Before we embark on the rather ambitious task of addressing the issue of tradition and culture in architectural education in India, it would be pertinent to clarify one's stand on the issue. The most natural questions to follow would be:

A. What traditions and whose cultures?

B. Should one take a conservative or a progressive stance?

C. What is our authority as educators to decide on the above?

At any given time in history these choices have been faced time and again by individuals and civilizations. The essential question is not of traditions but whether the choice to follow them be left to individuals or be usurped by the authority of institutions–be it family, community, school, college or state. It is this very fundamental question that will have far reaching implications on both the choice of our educational material and the appropriate teaching methodology.

At any given time in history these choices have been faced time and again by individuals and civilizations. The essential question is not of traditions but whether the choice to follow them be left to individuals or be usurped by the authority of institutions–be it family, community, school, college or state. It is this very fundamental question that will have far reaching implications on both the choice of our educational material and the appropriate teaching methodology.

As far as the first question of what tradition and whose culture– Can we start by understanding what confronts us on a daily basis; i.e. our ‘selves’ and our immediate context? The reality is that each of us has many simultaneous layers of identities and ‘selves’. In India, some of these are chronological, sedimentary layers of feudal culture, colonial culture, consumer culture and now the most fashionable, eco-culture. While the older layers lie half-erased and dormant, depending on the situation one or the other might suddenly (and embarrassingly!) reveal itself in our behavior, institutions and cultural expression. The difficulty is that one cannot isolate one layer in place and time, a mythical golden period, to claim that is our true, authentic tradition. We have to start by seeing what we are simultaneously at present, warts and all. This also naturally includes all that surrounds us in its present heterogeneous, hybrid glory.