strict rules of etiquette made for harmony and for coexistence between large numbers of family members and between them and their retainers. For men, it was a refuge from the outer world; for women it was the world. An obsessive sense of insecurity made the men keep their women ignorant ("Lack of education was a respectable virtue": page 88), incommunicado, schooled into being the contented denizens of the well that Patricia Jeffrey had described and which came through so chillingly in Rukmavati ki Haveli. Tillotson's pleasant style does not ignore the claustrophobia a haveli could generate. Yet, it dwells more happily on the festivities, the camaraderie, the serenity. Among the qualities of the book are its geographical range and the meticulous attention to details of Hindu and Muslim family life. Essential reading for the younger generation and for architects with a conscience.
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Jane Austen has given generations of
readers a sense of the quiet life in the havelis of the British nobility and gentry at the
time the French Revolution was shaking Europe to its foundations. An Austen in India could
have recounted similar stories of the placid life behind the blank fronts of mansions in
Indian towns at the same time -- when the Mughal Empire was being shaken to its
foundations. 
