NID and the Eames Report

As we head towards a soft launch of shiny new Superflux, I thought it might be best to reflect on the starting point of my design life. Through Superflux, I am also keen to think further about the values that will underlie the changing design scene in the India in the coming years, especially when there seems to be a sudden interest in the country's economy, I thought I'd start with 'Eames Report' (written in April 1957). Charles and Ray Eames AlthouAs part of Superflux's endeavour to understand the values that will underlie the changing design scene in the India in the coming years, especially when there seems to be a sudden interest in the country's economy, I thought I'd start with 'Eames Report' (written in April 1957). Charles and Ray Eames Although hugely famous in the West, the contribution of Charles and Ray Eames to Indian design and the pivotal role they played in setting up the first design school in India, the National Institute of Design (my Alma mater) is relatively less known. Here I'd like to pull out few paragraphs from their India report which they wrote after touring India for three months at the invitation of the Government. They made a careful study of the many centres of design, handicrafts and general manufacture. They talked with many persons, official and non-official, in the field of small and large industry, in design and architecture, and in education.

Oddly enough, their words in the report sound like the editorial column from, perhaps the first Whole Earth Catalogue. Build your own tools, collaborate with people around you, create systems and structures within local communities: while their emphasis was often on "problem solving" and that may not hold in the same way today, I think that the India they explored immediately after Independence needed a Design School.

Called The India Report, the Eames start off with the reason for their appointment: "In the light of the dramatic acceleration with which change is taking place in India and the seriousness of the basic problems involved, we recommend that without delay there be a sober investigation into those values and those qualities that Indians hold important to a good life, that there be a close scrutiny of those elements that go to make up a “Standard of Living”. We recommend that those who make this investigation be prepared to follow it with a restudy of the problems of environment and shelter, to look upon the detailed problems of services and objects as though they were being attacked for the first time; to restate solutions to these problems in theory and in actual prototype; to explore the evolving symbols of India. One suspects that much benefit would be gained from starting this search at the small village level." Image from the 'Future of India: Target for Tomorrow" Series, by Penderel Moon, 1945 (two years before India gained independence)
They laid out the distinct structure of the Institute of Design, ensuring it had the autonomy to protect its prime objective from bureaucratic disintegration. They explain the reason for urgency for this kind of an Institute: "The change India is undergoing is a change in kind not a change of degree. The medium that is producing this change is communication; not some influence of the West on the East. The phenomenon of communication is something that affects a world not a country. The advanced complexities of communication were perhaps felt first in Europe, then West to America which was a fertile traditionless field. They then moved East and West gathering momentum and striking India with terrific impact – an impact that was made more violent because of India’s own complex of isolation, barriers of language, deep-rooted tradition. The nature of a communication-oriented society is different by kind – not by degree. All decisions must be conscious decisions evaluating changing factors. In order to even approach the quality and values of a traditional society, a conscious effort must be made to relate every factor that might possibly have an effect. Security here lies in change and conscious selection and correction in relation to evolving needs..."

This report proved to be a key pillar for taking India into the world of design, and if you fancy reading the full one, here is is. Monograph showing young NID faculty and students welcome Charles Eames on his last visit to NID in 1978, from Prof. Ranjan's blog