Memorials are, to put it succinctly, a form of making memories or emotions material and tangible through the creation of space

by Smruti Koppikar I The Free Press Journal I Published on: Oct 25, 2024

Correa, though, developed a relationship with Gujarat with Ahmedabad carrying many of his plans-designs from his early years of work, as one of the sessions in the conference detailed out. The one that ranks high among these was Correa’s plan for the Gandhi Smarak or memorial in the Sabarmati Ashram — the latter now under the lens of redesign. Correa was barely 28 years old when he took on the assignment to design the memorial for Mahatma Gandhi barely 15 years after the icon had been assassinated. Gandhi had lived in the Sabarmati from 1917 to 1930 but had never returned to spend long days there, as political scientist and Gandhian scholar Tridip Suhrud reminded those gathered at the NCPA.

Those of us who have been to the Gandhi Smarak — modular units that flow into each other, modest scale, local materials, open and covered spaces around a water body, all of this allowing a subtle play of light and visual porousness — have soaked it all in. It continues to draw awe from planners and architects around the world, and has stood the test of time, so far. Suhrud consciously refrained from examining Correa’s design but dwelt at length on Gandhi’s philosophy to ask the question: does the man need a memorial at all? He argued that Gandhi had gradually shed every possession of his and lived like a peripatetic ascetic; a physical memorial, therefore, militates against this.

Read the full article here What Do Memorials Really Convey, And How Much Do We Need Them?